Behind the Ads: Truth # 2 - Work shall never be distributed evenly or fairly

If you’re the Creative Director’s lackey, you will have an eezy breezy time. If you are the Creative Director’s bitch, you will not. Parents have favorites, and so do CEOs and CDs, so before you go expressing your daddy issues, realize and accept that this is a reality. In every agency I’ve worked at, accounts aren’t distributed evenly because when God created you, you were embedded with the same rights, but not the same skills. Please note that skills could be defined as being one hell of a creative or one hell of a kiss ass. Both actually work quite well in the long run and I’ve seen successful people who have achieved much status based primarily on their ability to pucker up and ignore the pimples and lint.

The flipside is that you’ll see people working inhuman hours while others leave at 6 or 7. You will literally see people age in front of your eyes because there’s just no way that so much stress and such ridiculous work hours won’t take their toll on you. Some people simply get dealt the worst hands because instead of having alternating accounts that one week are extremely active and the next relatively calm while another account activates, all of their accounts are active always and they’re always swamped with work. This happens because there are people that are good, but not “award winning” good in the minds of higher ups and because that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

The kicker is that while this is happening other people are actually chillin and given time to think campaigns through. True, some have “earned” this right… but that doesn’t make it any less distasteful. If you happen to land in the crap heap, then get ready for ridiculous deadlines, ludicrous workloads and having to pick up slack from other people in the department that you are told are more talented than you, but that have a typo in every ad.