If Omnicom, Interpublic Merge, WPP Hit Further - Even the "Mad Men" Don Drappers Could Lose Jobs

Geographic growth, access to new markets, cost-efficiency and latching on to big brandnames – can all come about through mergers and acquisitions. The bankers and the lawyers make a killing in fees. And, the predictable downside is the loss of many good jobs. 

 

That consolidation already had been overtaking the beleaguered advertising/public relations industries. Now there is the proposed merger of Omnicom and Interpublic in 2025. The impact on employment is spelled out:

 

"Brian Weiser, an advertising analyst at Madison and Wall, said: “There is a lot of efficiency to be realised. [British spelling] No question there would be a lot of duplication and a very heavy US overlap.”

 

The standard term for "duplication" is "redundancy." The newly formed entity, for example, doesn't need two Investor Relations departments. Typically, those surviving the cherry-picking of who will be part of the consolidated departments will be called upon to do more with less. And the implicit message will scream: Be grateful you now have a job. 

 

Also, factor in the long-term effect of AI on how work is done. Even in the creative professions, now it is the clients who are demanding more AI applications. 

 

Currently Omnicom employs 75,000 and Interpublic 57,000. Headcount at WPP could also be negatively impacted by this move. It has been facing headwinds since Sir Martin Sorrell left in 2018.

 

The threat to job security from M&A isn't new of course. In the 1980s, CEOs such as Jack Welch at GE retrofitted corporations and boosted the stock price through an aggressive pile-on of other businesses. No longer were corporations paternalistic.

 

Back then, waves and waves of us middle-aged Knowledge Workers were displaced from what had been a "safe" way to maintain middle-class status. We weren’t going to get rich, but we were comfortable.

This time around it could be the creative Don Drapers from "Mad Men" who experience the jolt of unemployment with no place to go. We Lost Generation of White Collars from the 1980s became Accidental Entrepreneurs. The new concept of office supplies for small business, introduced by Staples, thrived. We agonized in that chain store about the color of stationery for our snail-mail marketing. But here we are, still working. 

 

With the perfect storm of what is already going on as a white collar recession along with the flattening of organizations and aging bias those impacted by the Omnicom-Interpublic merger could be yet another generation of professionals who have to figure out financial survival. 

 

Already on professional anonymous network Reddit Public Relations knocked-out-of-the-box creatives at iconic employers such as Edelman lament not being able to land another job.

 

As a career coach specializing in the over-50, I recommend opening up possibilities through embracing a post-career identity. Forget that you were a Don Draper. Redefine the skills and experience and experiment with leveraging in other ways to make a good buck. You could actually earn more than you had in a traditional career. This kind of semiretirement could become the future of work. Here is my article on that in O'Dwyer's Public Relations.

 

Meanwhile the stress of raised expectations about professional performance is even driving those in their 50s at the top tiers of the business in sectors going gangbusters such as Big Law into semiretirement. The growing ethos could be: Take the money and then do something else. We should watch what will be the work patterns of “stars” at Kirkland & Ellis, Skadden, Simpson and Paul Weiss who may be pulling down up to $20 million. Will the standard age of opting out of what we know as "career path" drop a decade to the 50s? 

 

Coach Jane Genova provides end-to-end career services, ranging from diagnosis of the challenges and “fix” strategies to preparation of resume/cover letters and how to gain control of an interview. For a confidential complimentary consultation please text/phone 203-468-8579 or email janegenova374@gmail.com. Fees custom-made for your unique budget.