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

It’s as if it feels we’re too comfortable with what we’ve got and wants to test the boundaries of what we can handle.

This is going to be one of those weeks.

Over the next 7 days, we’re going to be subjected to incredible highs and some incredible lows.

Every day is going to expose us to news that will make us question everything we thought we knew.

Question the future that we all can look forward to.

Good and bad.

And how can I say all this?

Because I’m a planner and I’m paid to understand this shit.

OK, it could also be because this is the week the World Cup starts.

In Brazil.

Which means it’s going to be extra awesome.

Except if you’re an England fan, because while we say we don’t expect to do very well – especially with a team full of kids – we all still secretly think we might pull off the surprise of the century because no one expects us to achieve anything.

We’re deluding ourselves folks. Sorry.

In addition to the World Cup, this is also the week where I turn another year older.

Yes … I know you’re all going to pretend the thought of that is horrendous, but I know it’s something you’re all really massively looking forward to because you’ve been saving up for months to ensure you bathe me in wonderful, caring, considerate presents.

Or cash. I’ll definitely take cash.

So whatever you have planned this week, make sure you pace yourself properly because if you don’t it could all end in tears and something tells me this is definitely going to be a week you won’t forget. I certainly know that’s going to be the case for me.

It’s not.

If truth be told, I respect him and them.

No seriously, I do.

After all, I’ve worked for them twice in my career, though I am pretty sure Sir Martin wishes it was none.

Especially after this episode.

Or this.

Anyway, while I might not value everything they value, I can’t deny they are an incredibly well run organisation who do some excellent work.

Some.

No, the reason for that title is because there’s a legal case running in the US about tech firms who’ve been found to have been operating a private agreement that ensured they’d never hire people from their respective organisations.

In essence, they operated a secretive ‘restricted hiring’ policy … which might have made [sick] sense for the companies involved, but was utterly shit for the talent involved.

Not that they knew about it at the time.

Those poor sods … because of their employers paranoia and secret dealings, they were inadvertently in a situation where they faced limited career opportunities, salary growth and development.

And they say China has bad working practices!!!

Anyway, while you can sort-of understand why Google wouldn’t want people from Apple trying to steal their staff and vice versa, it’s come out that one of the companies that had also ‘signed an agreement’ with the ‘no stealing’ policy was WPP.

Yes, WPP.

Of course, a cynic would say ‘why would anyone from Google want someone who works at WPP’ in the first place, but that’s just bastard talk because not only is WPP Towers full of smart, bright individuals, Google’s Creative Lab was started by an Ogilvy man, Andy Berndt.

But that aside, if you are a talented technologist – or anyone really – who one day aspires to working at a company like Google [or countless others tech companies included in ‘the agreement’] would you really feel comfortable taking a job in an organisation that you now know was once happy to sign an agreement that ensured you could never work for your dream employer?

Would you trust they’re now operating in good faith?

Would you believe there are now no barriers against achieving your goal?

To be fair, I don’t actually think this had anything to do with WPP. What’s far more likely is Google instigated this policy after I – in a roundabout sort of way – ended up in Mountain View via a dalliance with a Sir Martin outpost and the nerd crew realised they’d just let a culture virus enter their pristine halls and could never take the risk of doing that again … even if it meant they’d have to sacrifice the opportunity to get their hands on the talented and the good within WPP.

So to all the people who missed out on a job at Google because of errrrm, me – I’m sorry.

Advertising brings out the best and worst of people.

You could say it is an industry designed to give your entire spectrum of emotions a workout.

Good … bad … happy … sad … calm … angry …

While some of this is because of the way the industry operates – from bad timelines to inter-departmental tensions – I’m sure some of it is because it is a discipline that has no ‘wrong way’, just lots and lots of right ways.

To be honest, I can be a bit of a nightmare.

I’m absolutely fine when people have different viewpoints to me or different approaches to me, but when I sense that is being driven by laziness or apathy then I sort-of explode.

Of course, laziness and apathy are in the eyes of the observer, but having been doing this for a long, long time – I can sense when someone is striving for the lowest common denominator rather than the highest.

Or pushing for satisfying their ego rather than creating something commercially interesting.

Or just speaking without understanding the task – and context – in hand.

And when those occasions happen, I have been known to show my Italian side.

You know, when you become like a baby who has consumed too many espresso’s and e-numbers.

To be honest, it’s something I have been struggling to improve about myself for a long time and I would like to think I have improved over the years … but when someone is making comments or decisions that reflect what will make life easy for them rather than doing what’s right for the task in hand, I have been known to become – to quote Andy and a few other colleagues over the years – a spiteful little fuck.

And that’s where Desmond Tutu comes in.

Because I saw a quote that sums up what I should be doing.

Something that will improve the chances of getting a better outcome.

Something – with my families background in law – should be infused in my DNA.

Something that isn’t about ‘winning’, but encouraging those people to not settle.

“Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument”.

The fact they titled it, ‘This is a game changer for Kennedy Wieden Inc’ … means they don’t give a flying fuck about who they’re talking to, they just care about selling their shit.

Seriously, how hard would it have been to check they had the right company name?

Christ, they even think we’re an ‘incorporated’ company.

All they’ve done is ensure they’ve lost any chance of having a conversation with a prospective client before they’ve even had a chance to introduce themselves.