Lyon Sachashitz. Proudly voted one of best places to work by those who've never worked there.

At Lyon & Sacchashitz, truth and inclusivity mean everything until the tenets get in the way of the partners paying for their summer houses and treating themselves to fancy vacations.

Then it's all bets off, grab your ankles, and hope there's some adequate lube between their empty promises and your tailpipe.

Yes, the damn scab came off again.

A terrific writer I know just reached out. He's been thrown off the same boat I was tossed off years ago. But that's not the icy-cold part of his plunge into vocational uncertainty. The agency nefariously claims to be about doing "the right thing" as a core value.

If you're really about doing the right thing, why is your CCO post a revolving door of star talent from agencies and companies that have more cred than you do?

Why are you unable to grow your damn leadership from people who've been in your agency for years?

If you're so good at what you do, why are you seemingly incapable of elevating creatives from within your internal ranks into the big job?

Why does a terrific CD/writer get thrown under the bus and a shiny new toy get the shiny big gig?

How TF is that doing the right thing?

I'm looking at you, Lyon Sachashitz.

Welcome to the era where damning Glassdoor reviews magically disappear days, weeks, and even months after being posted.

Lest we forget, GlassDoor is a business, too.

It's much easier to toss people overboard than it is to take a good long look in the mirror and be honest with yourself about who you are and what you really stand for.

You stand for making money.

You stand for capitalism and feathering your own nest.

You stand for your higher-ups living high on the hog.

And that's okay if you just come clean and admit it. You're a business. You make money. And you make more money for the higher-ups because that's your thing.

But it's not about doing the right thing for everyone.

It's easy to be chosen among the best companies to work at by people who've never worked at your company.

What isn't as easy is real integrity.

Real integrity can cost you real money where you feel it, assuming you stand by your work and take actual pride in your craft.

The problem isn't staffing. It's festering at the top of the food chain.

I've never seen a founder sell a big fancy home to save agency jobs.

I've never seen an upper manager downgrade their car because things are tough for everyone.

I've never seen uppers step down because they aren't making anything real or tangible other than their staffers miserable.

That would be the right thing to do. The admirable thing.

Admitting you took a larger account that's now embarrassing you badly and trimming your staff because you believe in the work first and foremost, that's admirable.

Being honest with people rather than spewing the company line and telling everyone they're safe, that's admirable.

Facing the fact that you fucked up and now you have to let people go, that's admirable.

Very few agencies have that kind of integrity.

I know all too well, as do many of the folks who've been thrown off horses and swept under rugs like B-rate Banksy murals. Casualties of a business that sustains itself on fictitious narratives forged of kumbaya bullshit.

Here's a thought.

Be honest.

Be brutally honest.

Even if it hurts you as much as your ex-employees who are now treading water in your wake wondering what just happened.

End of rant.

#theadvertisingsurvivalguide

Cameron Day is a 62-year-old copywriter and creative director who has survived recessions, false narratives, and being kicked to the curb. He has written the Advertising Survival Guide trilogy and continues to get plenty of work doing the only thing that matters to him. The work.

www.iamcameronday.com