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I love this thread. A big part of the problem (because I’m pretty sure no one goes into this biz WANTING to work endless nights/weekends) is poor management. Often structural. Often personal. Just a number of levels.
It starts with depts. not working together to respectfully allocate enough time to do various jobs, not using foresight to get ahead of projects, letting clients squeeze timelines/budgets/hours... the nights/weekends become an assumed sacrifice to counter the inefficiency.
And, also, people are inefficient in their own day-to-day, “Hey guys, we need to keep pushing, more ideas Monday AM.” “Hey, we’re tweaking the brief, more ideas...” This is usually on a Friday, or Thursday, if you’re lucky. How does it always get to this? Bad briefs. Limited feedback. Limited direction. And then there’s the scramble to put a 100-page deck together that the client barely looks at and just keys on a few pages.
This game is mostly just getting a pile of ideas out of people, sorting through, polishing and presenting them. But that pile can grow in a million ways. That polishing process can be done a million ways. The presentation doesn’t have to be War and Peace. Agencies can be better at making this a more efficient, measured process. It’s inherently messy, but too often it feels like needless mayhem.
Be more decisive, more scrupulous, more convicted, more detailed, more focused. Stop overdelivering on quantity for a client and focus on quality. Find efficiencies.
And, yeah, there’s always a better idea out there. Yeah, you could keep digging all through the weekends. Scratching and clawing ‘til dawn to beat the other guys. But have you seen Treasure of the Sierra Madre? Don’t turn into Humphrey Bogart’s character. Or a company of them. Let’s try and avoid that.
Agree. One of world’s best agencies for the past 30 years is BBDO Melbourne. Everyone is out the door by 6pm.
During my 2nd wedding, the ceremony progressed without an issue, but I spent the entire reception on a client call, and working on comps for the ECD. The banner concepts had to go out that evening, or else we'd be delayed. You gotta do what you gotta do. In the end, it's only the work that matters.
My co-worker canceled his honeymoon over banners. It happens. Work fortunately paid for rescheduling. Doubt that would happen these days though.
are you joking?
Like really? Especially when there is someone ready to take your job for less.
Welcome to the glamorous world of Advertising, at least based on my experience.
Not if you’re questioning why weekend work is happening
We are all laughing bc it’s the norm, but that’s part of the problem. We shouldn’t accept it and maybe it’s good to think like OP. If we broke down our salaries by hours worked we’d all make shit money.
Absolutely. You have one life. Keep not accepting it if you can.
You definitely should raise this with your CD and I expect the outcome will be you won’t be working any more weekends for your current agency.
OP are you kidding? What percent of what we do is scheduled? We’re in a service business not at a bank or a factory where people are on work schedules and punch in and punch out. You and your agency’s schedules are dictated by client needs and what it takes to do the best job. Sooner you recognize that and get passion for what you do it will be easier to work an occasional weekend. That or look in to the Netherlands where work weeks are less than 30 hours
Occasional weekend? - Suck it up.
Holidays/family occasions - Hard no.
(For me)
Jesus Christ on a popsicle stick, get over it!
I’m curious how much OP is getting paid. Then the question “is OP getting compensated enough in general?” Is this the first weekend to question, “is this normal?”
Next question would be Has the work and culture been leading up to this disgruntlement?
And then is it, “this is a pretty good agency and the work coming out of it is good (maybe even great).” You would ask yourself. Is it worth it.
Maybe you have already answered in another thread. Op, if you can answer honestly maybe the fish hive mentality can give you some perspective/encouragement, etc.
This is the norm in advertising...
Yes. And nights and holidays. Currently looking for a new job because of it.
This thread is kinda sad, and I don't mean the OP.
We love to think we’re the only people working weekends, but we’re not. The whole glutton for punishment glamorize the struggle mentality just perpetuates the problem.
So you wanted to be an Art director haa?!
And you wanna be my latex salesman. - Seinfeld
If you want 9-5 get a 9-5 job. This isn’t it and there’s a line of people who would give eye teeth to have your job.
Spaz.
My last two agencies have had a incredible work-life balance. I work, on average, 42 hrs a week & most my creatives do too. Are we winning Cannes lions? No. Do I give a fuck? No. Do we all enjoy our work & mostly get along? Yes. How? We communicate, we all value our personal lives & we set proper expectations up front, communicating early & often.
Please send me the address of your agency so I can send my book!
Weekend work is normal in the ad world. not every weekend but also definitely bound to happen. If aren’t okay with that, you should probably find a new industry.
Yeah mate. I’ve missed many occasions for my job. Family birthdays, weddings, dates etc. you could always say no, but it may effect your relationships at work
SAD4, You’re doing it wrong.
More context please. So it’s due end of the following week? Have you asked why? Are the clients wanting an initial pass before the initial presentation? This is the case, if your clients have to sell it up the ladder in their organization. Or do you have to review it up internally?
Working over the weekend is a result of many things. Inefficiencies in one’s own work, overall poor planning, over promises, etc.
It’s a fact of life in the ad world. Working weekends. But it’s nothing to be proud of. At top agencies some people are working 80+ hours. Quality takes time.
I believe you got it right — clients have to sell it up the ladder for a few social posts that’s planned to be up by the end of October/November. I’m so baffled because we’ve already done something that’s good for at least 1.5 months. This tells so much about client planning than our agency process. This is such an eye-opening experience for me.
If you don’t come to work on Saturday don’t bother coming in on Sunday.
I don’t mind working some nights or weekends when it’s about going the extra mile to create (what you think could be) award winning work.
Helping land a pitch? Sure, why not (you don’t really have a choice anyway when colleagues are coming in too).
TV shoot on weekends? Yes, anytime.
But having to work over the weekend because an incompetent account executive sat on a brief the whole week, that could have been avoided. Your CD is supposed to help you avoid that.
I agree with all your examples and I’ve been through them. Even when I didn’t provide enough context, I’m glad you were able to see what really happened here—and caused a lot of discussions, which is a good thing.
What happened was my CD had to mandate our accounts that no brief or work should come on weekends anymore because of this.
But I still can’t believe how we’ve come to accept that advertising equates to long hours. And it’s just sad to see our industry that way.
The amount of self flagellation in this thread is wild. It’s just a job dudes. A cool job, one I feel lucky to have, but not one that I’m willing to give up having a life for.
preach!