“T3 is laying off more today. That’ll make over 100 people in the past year, and close to 60 since November IN THREE DIFFERENT ROUNDS. You’d think they’d be smart enough to project their staffing needs and do it at once.
For a Think Tank, they sure aren’t very smart.”
Source = anonymous tipster via our anonymous tip form
Lunchtime update 2/23/09 – “30 people according to aquent” via anonymous tip form.
Late-night update 2/23/09 – Ad agency T3 slims down again
Tags: austin ad agency blog, austin ad jobs, Gay Gaddis, Gay Gaddis t3, T3 austin, t3 layoffs
Adomatica 
February 23, 2009 at 7:17 pm |
Layoffs are confirmed. I talked to a friend there. Everyone is scared to death because they’re not doing it at once. They’re hitting like ten people a week.My friend said it’s like being held captive by terrorists week after week, wondering not if, but when they’re going to shoot you.Not sure if the numbers are correct, but I’ll bet they’re close.
February 23, 2009 at 7:44 pm |
Someone hire the guy/gal that is describing it as a terrorist situation. Hah ha.
February 23, 2009 at 8:32 pm |
The economic realities of marketing cutbacks, and the “let’s wait and see’s” that clients are operating under are impacting all agencies in a rolling manner. Layoffs are a sad and serious business and in these times I would be surprised if anyone can predict the rolling impact we see everywhere. The saddest thing would be for a business to not layoff in a responsible manner and find itself insolvent. Then everyone is on the street.
February 23, 2009 at 8:42 pm |
That’d be a very insightful comment, if after the 2nd round of layoffs Gay didn’t say something to the effect of, “We’ve laid off all the people we’re going to this year. If you’re in this room your job is safe.”
February 23, 2009 at 8:53 pm |
Yes, then Gay blasted off in her chair rocket.
February 23, 2009 at 9:01 pm |
Quote:“I would be surprised if anyone can predict the rolling impact we see everywhere.”The only rolling impact we’re seeing is from T3. Everyone else seems to have a plan for it and not do it over and over.What happened to all that new business we were promised? It didn’t just go away, it went to other agencies. That means the “sad, serious business” you speak of is because of a failure of senior management to offer anything anyone on wants to buy.Crap creative, crap service and price of entry media doesn’t cut it anymore, gang. And you’re seeing the fallout.
February 23, 2009 at 9:13 pm |
Back to the original post…I’m at a competing agency, and I also have friends there. I wouldn’t say that they’re not smart. They built a successful agency worth millions and employed many people in this awesome town of ours.You just can’t cut that deep all at once when you know bad stuff is coming. They probably did the right thing by staging it, letting only those go that they absolutely need to at the time.
February 23, 2009 at 10:39 pm |
I’m an ex-employee from 3 years ago who loved working for this company, however, the 70k birthday party that gay throws each year in april(yea, over twice my yearly salary) was a little insulting.
February 24, 2009 at 8:01 pm |
T3 may have never utilized sophisticated, compehensive or ethical means to present work for clients. It shouldn’t be a surprise to see layoffs.
February 25, 2009 at 5:48 pm |
It would be fantastic to have one layoff. In that situation, your remaining employees can usually get over the fear fairly rapidly.In the ad world, a client might downsize an account, realize they need to reduce spending more, and downsize again 4 months later. If all your clients are reducing ad spending in unforeseen steps, you’re going to need to reduce your own expenses too. Unfortunately, difficult economic environments can force companies to make layoffs multiple times. This is even more prevalent in smaller companies that don’t have seriously deep pockets. T3 does fall in the smaller company group. It’s bad business for a smaller company to blow through cash reserves.-Anonymous and completely unaffiliated with the aforementioned agency.
February 27, 2009 at 11:30 am |
#10: <>Finally<>, an adult voice checks in.