Ohhh the joys of agency life

I have a small team of three that support me on client work at the agency and I really couldn’t ask for a better bunch of people. My team are amazing, they are one of the biggest reasons I stay at the agency, because God knows it isn’t for the money, so it’s been a bit of a cause that I noticed one of my star team members, Jack, was away from his desk for a reasonably lengthy amount of time, at least a couple of hours, on Friday and Monday. To my, potentially paranoid, mind it seemed to be a long enough period to be off doing all sorts of things, such as taking a cab to go to a job interview elsewhere in Manhattan.

Gulp!!

Ugh, I really hope that’s not the case, I would hate to lose him, but if it is…well I can’t say I would blame him, he’s fantastic at what he does, the clients and account teams completely adore him, but the agency doesn’t pay him anywhere near what he’s worth – me either for that matter, it’s a mystery why I stay* - and I am powerless to do anything beyond making a ruckus on the unfairness of the situation, which I do on a regular basis, so much so in fact that I suspect I may be acquiring something of a reputation as a pain in the arse with my head of department, but someone has to stick up for the young uns eh!! Sadly the agency just doesn’t appreciate loyalty, it’s a truth of the world of the advertising agencies that to be paid what you deserve you have to go to the bother of leaving and coming back, because only then will you be paid a competitive rate as a 'new' employee.

People are not happy where I work, you can feel it in the air, and despite promises of salary increases come the 3rd quarter rumor has it that a recent two week period saw 67 resignations across the agency - I know of 4, but I have no clue who the other 63 people might be, but come to think of it sightings of the Creative Cutie** have been as rare as hen's teeth of late. Oh no!! - meanwhile those of us that are crazy enough to remain have to listen to the powers that be spout bollocks about how they are going to great lengths to hire the best talent, and no doubt pay them a best talent salary. Um what are we…chopped liver??? Um…here's a novel idea, but how about you try investing in the people you already have???

Seriously the attitude of senior management just blows my mind, especially given that as an agency we regularly spout such pearls of marketing wisdom to our clients about how it costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an old one. 5 times!!!

Um…hello agency management…employees here…how much do you think it costs to hire and train a new person vs. giving a pay rise to motivate current, highly loyal employees???? I'll leave you to ponder that for a moment.

It's infuriating, but I see it all the time when I scope projects for clients, since there is a woman I work with who is more junior than me, but is charged out at a slightly higher rate and it's a well known fact that daily rates are based upon employee salaries, so....it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.

I casually queried the situation with my head of dept one day whose response was to feign puzzlement. Seriously this guy should NOT quit his day job to pursue an acting career, because there's no Oscar in his future I can tell you that for nothing.

"Oh that is weird that her day rate is higher than yours. Perhaps you should go and speak to [account lead] and ask him why that is."

Uh-huh, yeah right, it's a BIG mystery what's going on here. Could it be that she is paid a higher salary for less responsibility than I have? Hmmmm, let me ponder that for a second!!! Um YES, I think that may well be the case.

I've no beef*** with the person in question, I like her a lot and fair play to her for negotiating a better salary, but the unjustness of the situation is maddening. I don't know, maybe I should just cut my losses and leave for pastures new.


*Actually it’s no big mystery at all. Truth be told I’m feeling somewhat disillusioned by my chosen career path and fantasize about winning the lottery on a regular basis. I’m just not feeling the love anymore and I’m not convinced that this is the career for me and well, the jobs I am being approached about are somewhat senior and I just don’t know that I want to go somewhere new and take on the responsibility of generating revenue and motivating a team when I can barely drag my own sorry carcass through the week. The truth is that the people I work with and the comfort factor of knowing how things are done at my current job are a big reason why I stay, but the salary is fast becoming a dealbreaker!!

**My crush on the Strategy Hottie has waned since finding out from Anna that he has a girlfriend. Thanks Anna for almost extinguishing the small flame of hope I had, I really appreciate it ;-) I would have said completely extinguishing, but then I almost collided with him outside the lifts today and my stomach flipped so violently I almost vomited. How attractive THAT would have been!!

***That's such an odd turn of phrase don't you find??