How much should you work?
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Overall the message is: we’re cool with you working less at W&K London and we’re proving this by asking people not to email each other between 7pm and 8am; we’re only having meetings between 10 and 4; if you work weekends or evenings you can claim the time back.
The main reason is to give employees’ brains the rest they need in order to be able to function at their optimum level. Y’know: devices now mean that we’re always on, so reducing the way they can swamp you with email etc. is a good thing.
Great idea. Not sure I agree with this bit so much, though:
As pointed out in Campaign, we do get called Weekend+Kennedy sometimes. Just as ‘72 and Sunny’ get called ‘72 and Sunday’ and BBH get called GBH. But there’s a reason these agencies, and others like them, have decent creative output. It’s because we work long and hard to get to the best work we can.
‘Decent’ creative output? Interesting adjective. These agencies have acquired a reputation for having long working hours because that’s one of the methods by which they believe they can create ‘decent’ ads. Has that really been worth it? (By the way, just to be clear, I’m not saying that these three places alone are producing work that is generally of a ‘decent’ standard, nor that they don’t have long histories of creating truly outstanding ads. They have been great in the past and their current output is probably of the same standard as it has always been, relative to the other agencies; it’s just that the general level has been getting worse for years and that means that what used to be 10/10 is sometimes closer to 8 or 7.
If ‘the best work we can (do)’ is ‘decent’ then working ‘long and hard’ to achieve it suggests that all sorts of things might be wrong. Sure, it could be the constant connectivity of recent years, but maybe, just maybe, there are other reasons behind the post–Gorilla malaise in which advertising still appears to find itself. Let me think… ummm… The talent drain? The reduction in budgets? The reduction in relative salaries? The ever-shortening deadlines? The sending of money and talent in the direction of ‘big data’ and ads that follow you around the internet all the bloody time? Agencies making the industry look like it’s full depressing liars by creating non-existent work in order to win awards?
I think W&K should be applauded for giving this a go, but I hope due consideration will also be given to advertising’s other difficulties, otherwise all the peace and quiet in the world is not going to change much.
No one minds working hard for a while if the results are brilliant. You do it for a few years, grab the plaudits and then swap jobs for a cushy number somewhere less taxing.
Working really hard all the time to create a load of shite is pointless.
I wonder how hard they worked at GBH to produce those Tesco ads. One would hope no more than the 10 minutes they look like they took. My suspicion is though that much midnight oil was applied to the production of what can only be termed “an absolute fucking load of terrible bollocks.” aka AAFLOTB
My first reaction to this was that I’ll work however I want, thank you!
But thinking about it, there are two types of long hours. One type I don’t mind and actively choose, and another type I tend to put up with because it is, ultimately, career progression.
There are the long hours that result from the fact that I fucking love what I do, and I don’t really care about having to work late in order to get from good to great. Or something jumps into your head at 8pm on the train and I have to tell my AD right away, or vice versa. We’re both mid-30s, in CD positions and that fire has never diminished.
And there’s the long hours that result from poor planning and agencies over-committing to complete work which come from senior management, who are no where to be seen at the weekend. These generally suck, but I can’t help but feel it would harm my career if I was unwilling. Besides, I’m experienced enough to get through a lot of stuff at a pace.
So, I’d rather carry on working (in the main) how I want to.
Excellent, agree absolutely
The ad industry loves to peddle this nonsense about great work being the result of long hours. It’s nonsense.
I worked at Fallon for several years and never have I worked so hard and achieved so little. The inefficiencies, duplication and time spent double-checking other people’s work wasted so much of our time. We were working long hours because we were working so ineffectively. But that mentality was part of the culture of the agency.
Anything that tries to break this model is a great thing in my book.
Personally I hope W&K sweep the board at the next awards ceremonies, sell sh*tloads of their clients products, win all the pitches they go for and single-handedly raise the standards of the entire industry. All with a culture that makes the smartest young people consider advertising as a viable, long-term career rather than a macho test of stamina until they finally crack up and leave to do something else.
We’re a smart industry. We should be looking at more smart ways to get the best out of people.
Good luck to them and I’ll be watching with interest.
In Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis one of the US bankers (who were doing crazy hours) asked one of the London bankers why they left bang on 6pm everynight, he replied “because I want to come into work in the morning with a different idea in my head than when I left last night”
Which would be interesting if it was true.
The reality was they were (a) in the pub with girls from the ‘backroom’ (b) going mad on expenses at a flash restuarant with or without a client or (c) doing coke off a stripper’s tits.
In fairness – all of the options might have led to the ‘different idea’ and none of them could be classed as ‘work’. But my point is – they might have left bang on six…..but they didn’t go home.
But no-one’s saying, “Leave work at these hours and go home”.
It’s just “Don’t be at work”.
Like J-Unit says, it’s about finding the ways to get the best out of people. If that comes from a stripper’s tits, or at home with the other half and a bottle of Rioja, is *that* not the point?