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

One of the many things that’s interesting when you start a company and have people working with you, is addressing the ‘principals’ and ‘philosophies’ you talked about putting into place before you opened your doors.

You see it’s very easy to come up with all sorts of ideas about how you want your company to operate but when you realise what the implications of your decisions could be, it’s another thing altogether whether you actually bite the bullet and do them.

I make no apologies for the fact we had to think long and hard about our planned maternity/paternity policy – because as much as we think it’s wrong companies subliminally bully people into not having children because of financial constraints, it’s tough for a small company to cover the sorts of costs we were talking about incurring.

However despite not being legally obliged to do it, we went through with it [thank you Mary!] and whilst there’s been a couple of occasions where we’ve looked at eachother and said “ARE WE MAD???”, the loyalty and positivity we have received in return made it totally worthwhile.

Another thing we felt really important was holidays.

Infact we felt they were so vital to the mental and physical wellbeing of our people – as well as ourselves – that every 3 months, we had/have a mandatory long weekend.

I absolutely hate how people don’t take holidays … I hate it … and whilst there are many supposed reasons for it, I believe in the main, they’re all bollocks.

If a client can’t live without a member of their agency for a couple of days, then they’re either not very good at what they do or they need to pay the company a hell of a lot more money for their work.

If the agency can’t live without an employee for a couple of days, then they’re either really badly managed or they’re going to get a resignation letter from one of their staff very, very soon.

OK so I’m being sarcastic – however as much as I accept there may be the odd occasion where taking time off could be difficult, it should be the exception not the rule and certainly not get to the point where you have multiple days left to take by the year end.

Work Overload by Khawaja

When I first moved to Oz, I was amazed that some companies paid out holiday time that had not been taken.

Now that might sound great in theory, but the fact is some people regard this as potential additional income so purposefully work and work and work.

This is a false economy for everyone ….

The worker becomes less productive because of tiredness and stress – which often leads to mistakes and illness.

The client has people working on their business that are not as sharp or open to opportunities as they need to be.

It is because of these reasons that we do not pay out for untaken holidays [unless we are the cause for it happening, which to this day has never been the case] and are continually monitoring where people are with their holiday allowance.

Of course it can be awkward when they all want to be on holiday around the same time – but our view is that it’s their holiday – to take when they please – not when it suits us.

OK, so things like school holidays and Christmas need abit of openness and fairness to ensure everyone can enjoy the moment rather than just Mr/Mrs Super Organised, but in general if someone wants to take a holiday and has given more than a couple of weeks notice [unless certain circumstances dictate otherwise] then they have it.

Photo: Max Sauter

I remember when Fred had 4 weeks off when baby #3 came around.

It was without doubt the worst possible time because a couple of our team were already away but what was I going to do, tell him no?

Apart from the fact [1] we’d known it was going to happen for 9 months and [2] he would quite rightly of told me to fuck off … the fact is family is more important than work – and if a client/company doesn’t understand that, then they need a reality check pretty damn quick.

I cannot tell you how much I hate how business has created a work ethic where people feel obliged to give all their time and energy to a company.

Working 8 hours a day is no longer enough – they expect even the most junior of people to put in 12 hours + a day and not complain when they’re called in at the weekend. Hell, if you somehow manage to go home on time they make you feel like you’re cheating the company, it’s outrageous.

OK, so if you’ve been pissing about [writing blogs, ahem] or you get paid an absolute fortune, I can understand you may have to work later than usual, but companies shouldn’t expect everyone to work these hours – especially if they’re not going to recompense them for it.

Which brings me to another point … why can’t adland be a 9-5 industry?

Lets face it, clients rarely work till 9, 10, 11 o’clock at night so why do their agencies consistently have to?

Of course it’s because the powers-that-be have sold the value of creativity so far down the river that the only way they can make a buck is by under-resourcing on staff whilst positioning themselves as a ‘service industry’ … however here’s the thing … adland is not [or should not be] a service industry, infact it’s more related to the manufacturing industry than anything to do with service, which is why everytime I see some network CEO stand up and declare his/her staff as their greatest asset, I laugh myself silly.

Photo: Miss Advantage

Anyway back to my point …

The problem with this ‘total ‘effort’ expectation within organisations is that it’s not just affecting people’s job satisfaction and loyalty … it is affecting the fundamental dynamic of society.

Not only are families spending less and less time with one another, but they’re losing their ability to communicate and relate … hell, it’s even affected why people go on holiday – it’s now more about recuperation than discovery and even then the poor holiday maker is at the mercy of the dreaded blackberry!

[I don’t mind admitting that I’m dreading the day mobile phones can be used freely on all airlines. One of the reasons I love flying is that for the time I’m in the sky, I’m shielded from all the problems and demands of work. Infact I have made it a policy that whenever I go on a plane, I never do anything work related at all. Sure that means I have more to do when I land, but I treasure that that time in the sky so when phonecalls can be made/received at 38,000 feet, my last sanctuary from work is officially over]

Anyway, the real reason for this rant is because a friend of mine has just been told they may have to cancel their holiday because their boss is going to be in NYC for part of [not even all] the time they’re away.

It shouldn’t matter if their boss is going to Timbukfuckingtu, the fact is my friend gave the company masses of notice [ie: months] … they need a break because they’ve had to manage a global account with little or no assistance for the past year [despite their agency having account people coming out their arse] … they’ve had to contend with a pretty major family crisis going on at home and … possibly the best bit … it’s not even a real holiday, they’re doing a fucking climb up the Himalayas for charity.

Yeah, agencies really give a damn about their staff don’t they?

Seriously, I thought the LOWE principals incident was bad, but this is just beyond belief.