The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Charles are you saying that administrative work and the people that do it could get by in a cellar? If you are you are about to feel the full force of a Marcus Brown rant.

Morning!

I don’t think Charles is saying that – I hope not anyway. For his sake, ha!

Marcus – why are you up already???

If it’s a rant you want … I’ll help you. Wait for my next post.

hands off him. HE’S MINE!

Glad I could help you out there Marcus and I am glad you feel ‘totally spent’ [urgh] because you will now have a nicer day, Charles will get to live another day and I get to try and sell ‘colour’ to the fashion industry by informing them that beige, grey and magnolia are the colours of profit and shareholder value and no one wants to be associated with that.

A well worthwhile exercise.

OK I’m up for this one. My point was and still is that a lot of marketing isn’t about creativity. Most marketing is about product decisions, distribution and spreadsheets, you know the other 3 P’s. It’s obvious whoever came up with that, never figured out that the 5th P is PEOPLE. Now if you want to make the point that the people in distribution should have a creative and stimulating environment, you are dead fucking wrong. I’ll go even further. I’ve done B2B focus groups and some attempts by companies to give the people like those in distribution a more ‘creative’ work environment are perceived as WASTING money that could go into the employee’s pockets – it never does but you can see the rationale. Often, people who work in government or civil service LIKE to have austere surroundings, so they can claim to be saints or something while later living off their FAT civil service pensions (Krung Thai Bank and NHS peeps – You know who you are).

My problem is that the people who then come into meetings about creative and inspirational development are either doing distro fucking bution for the most part of the week and shouldn’t come anywhere near a labour of creative love because to love lots of things is actually a greater sacrifice than to love very little. It’s like mixing oil and water and it doesn’t get good results. Great marketing directors have left and right brains. They get the spreadsheets and they get big ideas like hate something change something. But the assumption that most people would like to be in the same environment as that which makes me happy (planning on tropical beaches is my forte) isn’t true. Some people actually LIKE the sense of order, hierarchy and cubicle personalisation that goes with the average office. God knows why, cubicles scare the living shit out of me, but let’s not be so presumptuous to think that what we like is the same as what everyone else likes.

So are you saying that the “back office boys”, the workers of spread sheets neither have the right to be involved, inspired nor should they have the right to experience and be involved in change?

Are you seriously suggesting that someone (and you should be really REALLY careful here) who spends their whole day working with Excel is incapable of creativity? That these people have know experience of anything else? That they shouldn’t touch the holy grail – your creative idea.

I’ve said it once on this blog and I’ll say again. I don’t think agencies should be talking to marketing directors. I think they not only talking too but INVOLVED in R&D – an area which is geeky, techi, Excel ridden and often cubicle based.

I really like you Charles – but I’m up for this one (which is actually a show of affection).

Charles – you are bastard. And that’s so not fair because you knew that your last comment was going to make me REALLY REALLY angry.

But I’m going to get some lunch now. When I return I’m going to kick your digital arse all over this blog.

Mahlzeit!

I’m eating a sausage (Bratwurst) not asparagus. You may have TALKED to those people sun shine, but I AM one of those people.

I shall return. After I’ve eaten my pudding.

du kannst mich mal! 🙁

Yes, Nice one NP. Jumpers in Winter and less of that air con on full blast. I’ve seen Asians in some countries, wearing COATS in the office even though it’s 30 degrees outside. The bloody planet is overheating and excessive air conditioning really really annoys me. It’s bloody inconsiderate to the environment.

[I should point out bean bags and sunnies was/is not what I had in mind]

Congratulations Andy, that was indeed sensible. It might not be quite right, but it is sensible. The thing that doesn’t quite make much sense is when you say you are going back to bed. We have a plane to catch in 3 hours, you better be on it.

So did you pull your pudding towards you, or away, or back and forth in the canteen over lunch Marcus (snigger chuckle chortle).

Let’s not mess around with those arbitrary opinions on this one. I’ve pulled two puddings. I mean surveys off the net that TOTALLY contradict each other. This is exactly why I think so much quant research blows chunks. Two surveys COMPLETELY different conclusions. Who is right? Well I’ve dug around a little more and I’m not saying quite yet, because I want to see Marcus walk into my fiendish trap that I’ve set up for him before I pull out my digital pliers and get all ‘medieval on his ass’. So here goes.

A recent study conducted by Bosti Associates, a workplace analysis firm based in Buffalo, N.Y., suggests that despite all the drawbacks, people prefer cubicles to open space. The company surveyed 13,000 workers at Fortune 500 companies and found the most important issue for them was acoustic privacy. “In the modern office there’s so much noise, what with speaker phones, desktop video and voice-activated computing,” explains John Olson, president of Bosti Associates. “Enclosure seems to be the only way to avoid all that.”

http://www.wordspy.com/words/acousticprivacy.asp

Then this little gem.

Only 7 percent of workers say they prefer cubicles to any other type of work environment, according to a recent study by Steelcase Inc.

http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?docid=74972

So Marcus, put that bratwurst down, wipe the semf off ya chops and spread the love around. Which one is right?… Ha ha…

ooh, i’m going to get my filthy conceptual hands on this one too.. but it’s 1:30am and i really need to get to bed.

I am abandoning my discretion and commenting on this.

I think there are two main things being said here:
* People need good working environments in order to be inspired and productive
* That an environment is ‘good’ only if it is ‘creative’

First off, I don’t agree that if one isn’t directly in marketing/ advertising it isn’t a ‘creative’ job. What we do is nothing compared to the ‘creative’ things some accountants do (just ask the SEC) – creativity is an approach rather than an end product.

But I do agree to the point that work environments in no way directly contribute to the quality/ productivity at work. There are many examples in the corporate world that would show this (Traders for one, who have nothing but space for a screen and a wrist on their tables, the ones at Enron actually came up with a way to trade something as intangible as Energy!) But I am going to go with another example that produces almost all of people who go on to ‘create’ – The Classroom.

I don’t know about you guys, but all the classrooms I have ever seen are the same old drab shit place – rows of desk with monotonous walls and the exact same tables, a blackboard along one wall…. you get the picture. Yet there seems to be no dearth of ‘creativity’ emerging from the young people in schools and colleges.

Of course they do their own little thing to make the place feel alive, from graffiti on desks to charts on the walls, but this is exactly what happens even in these ‘boring’ office, people make attempts to ‘own’ the space and to me that is the first step to them being ‘creative’ as opposed to being a cry for help to make all spaces like that.

I am going to end with a metaphor, think of the drab office as a blank canvas on which each employee can make his own little impression, obviously the creativity is going to be more stifled if this was instead a canvas already painted with colours (the boss’ favourites of course)

And lastly I think Rob, you know of a little place out in Asia where at least 3 creative people don’t let a drab office kill them or their work (there, I have now officially committed harakiri)

I never thought I’d say this … but Andy seems to have hit the nail on the head even though in some way, he is sitting on the fence between Charles [or Chaz as he decided to call him] and Marcus.

Hahahahaha, Andy sitting on the fence – that’s funny both from a metaphorical point of view and a practical one!

Lauren … I’ll be writing about good business practice shortly and how employee value has to be demonstrated by a company, not just talked about.

I am immensley proud that cynic puts huge emphasis on making sure our people feel valued and challenged at the same time.

We have a whole host of things from offering 9 months fully paid maternity leave [mainly because we don’t think its right a woman should be penalised for bringing some happiness into the World … though I do have to say this offer is only available if its your first child, we’re a small company afterall, ha] right through to monthly “EAT YOUR WORDS” talks where we bring a pot pouri of people into the agency for lunch and to talk to them about their lives, goals, dreams and jobs.

We’ve had all sorts from architects of airports, to fashion desingers, to political analysts, to toy creaters, to homeless people, to Iraqi citizens, to drug addicts – the widest range of the weird and the wonderful … all because we believe it helps our guys have a greater appreciation of what is going on around them as well as hopefully inspire them to find different ways to approach tasks.

I know this sounds very arrogant, but I don’t care – this is how all companies should treat their staff rather than give them a number, a phone, a cubicle, a computer and a 5 minute toilet break.

A company can’t say it has principals and values until it costs them something – and in my mind, not enough companies are paying out!

Ooooh, I’m getting fired up for this post – but it’ll have to wait till I’m back! [I can write this without my nuts being cut off as we have not officially left for our holiday yet! Ha]

Typical … fixate on a couple of words, take the piss out of them and ignore/miss the passionate message I am trying to convey. Hahaha!

hey! i heard the very important message, agree entirely and give you kudos, but c’mon i couldn’t let that pass…

i’ll be good there, i promise. i’ll be with naughty girls who are very good at appearing like angels and i’m a quick learner 🙂

ROB!!! ick – i didn’t mean it like that!! sheesh – what are you, my pimp??!!

andy, is that you hacking into rob’s blog again?!

Very interesting convo happening here. I agree with the view point that no matter how an office is set up – creative – bland etc, it is all about respect. Respect for your staff. It doesn’t matter if you have someone writing & spouting a heap of rubbish about your; vision & mission, passion & about how your staff are your key asset – if you don’t give them a good space to work in with the tools they need it is all pointless.

I have worked in diff environments including a great creatively designed ad agency, and a government department cubical both in Aus. I worked effectively in both places. Sure the cubical wasn’t that creative. But it was set up with consideration and respect, and the head of my department sat opposite me. I didn’t feel like a drone, I felt like an important contributor to the team.

Where I work now, I waited 5 months for a phone. I begged one of our wonderful office men (yes here they are referred to as ‘office boys’, even though they are grown men who do a great job) for a set of draws. This to me says it is not all about the staff and contradicts the messages we are sending out across our network.

I used to run a few teams through NSW & ACT in Aus & we had virtually zero budget, but still managed to create spaces suitable for the type of work we were doing. Spaces that our staff felt comfortable to use & that were set up with their needs in mind. So I feel it isn’t always just about spending lots of cash, but about consideration for your staff.

oh my… from what I know of Lauren she’s gonna be up for an interesting visit!!!

hehehe!

jade, thanks for the tip – i can add that to the other no-nos i’ve got on my list (thanks to my best friend living there).

to rob and age, thank you for your concern about my ability to be culturally sensitive in one outside my comfort zone. i’ll save the middle finger for next time i see you!

Are you an Aussie by any chance Lauren? Ha!

Interesting Rob. I had a look at the Cynic site yesterday & was impressed with the whole attitude of the agency. It seems Cynic is one company who believes in knowledge sharing even when it doesn’t necessarily mean instant personal wealth.

Nah, not banned, but might have just slipped through the censors.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to make money, I’m all for it (& not at all into the alternative – living on a commune perhaps) & believe it can be a great motivator.

But being able to contribute something, no matter how small while continuing to grow/ earn. Individuals or companies can get so much more in return for small investments of time or knowledge.

speaking of cynic staff – where the hell have billy/jemma/george/bazza been lately?

Jade … I think your first ever post on this blog proved that wasn’t the case.

God you’re nosy Lauren.

Because I am scared of you, I’ll tell you [well as much as I know]

Andy and George are in Zurich in another meeting with our prospective, super-massive, super secret client [www.robcampbell.wordpress.com/2007/03/16/good-luck-boys-and-girls/] … Billy and Jemma are in Rio filming some stuff for MTV and Bazza is on a plane to Sweden for an IKEA meeting [and a desperate bid to find a woman].

Is that all OK with you?

I am teasing Lauren. Don’t tell me you’ve gone all thin-skinned!

Hello Jem …

I am not annoyed that you are checking blogs when you should be filming stuff for one of our dear paying clients … I am annoyed because you never offer to take me out to ‘get slaughtered’ when I’m in the US!

And don’t use the ‘But You Don’t Drink’ excuse [even though it would be a good one]

I will deal with you and Billy later, now go and be bloody great please. 🙂

Positive communists. Music to my ears and coming from adland too. I am proud. I mean that.

So Charles, are you saying you my comment has made you feel all warm and gooey inside? I have that effect on most men.

Jemma x

If Jemma is a Femme Fatale, then I want to be Billy big bollocks, scaring people away with a single swing of my big hairy nutsack.

That doesn’t really work does it. Fuck it, women get all the cool shit.

billy, not only does that not work, you are now officially competing with andy for cynic’s creepiest….sorry, but you brought this on yourself.

um.. no worries?

So I make you feel like you’ve eaten carbs do I Charles? Well that’s certainly a new one on me and I’d prided myself on thinking I’d heard them all. 🙂 You are a sweetie. Jemma x