Ogilvy Philippines employee dies sparking claims of overwork
A brand strategist at Ogilvy Philippines died this week, leading to speculation that agency overwork contributed to his death. Mark Dehasa died of pneumonia on Sunday after working long hours on a project two days earlier ahead of a meeting, AdWeek reported. According to the article, Dehasa began feeling unwell and asked to go to the hospital, where he later died.
Dehasa had been working for the Manila agency’s PR division for less than year before his death and had previously worked for Publicis, JWT and BBDO.
Ogilvy Philippines CEO Elly Puya said: “It is with great sadness that we confirm the sudden passing of our colleague Mark Dehesa from complications leading to pneumonia on Sunday February 19, 2017. Mark was a much loved and important member of our family in the Philippines, and our thoughts and prayers are with him, his family, and friends at this very difficult time.”
His death has sparked fresh concerns related to agency working hours several months after the death of a young employee at Dentsu Japan, whose suicide was publicly attributed to overwork by the company. Her suicide led to the resignation of CEO Tadashi Ishii and changes to the company’s overtime policies.
After hearing of his death, Ogilvy copywriter and a former colleague of Dehasa’s Jeff Stelton wrote on Facebook: “We do it almost to the point of martyrdom; sacrificing our time with our families, dates with our loved ones, but most importantly, our health. But with the untimely passing of yet another young colleague, I feel like it’s time we say ‘no’ to this unnecessary martyrdom. It’s time to say no to getting up for a 9am. presentation when you finished work at 4 in the morning.”
It’s very hard to tie this case directly to overwork.
Lack of sleep does weaken the immune system but so do many other factors like smoking and drinking.
I know numerous men and women who have endured years (not weeks) of this BS lifestyle, along with all three of the above and have to conclude that it’s the luck of the draw.
May this poor fellow’s soul rest in peace. No amount of awards or salary is worth an end like this.
ReplyIf that is confirmed, that will not be surprising. Ogilvy is a global specialist of staff overwhelming. “Advertising is crazy hours” we can hear everywhere. This time is over. Crazy hours are not linked to the industry but to the always increasing financial pressure that is put on each of the employees. That is even more significant in poorer countries where social rights are far more shaky. Each year, profit needs to increase reaching sometimes 30% in developing countries like Philippines. Only to feed shareholders. Meanwhile, it is absolutely impossible to hire in most of the companies, without going through insane rounds of justification. Sometimes only to hire a copywriter at 400 USD a month…Profit goals drive to no hires and to burn out. Most of the time, the employee needs to get the deals signed before being allowed to hire. Surprising for a big network with high investment capabilities. In other words, that means managing clients and insane pitches without resources. Ogilvy is again a worldwide specialist in that matter. No hires, no resources, multiplied tasks to be done per single employee. Can you imagine that each employee can be required to generate individually between 6 to 10 times their monthly salaries. That is not only to feed the shareholders but all the veterans at the top who have been there for more than 20 years and each year given a more senior appointment. In that matter, it’s funny to read of changes but is in reality a recycling of all the same old Ogilvy veterans across the globe. Restructuring with the same people. Like every 2 years. Surprising to see the numerous of seniors in that company compared to the incapacity of hiring a junior staff. Nothing about life time balance in that note by the way. Is it being a bad communist to point that it is absolutely outrageous to burn out bottom staff up to death just to feed shareholders and Ogilvy veterans packages? Shall we rather focus on exploiting people or giving everyone a decent life to everyone – where is the progress? That happens much less in independent structures. That should be the opposite. We cannot let that happen again.
ReplyIf you ask around there are allegedly ways of filling out time sheets at these offices, and staff are told only to put down only what’s billable.
That means employees working 90-110 hours a week putting down 50 or 60 hours. In my opinion, most of this is because of bad management and the well-known way WPP run their offices. Under-staffed below maximum operation level, in case an account is lost.
So young staff have management pressuring them for creative awards and ordinary work at the same time, whilst purposely understaffing as a safe bet towards annual revenue targets. On top of this are monthly pitches with no extra temporary help, as its made so difficult by red-tape to get them in on time. So when the old boys say “thats just the way it is and toughen up” ask them what their end of year bonus is and explain no one died in the old days.
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