Why hasn’t adland tackled its long-hours culture?

Adland has long been plagued by a culture of overwork, where long hours are seen as the norm rather than the exception. Despite conversations about work-life balance and mental wellbeing, many professionals still find themselves caught in a cycle of late nights, unrealistic deadlines and mounting pressure. 

The issue isn’t just about individual workloads—it’s embedded in the very structure of the industry, from client expectations to agency business models and leadership mindsets. As explored in Campaign’s recent feature on burnout, the persistence of this culture is tied to a complex mix of reward and punishment. 

While hard work and dedication can be incentivised with promotions and praise, employees may also feel trapped by an unspoken rule that working less might mean falling behind. Meanwhile, the industry’s relentless pursuit of creative excellence and client satisfaction makes change difficult.

So why, despite widespread awareness, has adland failed to reform its ways? What structural and cultural barriers are holding the industry back, and what practical solutions can be implemented to create a healthier, more sustainable working environment?

Enyi Nwosu
Chief strategy officer
UM London

I would characterise the question differently, as I don’t believe the industry views long hours as a virtue. We do believe in delivering the best service to clients. The speed of change and increased economic and competitive pressures on our clients’ businesses, can sometimes present challenges in terms of staff well-being. The starting point in striking the right balance between delivering our best work and team wellbeing, is transparent communication, and leaders working with clients to prioritise and manage expectations. This is in tandem with always listening to the concerns of our people, celebrating big and everyday successes, with a commitment to mentoring and wellbeing initiatives, which can make a positive difference.

Catherine Peacock
Chief client officer
Havas London

Our industry is under acute pressure—it’s more competitive than ever to win, prove our worth and be remunerated fairly. Something has to give. Far too often, it’s our people. We collectively need to understand that demanding our talent constantly give everything they’ve got (and more) is not good for them, our culture, our clients or the work. We need to have honest—and at this point, urgent— conversations with our partners to revise the industry’s outdated remuneration model and approaches to pitching. We’re supposed to be innovative, yet we’re still (attempting to) exclusively bill by hours and track timesheets. Let’s have the confidence to make a proper case for change so we can all become the empathetic leaders we want to be.

Rob Smith
Founder partner and chief executive
Motel

The massive elephant in the room is that this is beyond the control of any one agency—and perhaps even the industry—on its own. We’re in an oversupplied market, servicing clients under increasing pressure to act faster and make budgets work harder. And the let’s-all-hop-on-a-call culture driven by Covid has only made the situation worse. Then, add the fact that many people are in this industry because they care about what they do, enjoy the dopamine hit of winning and are driven to do the best work possible.

We need more genuine, achievable steps (a lot of small things can make a big difference) and fewer agency leaders on panels talking about initiatives that are often vast odds with what’s going on behind the scenes. Let’s start with being more open. When we're feeling the pressure at Motel, we gather in the lobby to talk it through as a group. And we need clients to be more aware that when they’re asking for that extra deliverable or that favour or to pull the meeting forward by a day or two, our other clients are probably asking the same. So, the honest answer is we can’t tackle this on our own.

Bruce Daisley 
Ex-vice president EMEA, Twitter; host of Eat Sleep Work Repeat; and author of Fortitude

One of the biggest determinants of whether any of us thinks we're working in a good culture is whether there's slack in the system. If the whole team falls apart when someone goes off sick or dares to have a holiday, then our culture generally feels pretty wretched. Advertising has protected margin while skimming off slack over the past few years, meaning that long hours are baked into the model. In the old days, that would be some stressed-looking soul sitting at their desks until midnight, now, with the advent of hybrid working, the finance director is spared the cost of lighting them at their kitchen table.

Adele Lewis Bridgeman
Founder
Responsible Resourcing Agency

In my opinion, a lot of this comes down to the reality of a company’s culture and ways of doing things, versus what is written in the company handbook or benefits document. Actually living and breathing a culture where employees are encouraged to work reasonable hours, goes beyond employers offering flexible working, time off in lieu or early-finish Fridays, as, in practice, their people are often unable to fully take advantage of these benefits.

The majority of talent I speak to are looking to work in a company that clearly demonstrates its values and offers progression, learning opportunities and the right work-life balance. For agency leaders and their SLTs, creating a culture that ambassadors this takes commitment, detailed people and resource planning. And while we all are aware of the challenges within the current market, we know that investing in our people is the single greatest asset any employer could have.