The time the agency sex pest didn’t get away with it
If one thing depresses Dr Mumbo about the #MeToo movement’s progress in adland, it’s the fact that, too often, the bad guys are still getting away with it.
But not always.
So Dr Mumbo was somewhat cheered to read an account on Reddit’s ProRevenge section, with rather more justice than usual.
The story begins in 2017, in an ad agency with a three-letter acronym, far, far away. Take it away, anonymous Redditor:
It was one of the biggest ad agencies in my country. It was a global group, but it honestly sucked. It had a game of thrones politics and daily occurrences of both sexual and moral harassment.
I was hired as an account director for a huge ad agency, let’s call it FFC. My account was one of the top 5 accounts in the agency and was worth at least seven digits.
My boss, the accounts vice president, was one of the worst human beings I have ever met. He was sexist, rude and liked to play favorites. When I got there, as a young and okay looking woman, I instantly became one of his faves. He was married, by the way.
One day we left a happy hour together and he offered me a ride. I lived nearby him, so not overthinking it, I accepted. He made a move on me. I politely refused, and left the car.
After that, my life became a living hell. He would not include me in important meetings and then complain I didn’t know things that were discussed.
My reviews went from five stars to one.
He pretended he didn’t remember a raise he had promised.
He would talk with my team and ignore me.
The work, which was already hard (I worked 80 hours a week), became unbearable.
I almost quit.
I had a long conversation with the agency HR, which went nowhere, because she was his personal friend. I even escalated it to the president, with whom I had a friendly relationship, and he said I was reading too much into things.
One thing I did right though is that I had a great relationship with my client, so they were afraid to fire me. I had helped save the account, which was almost lost when I was hired.
So, they played a smart hand. They hired a girl who had worked with my client at his previous company, with whom he had a friendly relationship with, to replace me.
They then put me aside on a smaller account, which was on the verge of being lost, so they could justify firing me when that happened.
But then I got lucky.
My original Client got promoted and opened a marketing manager position under him.
When I applied, he even skipped a few hiring steps. This was October, and I was to start on January. I asked him not to disclose to the agency he had hired me until I had the chance to tell them myself.
The position would not work directly with the ad agency and I no longer managed their account, so there was no conflict of interest and he said okay.
I was planning on giving them my one month notice (required in my country) in November, so they could have time to find someone else.
I was fired on October 31. It would have been the worst experience in the world if I cared.
The VP asked me into his office to fire me.
He said no one would believe me, that I would never find another job in the market, that I had ratted him out to HR, and all the worst things someone could have said. He sent me to HR to sign some papers and told me to leave the building afterwards.
I recorded him.
When I went to HR, the woman in charge sat me down and kept making snarky comments about me not appreciating working in one of the biggest ad agencies in the world, that I could have been great. It was surreal.
Being fired in my country grants people a fair amount of money. I would have received around five months pay as per the law. She wanted me to sign papers accepting that.
I said no. And played her the record from the VP.
She went pale because she knew that was a lawsuit – and also that the global team would not like it at all.
I left that day and said I would contact them through my lawyer. I never said anything about the job lined up.
The next week I, my lawyer, my recording and a bunch of other documents (emails, text messages), sat down with the agency to negotiate.
I ended up with over 15 months pay.
I then took a two month vacation.
Come January and I start at my new job. My new boss then tells me that, since I was the one with the most experience in advertising agencies, I would be a consultant on the annual agency deals.
This included allowing new agencies to pitch for us.
My boss, who didn’t deal with FFC anymore, forgot to tell them about me. No feeling in the world was better than entering the agency as a client.
It was almost orgasmic sitting in a meeting to see their pitch and watching the VP’s dumbstruck face when he entered the room.
I was nothing but nice, asked pertinent questions and smiled all the way through.
I ended up telling my new boss what had happened. He authorized me to advise against retaining the agency, and said that if compliance knew about the agency’s behavior they would lose the account anyway.
They lost the account.
They lost three other accounts in that same year.
The whole leadership was fired.
The agency closed earlier this year.
The VP can’t find a job.
And I just got promoted.
Dr Mumbo loves a happy ending.
A good read…
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And we should read this and believe that good triumphed over evil?
Dr Mumbo..there is no evidence to suggest this woman was any good. Even sharing this story seems a little insincere. She played on relationships to exact this result. It reads as sad and one sided. Her level of malevolence is not to be ignored.
“The VP got fired and i got a job”. Good for you.
To quote Trump. SAD!!
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How good is this!
A great read and absolutely thrilled at the result.
On a side note, it also highlights the pivotal role of HR and having the right person in that role.
I daresay the author may have still been working in that agency if HR had of followed correct procedure and disciplined the VP.
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The bullying culture in media is disgraceful
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I love, love, love this story. Better than MAFS!!!
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Not hard to figure out who this is about.
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Awesome! I’m looking forward to the day to write a similar post. Brilliant.
Ah yes. That sounds familiar. I had similar experiences at an agency, let’s call it [edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy].
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This is one fabulous story among many that don’t have such a happy ending.
I worked for a leading ad agency and was an EA to the founder and CEO. The agency was situated in two buildings. The main multi-story building housed everyone, and the house-like building out the back, was where he worked with… his EA.
After multiple sexual comments and advances towards me, which I dismissed, he too turned on me much like the brave girl in the story. I, as logically as possible, went through the chains of command to be heard – but no-one cared to address the situation for fear of losing their jobs, and also – that this was his usual behaviour. And, yes he was married as well, and having an affair interstate.
I pleaded with a female senior exec, who persuaded him to move into the main building to be closer to the team. I thought I was safe….but after a number of weeks he had an anger outburst around a small detail of me accepting a call from a large client wanting to meet with him, but it was during the time he had his usual affair with his interstate missus. He was yelling such abuse at me, his spit was flying everywhere – and no-one dared to stop him. No-one, and this was in full view of 12 people.
After that, I escalated my cry for help, but was released from the job with no pay, and no representation. They said it was him, or me….and of course they were not going to remove him.
I ended up in the doctors shaking from the ordeal and needed to find myself another job. Horrendous.
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Dr Mumbo please keep posting stories like this…such an incredible read
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Or just another sex pest in the advertising industry yourself? Nobody else would have such a disgusting, displaced response to the one win for survivors in a sea of defeats.
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is this real? Maybe it’s my search terms but I’m googling and googling and can’t find anything that obviously links to this
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I read this this morning and felt strnage about this.
I felt indignant for the woman
I felt happy for the happy ending.
But here at 3pm in the afternoo I feel a little duped.
“Reddit” “ProRevenge” “anonymous redditer”. Red flags all.
I read @Really ‘s comment..and thought it was a bit strident.
But something just made me feel that this story wasn’t real. It was a fiction. A fable. A frankenstein of figments.
I dont believe it. And I actually agree with @really.
Why is this story so fake?
And moreover, why is everyone (toxic feminists mostly) applauding the demise of a business and another human being?
I would love to hear the other side of this drama..but we never will..because these days only one side seems to matters
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This reads like bad fantasy vengeance fiction.
Sadly the only thing I think is true is that she worked at an agency, was hit on by her boss, and then put onto a lost cause account. Whether those two last points are related? Maybe. Likely. It’s sadly a common and frequent scenario. Probably one worth investigating rather than copy pasting reddit comments. Took me a while to realize this wasn’t buzzfeed.
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+1
“Real Agency Stories” are way better than the usual drivel of company announcements and ad standards complaints.
Would love this to be a regular thing.
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Posted in r/ProRevenge a few days ago, comments from OP say this happened in Portugal
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@Really? – Dude. You need to stop doing what you’re doing. It’s not OK.
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If you use the term “toxic feminists” you are part of the problem.
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The demise of a sexual predator*
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Sadly, the world isn’t this kind. I wish this was true but everything points to it being nothing more than a feel-good fable.
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Quoting Trump at the end of a story about sexual harassment. Bold move.
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So the fate of the sexual predator and bully matters but not the victim? Whether you believe this story or not I find it incredible that the person you feel sorry for is the bad guy.
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If toxic feminism means celebrating that a creep who abuses his position for sexual gratification is held to account, then sign me up!
But, I get it’s hard for you. Why don’t you hang up your sketch pad, and artline pen, and retire to your cave to sulk about women taking over and ruining things, emerging every so often to leave annonymous comments on industry publications with a sentance structre redolent of that fictional ECD tosser in the novel ‘e’?
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@@Aesop perhaps the problem is not as you say “……..that it’s hard for you” it is that, in fact, it’s not.
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Quoting Trump ..pretty much says it’s all really doesn’t it.
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