Vantaggi
The people. I worked with many incredibly talented, supportive, and hardworking colleagues who made the experience worthwhile.
Svantaggi
I was laid off while on maternity leave. It’s a moment in life when support and thoughtfulness from an employer matter most, and unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The fact that they were ok being a company that would lay off a woman that just gave birth is so disappointing to say the least. It sets the tone for all the other employees that they are not safe, even during the most sacred of times. You are just a number. That experience also reflected broader issues that was building for some time. Transparency from leadership was limited, and company decisions were often communicated with very little clarity. Over time, that uncertainty made it harder to trust the direction of the organization. Before my maternity leave, as more clients left and lay offs occurred, it became increasingly clear that the agency was losing momentum. The organization grew smaller and resources tightened, yet teams were often expected to take on more with less support, which added strain across the company. Additionally, the monthly town halls rarely provided meaningful updates, particularly around new business or the company’s direction, which made them feel more like a formality than an opportunity for real transparency. At one point the company introduced tracking software intended to measure employee “productivity”. This didn’t reflect how efficient teams actually work and it often felt misaligned with the goal of empowering people to do their best work. As a result, I lost some strong team members during that period. Supposedly they removed the software a few months in, but who knows. It’s hard to trust what they say. I share this example because it reflects the company’s priorities. Rather than investing in people in a meaningful way, leadership chose to implement a system that monitored them instead. One of many poor decisions by Ocean. In my humble opinion, Ocean Media is not a stable place to build a digital advertising career. They are an outdated agency, stuck in a traditional media mindset. With the Empower Media acquisition underway, there is a lot of uncertainty despite messaging that things are “business as usual.” Take it from me.