I am passionately against sitting in departments.
I absolutely loathe planners sitting together … creatives sitting together … suits sitting together … etc etc.
I accept there are positives that come from it, but I believe there are even more positives not doing it.
From a planners perspective … it means you can’t fall into some pseudo-intellectual bullshit bubble … it means you stay connected to what is actually going on with the clients and the agency … it means you can contribute to conversations in real-time … it means you can hear – learn – different views and perspectives and, possibly most importantly, it means you can start forming deeper relationships with the people who ultimately can make your life a breeze or utter, fucking, hell.
Now I appreciate if you work in a company that departmentalises their office space, there’s not much you can do about it however if that’s the case – and even if it’s not – one thing you might be able to pull off is a ‘random desk swap’.
We’ve done it here a few times … where for one week, every planner swaps seats with another planner in the office for a day.
Every day, a new desk.
Every day, a new view.
Every day, a new set of colleagues.
Every day, a new set of conversations.
Of course, everyone else in the agency either [1] thinks you’re a fucking nutcase or [2] complains they can’t find you … but for such a simple exercise, you get quite a bit our of it.
You get to know more of your colleagues.
You get to know more of your colleagues a bit better.
You get to have brand new conversations about brand new things.
You get to hear some fresh thinking and some new viewpoints.
You get to see how the office works from different perspectives.
You get to be a sad bastard by realising you miss your old desk … old seat … and old colleagues.
We all get connected to certain things in our office … little memento’s that turn a desk into a sort of 2nd home [which is bloody scary if you think about it] … however doing something new, even if it’s just for a week, isn’t going to kill you and you might just find that you’re better off for the experience.
Unless you end up sat next to Ryan in our office. He’s a fucking nightmare.