There was a time when working at an agency meant living at the agency. If you weren’t in the office until midnight, scarfing down cold pizza and cheap beer, you weren’t really “working hard enough.” Make no mistake, it was a toxic mindset that thankfully the industry is (mostly) moving away from. But, in righting the ship, what might we have lost?
Remote work didn’t kill agency culture, but it’s testing It
There’s a myth that remote work is what’s making agency life feel different – and that might be harming creativity. That without the late nights in the office, the after-hours brainstorms, the impromptu idea sessions over Red Bulls and ping-pong, the magic is gone.
That’s not it.
The work is still hard. In some ways, it’s even harder.
- You’re not staying late at the office anymore, you’re staying late in your kitchen
- You’re not grinding in a conference room, you’re grinding alone at home, staring at Microsoft Teams
- You’re not pulling all-nighters at your desk, you’re just never logging off
It’s not easier. It’s just different. So no, remote work didn’t kill agency culture. But it did expose something: too many agencies were relying on culture as an accident of proximity.
When the office was the center of everything, the energy came automatically. Now? It has to be intentional. And if your agency isn’t actively building that hunger, that drive, that competitive spirit… it’s dying.
The best creative doesn’t come from exhaustion. It comes from ambition.
How do you keep the fire alive?
In correcting the practices that once burned people out, pushed talent away, and kept a lot of bad bosses in power, too many agencies have lost sight of what’s made agencies powerful. Never stop pushing for the best ideas. Never settle for fine instead of great. Never lose the competitive fire that makes the best agencies, well, the best.
If your agency isn’t challenging you, pushing you, making you want to beat the competition and bring something better every single time, you’re not getting the real agency experience.
At Park & Battery, I see it every day.
- People challenging each other to make the work sharper, smarter, bolder
- People taking feedback, not as criticism, but as fuel to get better
- People bringing ideas that actually make clients excited, not just comfortable
This isn’t a show-up-and-collect-a-paycheck kind of place. It’s a bring-your-best-or-get-left-behind kind of place. And that’s exactly how it should be.
Because if you’re just coasting, just getting through the day, just checking off tasks – you’re not doing agency work.
So here’s the question: Is your agency coasting – or is it competing?
Because if the fire’s gone, it’s time to find a new spark.
