The humanity!
Skip this post if you don't want to read a work related rant. Seriously. No funny in this one (or very little).
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Oh man did I mess up. I took on another all-new CS ad yesterday. It was more of a garbled mess than the last one was, since it was a full page ad instead of a half. Twice the room to be stupid.
I took it at 2:30, she needed a proof to show the client by 4:00 and she wasn't there to ask questions. She had to leave because her child's school let out early due to the weather or something. I did what I could with what I had and when she showed back up at 3:30 I cleared up what I could with her about her layout and had a proof ready by 4:15.
Today, as I was working on two noon deadline ads, she brought it back with changes. Hah. Changes. THE WHOLE THING WAS CHANGED! And what's more, rather than marking the changes on the proof I gave her (SINCE THE WHOLE THING WAS CHANGED) she had an ALL NEW messed up layout for it PLUS she was still pushing for an idea she had about tilting the dealer's logo at a 45˚ angle on the bottom half of the ad ("I just can't see why it won't work."), which in the space available was JUST INSANE!
She also pointed out that the ad wasn't due to the paper until Friday so I had lots of time to work with it. Like I don't have ANYTHING else to do but work on her ONE ad. I had visions of rebuilding this ad ALL WEEK, because I was certain her new layout didn't capture what the client was looking for any more than her last layout did: NOTHING WAS KEPT FROM THE LAST LAYOUT EXCEPT THE DEALER TAG AND FOOTER!
I felt the familiar snap inside that told me I can't take a certain person ANY MORE. BAD THINGS™ were going to happen. I looked at her and I calmly said, "S's back. Why don't you show this to her and she can explain to you why it won't work, since I can't seem to. Also she can help you with the layout," I added because HER NEW LAYOUT WAS UNREADABLE! Also I wanted S, my art director, to get an idea of what we were dealing with from this woman.
She said okay, and went away until S was available.
About 15 minutes later, as I was wrapping up my noon ads, she went into S's office. Since the door wasn't closed, when my ads had printed, I joined them to find out what was being said.
S was displaying the same reaction to CS's idea that I had, and was showing her alternative ideas to make that half of the ad look better. Something I couldn't do because CS wouldn't listen to me. She has no choice but to listen to a VP.
Also I could tell that CS wasn't going to say anything about the top half that was having to be rebuilt from scratch. So I asked S if she could look over CS's new layout and perhaps redraw it.
S gave the layout a bewildered look and told CS that with this account the dealer needed to be given a good rough and then be held to it or we'll be changing the ad all the time, to which CS said, "And we'll lose all that time. I didn't think of that."
... ??!!?!!
WHAT?! YOU BITCH! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE? Luckily S is far better at handling people than I am. She just took it in stride and said from now on CS would have to do it that way.
I had to get my newest ads dropped off for proofing, so on my way out I said to S, "If you can rework that into something I can use, that would be great," or something similar. Yeah. I had lost any kind of tact I might have possessed by that point.
CS jokingly popped up with, "What's the matter Collin? You can't make sense of my chicken scratchings?" (her words, so there you go Monkey. They aren't monkey scribblings. They are, in fact, chicken scratchings.)
I *think* I just looked over my shoulder on the way through the doorway and said, "No." But I was thinking SO many more things that I can't be sure. I'm not fired yet though, and nobody is dead so whatever it was it couldn't have been too bad.
But I'm pretty sure that CS is now aware that I'm not too keen on working with her.
I'm so stressed right now. Ugh.
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On a brighter note, I finished reading "Going Postal" last night. It was a very good book overall, but I wasn't quite fond of the ending.
---
Oh man did I mess up. I took on another all-new CS ad yesterday. It was more of a garbled mess than the last one was, since it was a full page ad instead of a half. Twice the room to be stupid.
I took it at 2:30, she needed a proof to show the client by 4:00 and she wasn't there to ask questions. She had to leave because her child's school let out early due to the weather or something. I did what I could with what I had and when she showed back up at 3:30 I cleared up what I could with her about her layout and had a proof ready by 4:15.
Today, as I was working on two noon deadline ads, she brought it back with changes. Hah. Changes. THE WHOLE THING WAS CHANGED! And what's more, rather than marking the changes on the proof I gave her (SINCE THE WHOLE THING WAS CHANGED) she had an ALL NEW messed up layout for it PLUS she was still pushing for an idea she had about tilting the dealer's logo at a 45˚ angle on the bottom half of the ad ("I just can't see why it won't work."), which in the space available was JUST INSANE!
She also pointed out that the ad wasn't due to the paper until Friday so I had lots of time to work with it. Like I don't have ANYTHING else to do but work on her ONE ad. I had visions of rebuilding this ad ALL WEEK, because I was certain her new layout didn't capture what the client was looking for any more than her last layout did: NOTHING WAS KEPT FROM THE LAST LAYOUT EXCEPT THE DEALER TAG AND FOOTER!
I felt the familiar snap inside that told me I can't take a certain person ANY MORE. BAD THINGS™ were going to happen. I looked at her and I calmly said, "S's back. Why don't you show this to her and she can explain to you why it won't work, since I can't seem to. Also she can help you with the layout," I added because HER NEW LAYOUT WAS UNREADABLE! Also I wanted S, my art director, to get an idea of what we were dealing with from this woman.
She said okay, and went away until S was available.
About 15 minutes later, as I was wrapping up my noon ads, she went into S's office. Since the door wasn't closed, when my ads had printed, I joined them to find out what was being said.
S was displaying the same reaction to CS's idea that I had, and was showing her alternative ideas to make that half of the ad look better. Something I couldn't do because CS wouldn't listen to me. She has no choice but to listen to a VP.
Also I could tell that CS wasn't going to say anything about the top half that was having to be rebuilt from scratch. So I asked S if she could look over CS's new layout and perhaps redraw it.
S gave the layout a bewildered look and told CS that with this account the dealer needed to be given a good rough and then be held to it or we'll be changing the ad all the time, to which CS said, "And we'll lose all that time. I didn't think of that."
... ??!!?!!
WHAT?! YOU BITCH! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE? Luckily S is far better at handling people than I am. She just took it in stride and said from now on CS would have to do it that way.
I had to get my newest ads dropped off for proofing, so on my way out I said to S, "If you can rework that into something I can use, that would be great," or something similar. Yeah. I had lost any kind of tact I might have possessed by that point.
CS jokingly popped up with, "What's the matter Collin? You can't make sense of my chicken scratchings?" (her words, so there you go Monkey. They aren't monkey scribblings. They are, in fact, chicken scratchings.)
I *think* I just looked over my shoulder on the way through the doorway and said, "No." But I was thinking SO many more things that I can't be sure. I'm not fired yet though, and nobody is dead so whatever it was it couldn't have been too bad.
But I'm pretty sure that CS is now aware that I'm not too keen on working with her.
I'm so stressed right now. Ugh.
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On a brighter note, I finished reading "Going Postal" last night. It was a very good book overall, but I wasn't quite fond of the ending.
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