Leo Burnett staffer tells freelancer she lost a job for sharing story about agency on Facebook

these guys are in the communications business right?

Your first screen grab still contains the first name of the Leo B. employee. Just sayin’.

michaeljacksonpopcorn.gif

And this is the problem with the industry in Australia. Agencies getting away with threatening (as subtle as the threat was) creatives and getting away with it, time and time again. This industry needs more than a gender shake up. It needs work hours, bullying and homophobia shake ups. #timeforagencychange

seriously guys, this is beginning to look like a vindictive witchhunt towards Leo Burnett

When people inadvertently discover who are you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Stf9IQyH7A

Twitter handles as well

Saying that Leo’s have been in the media for being a boy’s club is just a factual statement. This is not ‘bad mouthing’.
Outrageously stupid and misguided behaviour by that staffer, who, I guarantee, never intended to contact the freelancer at all, but thought it would be a wonderful stick to beat them over the head with.
I’m really surprised Leo’s haven’t instructed staff not to respond to any comments, and given them a statement to use, ie “our management will be addressing this directly with the media”.

Pure evidence that agencies and their clients live inside a bubble, and are so convinced with editing the perfect award submission entries and hilariously same-y ‘about us’ on their websites they’re not thinking about their audience, clients and how their actions are their actual porfolios.

This industry needs a hashtag shake up.

Wow. You’d think an agency that hangs their hat on copywriting and social media/community management could do a better job of handling a situation then this.

You can’t threaten people into silence online. That’s so vulgar.

Besides, roasting someone for sharing an article is fairly poor form. You can still work for a place and not be 100% beyond their policies. In fact, if you have people questioning policy and feeling passionate enough to talk about their workplace outside, maybe it’s better to use that genuine feedback to make a change rather than try and jam a lid on it.

Such a wasted opportunity to explain the position, get feedback or overcome what is an internal customer objection.

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/2.....14aba4.jpg

It’s not vindicative at all, it’s called a developing story. As such reporting all the angles is expected – and welcomed.

I would add though, if Burnett’s had shown some leadership and addressed it head on, it probably would have been a very different situation by now.

One thing seems certain. Burnetts don’t understand crisis management procedures

“Leo Burnett has not responded to Mumbrella’s request for comment at the time of publishing.”

The “seven white men” press release that started all of this was last Monday morning.

Leo’s, your crisis management strategy, if you have one, is not working.

Please fix it so we can all move forward.

There are a lot of freelancers out there to choose from. If I was LB I would have quietly deleted her from the database. Nothing wrong with wanting to work with people who respect you, or at least pretend to, regardless of what they’ve got in their shorts.

Looking forward to this whole issue being debated on Gruen.

I won’t use that freelancer purely on the fact they read the Daily Mail.

The really sad thing is that most senior creative women can’t get full-time jobs so they make their living by freelancing. To threaten a woman’s livelihood for expressing a desire for equality is cruel.
So many women in creative are terrified to talk about the equality they have been legally entitled to for 40 years, for fear of their careers being crushed. It’s not paranoia. They’ve seen too many ‘difficult’ women disappeared from the industry.
If you don’t believe that happens, just read the prologue to Jane Caro’s autobiography.
If any woman needs support on this issue (including women at Leo’s, they must be so confused) we recommend they join us. We have nothing to lose. After fighting for 30 years for equality for creative women in advertising, we’re not going to stop.
Leo’s had such a great opportunity to do something incredible for the senior creative women of the industry. Instead they have insulted and threatened them. We don’t know how they are going to recover from this now. Hope their ‘diversity council’ is working round the clock. We are.

@Andrew. Gruen is finished for the year. Last series episode was last week.

…And this is why you need a enterprise social media policy with trained social media managers.

@Andrew – Gruen is the biggest love letter to the Australian advertising industry there could possibly be. It would be highly unlikely they’d look at this issue.

… although reconsidering, I may have just fallen into the sarchasm.

Obviously intelligence has left the building on all of this!

@Consumer, @Huw – Plus, you know, the fact that their Chairman is the star of the show. That might be a slightly larger issue…

I’m sorry if this opinion is at odds with everyone else, but it seems a little silly to me.

If I wanted to freelance at an agency, then the last thing I would do is post links to a story like this, especially when I know a representative of that agency could read it. Regardless of the issue itself (which I do think is worthwhile talking about further) this has now turned into a Leo’s beat up session rather than a gender debate. 101 in getting hired in any job is don’t be seen to be a part of the angry lynch mob that’s against the company you want to work for. We could write a similar story about a number of agencies in town, it’s just Leo’s are seen as the bad guys today. Someone else will get there turn in a few months.

Having freelancers on board that at least like the agency (don’t have to love it) is pretty important for anyone looking to building long term relationships. If you have no interest in working somewhere, then by all means put the boot in.