All in a day
Contributed by Rtr Vi-Vien
It's 7.30 pm on a Friday night and I'm sitting in my office waiting for a phone call. At 6.30 p.m., we were informed of revisions to be done and that we needed to get a job sent for color separation to output for materials for printing tonight (Thanks for not informing us earlier on in the day and working with us on it when we sent the artwork over at 3 p.m.!).
10 minutes ago, my client was just rushing me for the final artwork so that she can go home (I want to go home too! If you had reverted earlier we could all have gone home by now!). Then, after I get it rushed up and send it over to her, she informs me that she's already on her way home and asks me to send it to her personal email account (Oh, wonderful! So now we all have to wait while you get to go home). She will check it when she reaches home and give me the approval to proceed to develop material for printing. My colleagues and I wait patiently for another fifteen minutes. Still no call yet.
I wait patiently while my colleagues come up to me every 5 minutes to ask if they can get it done and go home already. Soon. Soon. I always say, wishing to go home soon as well. After half an hour, I call my client, thinking I have given her ample time to reach home and check her email. "Are we ready to proceed?" I ask. "Give me a bit of time. I've got something to do at the moment and haven't checked my email." she says. "Please hurry ok?" I say in a cheerful tone (What!?!? You're not having your dinner while we wait for your go-ahead are you?). My colleagues ask me again right after I put down the phone.
So? Can output for materials already?
Wait, she hasn't seen it yet.
What! How long more do we have to wait?
Soon, I want to go home as well....(Please don't chase me anymore, I'm already rushing the client!)
I call the client in 5 minutes time again.
Have you seen it yet? Is it ok to proceed?
Wait, I'm just opening my email. Call you back in a minute.
Ok.
Phone rings 5 minutes later...
Hi, is the artwork ok?
Ok, just add in this and this and then you can send it out for color sep.
Ok, please send me an email to confirm your approval.
OK.
I put down the phone. Get the artwork revised (Colleagues reaction: What! Change again??? How many times does she want to change things?) and inform my colleagues of the good news that we can proceed after this changes. Then we check the artwork to make sure there are no mistakes and send it out.
That's the downside of my work. The odd hours we have to work, never knowing when you have to stay back late, and getting torn between the clients and the creative team, handling complaints from both sides. The above is a true scenario when a job is almost 90% complete [where we say it's in the FA (final artwork) stage]. I have left out the long winded process of developing the artwork from scratch. This scenario may not happen most of the time but it does happen, and it happened more than once for me.
The upside of my work? The satisfaction and pride you get when you see your work in the magazine. Or in the newspaper. Or in your mailbox. Or even on the television and you get to tell your family and friends "Look! We did that!"
So I'm not really complaining about my work. Everyone has got periods when they are stressed out in their jobs, no matter what they're doing. Just as long as we think it's worth it at the end of the day, all we really want is to vent our frustrations every once in a while right?
Also, please bear with us when we start boasting or ranting about an ad we produced when we show you one. Some people say, this is the only thing that keeps people working in this industry.
P.S: Captions in red are what went through my mind at that moment. No hard feelings to all those who are working on the client's side. We know that you are busy too, but please do not take the agency for granted. We're also just doing our jobs and are not supposed to be on standby 24 hours a day. ;-)
Blogmaster's note: This hardest part in publishing this article is the COLOUR! When I copy and paste Vi-Vien's article into the blog, it became ALL BLACK... the red colours caption were gone! For a colourblind to find out which sentences to highlight red is painstaking. I even have to seek the help of my colleagues to check whether I miss out any red colours caption. Whoosh!
10 minutes ago, my client was just rushing me for the final artwork so that she can go home (I want to go home too! If you had reverted earlier we could all have gone home by now!). Then, after I get it rushed up and send it over to her, she informs me that she's already on her way home and asks me to send it to her personal email account (Oh, wonderful! So now we all have to wait while you get to go home). She will check it when she reaches home and give me the approval to proceed to develop material for printing. My colleagues and I wait patiently for another fifteen minutes. Still no call yet.
I wait patiently while my colleagues come up to me every 5 minutes to ask if they can get it done and go home already. Soon. Soon. I always say, wishing to go home soon as well. After half an hour, I call my client, thinking I have given her ample time to reach home and check her email. "Are we ready to proceed?" I ask. "Give me a bit of time. I've got something to do at the moment and haven't checked my email." she says. "Please hurry ok?" I say in a cheerful tone (What!?!? You're not having your dinner while we wait for your go-ahead are you?). My colleagues ask me again right after I put down the phone.
So? Can output for materials already?
Wait, she hasn't seen it yet.
What! How long more do we have to wait?
Soon, I want to go home as well....(Please don't chase me anymore, I'm already rushing the client!)
I call the client in 5 minutes time again.
Have you seen it yet? Is it ok to proceed?
Wait, I'm just opening my email. Call you back in a minute.
Ok.
Phone rings 5 minutes later...
Hi, is the artwork ok?
Ok, just add in this and this and then you can send it out for color sep.
Ok, please send me an email to confirm your approval.
OK.
I put down the phone. Get the artwork revised (Colleagues reaction: What! Change again??? How many times does she want to change things?) and inform my colleagues of the good news that we can proceed after this changes. Then we check the artwork to make sure there are no mistakes and send it out.
That's the downside of my work. The odd hours we have to work, never knowing when you have to stay back late, and getting torn between the clients and the creative team, handling complaints from both sides. The above is a true scenario when a job is almost 90% complete [where we say it's in the FA (final artwork) stage]. I have left out the long winded process of developing the artwork from scratch. This scenario may not happen most of the time but it does happen, and it happened more than once for me.
The upside of my work? The satisfaction and pride you get when you see your work in the magazine. Or in the newspaper. Or in your mailbox. Or even on the television and you get to tell your family and friends "Look! We did that!"
So I'm not really complaining about my work. Everyone has got periods when they are stressed out in their jobs, no matter what they're doing. Just as long as we think it's worth it at the end of the day, all we really want is to vent our frustrations every once in a while right?
Also, please bear with us when we start boasting or ranting about an ad we produced when we show you one. Some people say, this is the only thing that keeps people working in this industry.
P.S: Captions in red are what went through my mind at that moment. No hard feelings to all those who are working on the client's side. We know that you are busy too, but please do not take the agency for granted. We're also just doing our jobs and are not supposed to be on standby 24 hours a day. ;-)
Blogmaster's note: This hardest part in publishing this article is the COLOUR! When I copy and paste Vi-Vien's article into the blog, it became ALL BLACK... the red colours caption were gone! For a colourblind to find out which sentences to highlight red is painstaking. I even have to seek the help of my colleagues to check whether I miss out any red colours caption. Whoosh!
Labels: General Reading
posted by harnniann at 5:10 pm
6 Comments:
Vivien,
All of us face this 'Malaysian' way of doing things at the last hour or minute.
In the end of the day, it is not the work that kills a person but people/staff/clients who delays and massive follow up is needed.
It is like when you are busy, clients & bosses got urgent things for you to do. If you had some time to kill, no bother come to bug you.
I guess ppl will always like to tag the word "urgent" in every requests they send to u.
But, is "urgent" really important??
Timmy
" Hey, plz do it now, it is URGENT. We have to complete it by today... " my senior said.
"what?!! Now is almost 6pm. I dont think we can finish it." I answered.
"You have to.." speechless...
But u know what, my snr gone back home early than me ... she claimed that her driver is reached.
Urgent??? i hate this word...
I guess a touched a note where everyone finds a common link. As I mentioned, everyone gets this problem, we just want a place to rant about it...so go on...let everything out... :)
Yes, Vi-Vien,
I think your article hit the nerves of every working class, especially those who had silently endured and tolerated the bullshits of their superiors.
A place to rant about it? Yeah right.
"HEY! MR. LIM, YOU THINK YOUR FILE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AR??!! U THINK I ONLY HANDLE FOR YOUR MATTER AR??!! WAIT IN LINE AND DON'T CALL ME UNTIL I CALL YOU! HANDPHONE IS FOR FRIENDS. AS FOR YOU, PLEASE CALL THE OFFICE NUMBER!!!"
Thanks... feel better now
Haha...good one Harnniann, make me thankful that my company didn't put our handphone numbers in our namecards. Nevertheless, the clients always end up asking for it. So I supply it through my email anyway...hmmphh..
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