Alex Wadelton: Why you should leave work
By Alex Wadelton, executive creative director/partner, ZOO group
In a lot of big agencies, there seems to be almost a competition to see who can stay the latest at work, who can work the most weekends, and who can be at their desk working earliest every morning. Some of it has to do with the fact that everyone is overworked, but a lot of it has to do with trying to give the appearance of being a hard worker.
Does it make the quality of work better? I’d say no.
Mostly it makes people resentful of the fact that they are just at work, stuck inside on a sunny weekend while all their non-advertising friends are out and about.
So, let me tell you a story about why you should leave the office as often as professionally possible.
A few years ago, I was wandering around an exhibition with my young son.
The details are a bit hazy- it might have been Scienceworks, it may have been ACMI… but there is was one thing that is crystal clear in my mind’s eye.
Hidden, almost Zoltar-like in a dark corner of this exhibition, were a couple of grotesque photographs of a mental asylum patient being tested upon in the 1860s by a French scientist with the incredible handle of Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne (de Boulogne).
What the bloody hell was he up to?
In short, he was applying electrodes to people’s faces to try and recreate the six basic human emotions of anger, happiness, fear, sadness, disgust, and surprise.
Some of them worked, others were bizarrely contorted, but all were impossible to look away from.
And it got me thinking. Why wasn’t there more study on this area? What was it all about? And how quickly could I shoo my son away from looking at a lunatic electrocuting people in the name of science?
I went home and read up about him, and it’s fair to say if he’d tried to do it now, he’d be locked up in an insane asylum himself.
Duchenne was intrigued to try and understand the physiology of the human face and how it works. From there it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump in logic to progress straight to feeding electrical currents into the facial muscles of lunatic asylum inmates just to see what happens.
Shits and giggles and all that.
But in the 19th century, there were no laws to protect against such barbaric pseudo-scientific study.
And that was that.
Just another useless piece of information to be stored in my brain never to be thought about again, swimming around with all the pointless sport stats I know, the encyclopaedic knowledge of drum n bass that hardly anyone else apart from me cares about (big ups to Etherwood!), and all of the horrendous dad jokes that cause nothing but groans from all and sundry.
Or so I thought.
Because last year whilst I was working at McCann Melbourne a brief for the Melbourne International Film Festival from Danish Chan lobbed on the desk of my then art director partner Andy Jones and me.
It was all about the emotions that you feel at the festival. How no matter what language you speak, we all share the same feelings.
They wanted a cinema ad, and a poster. Sure, we could do that, no problem!
Or we could go three and half million steps further and construct an archaic movie chair contraption that replicated what Duchenne was doing 150 years earlier by applying electrodes to people’s faces to stimulate their facial muscles in order to re-enact the emotions you felt whilst watching all the films that were playing at the 65th anniversary of MIFF.
No, really.
Getting a client to agree to this frankly insane idea was no small feat, for which Caroline Macmillan deserves an inordinate amount of praise.
Lauren Zoric at MIFF supported the idea from Day One, shepherding it through with élan.
Idea, somehow miraculously approved, we then had to figure out the small task it if was, you know, even possible.
That’s where Australia’s own mad pseudo-scientist for the 21st century, Steven Nicholson from Airbag stepped in to frame. He and his team, supported by Robert Stock, Eliza D’Souza, and the inimitable Adrian Bosich were able to pull several hundred cats out of a bag along the way to make it happen.
Back at Rancho McCann Victoria Conners, Patrick Jennings, and Afrim Mehmed produced the bejesus out of the idea with the support of Adrian Mills and Pat Baron.
The best bit about working in this industry is getting to do crazy stuff that makes it sound like you are more interesting than you are when someone delivers your eulogy.
So, when at the Festival launch at Melbourne’s iconic Forum, the person tasked with being the test subject for The Emotion Simulator freaked out at the size of the 800-person strong crowd (and the fact that they were going to have electrodes placed all over their face, whatevs) there was only one idiot willing to step into the breach.
Being on stage as Steve manipulated my face for ten minutes is the most surreal experience of my life. Plus, I’m sure it was a bit of payback for Steve to inflict a modicum of pain on me for all the pain I’d caused him.
And it just goes to prove, once again, that it’s important to have a life outside of work. To be curious. To know a little bit about a lot of things. Because you never know what you’ll see in life that you can bring back to work.
So, go home on time. Don’t work on the weekend. Turn your computer off. Put that phone away. Wander about with your mind open.
You’ll not only enjoy your life more; you just might get to electrocute people for fun.
The Melbourne International Film Festival Emotional Trailer just secured 1 Gold, 2 Silver, and 5 Bronze at Spikes, to go with Gold, Silver, and Bronze at Cannes, a Grand Prix, two Gold, two Silver, and four Bronze at AdFest, a WARC Prize for Innovation, and an Effie. You can watch it here.
39 Comments
I love everything about this article. Thanks Alex!
This is a very good point. And refreshing to hear.
The best reference you can get is outside of advertising. And if you stay inside your agency, advertising is the only reference you will get.
I’m sure countless other tales of award-winning inspiration exist. I’d love to hear these as well.
PS. Alex, please never stop doing stupid things to your head.
… or take more espresso martini breaks
Agree with this whole-heartedly. Great article!
The best ideas I’ve had have either been conceived outside the office, or at a place where going home on time is the majority of the time, not the exception to the rule.
Overworking your staff is stupid. It ruins their health, dulls the knife and makes people panicked, not productive.
I’m no advocate for laziness, but you should always openly reward those who deliver, not those who work the longest. In fact, unless they’re learning, you should fire them.
When I was a creative at McCann Melbourne I worked almost every Sunday.
There was just one other full time team; one intern team working on awards entries, and no traffic manager. We regularly logged 60+ hours on our timesheets. The conditions at McCann were the reason I decided to leave advertising.
The Lesson: See, listen, absorb all of life’s experiences because you never know when you will call upon them in your job as a creative person. That’s if you have that sort of brain, of course. Store, then simply regurgitate as required. Although we have to sit in an office and create, the mind often does not respect office hours and will provide ideas at the oddest of times, like when you’re driving home from work, having a shower, watching TV or at the most unlikely of moments, such as when you wake up in the middle of the night and the the idea comes fully formed. You only have to take dictation from your brain and bring the notes into the office in the morning. The only reason to stay in the office well into the evening or on weekends is if you have a terrorist creative director who rules with fear. That does not inspire good work. It only creates dread, resentment and depression. Oh, the temptation to name names…
ECD: You have to work on Saturday.
ME: No!
ECD: Then don’t bother coming in on Sunday.
Cracker of an article!
No I remember it going something like this, if you’re not willing to work on Christmas eve, don’t bother turning up on Christmas day.
Alex, are you trying to say that agency staff should refuse to work long hours or weekends? Or are you implying that somehow you’ve achieved a mastery of your craft without this kind of sacrifice and dedication?
The quote is from Tim Delaney (of Leagas Delaney, London). He said ‘If you don’t come in on Sunday, don’t bother coming in on Monday’.
Regarding the article, it makes a good point.
Bet you’re missing those McCann briefs, hey?
I agree with the sentiment of the article but I thought this at the time of the MIFF campaign, recreating the facial expressions of emotions is literally superficial. The brain doesn’t feel the expression and create an emotion, it’s the other way. Sure it’s cool to do crazy shit for work but the idea never made sense to me. However these massive gaps in shits given by everyone in the industry makes me feel that advertising is really just a circle jerk for agencies and marketeers, and the customer is on the outside not really involved…. and probably skipping MIFF for Netflix.
So true. Great article Alex and a timely reminder.
I’ve gotta get out more. And so should you all my creative brethren!
Our work will be all the better for it.
I believe this has broader implications for business, not just idea generation. Read this from the ‘What it takes to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ onwards. If you can be bothered.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/in-the-machine-age-only-one-type-of-organization-will-thrive-a-human-one/
Nice one, Alex!
Absolutely, you need to balance the #adz with the soul stuff.
Thanks for trusting us with your strange idea! Steven thanks you from the bottom of his over-electrified cheek muscles!
A great way to reflect on how you came up with that highly successful idea of yours Alex.
Great article Alex, but I agree to a point.
When I was a junior, the only way I could beat the seniors (and you were one of them!) was to stay back late and go again, go again, go again.
It wasn’t about being seen or making a martyr of myself, it was about making the work good. Lay it out twenty different ways. What other ways could we solve this? etc etc etc.
I wasn’t worried about getting fired. Coles paid more than my salary (even calculated at 40 hours a week). I just wanted to be good.
It worked for me. I progressed to CD and have been for a while thanks to that hard work.
But here’s the rub. I find it very hard to find juniors who will go past their first idea. Even harder to find juniors who are more interested in being the next David Droga than going to the gym for 3 hours at lunchtime. Or juniors who don’t leave at 6 because ‘I don’t get paid enough to stay late’. We’re talking about juniors on $65-75k.
The ones who work back because they want to make the work better rather than just be seen to be there late are rare. I’m lucky to have a couple under me. But it just doesn’t happen anymore, it’s so rare.
I do agree on finding inspiration outside of our field and not via Google or Snapchat. Life is the best inspiration we could have.
If I was to give advice to a junior, sure, get out, see stuff. Do it while you’re concepting (take a pad to an art gallery, walk around, crack ideas).
But above all, master your craft. Because in 2-3 years when you’re on a higher pay bracket and you haven’t produced anything of merit, someone hungrier, better and cheaper will replace you.
And with cheap flights and more flexible immigration, your competition isn’t just Australia.
Work hard and do great well.
There are more people following a picture of dogshit on Instagram than work in the Australian advertising industry. Make a difference, do real work. Don’t even bother with the nonsense.
I agree that we don’t offer as much value for consumers as we should. That’s what R/GA does so well at – they’re very good at cutting out meaningless crap.
I disagree with you in this instance though. MIFF patrons are there to see interesting, unusual, provocative film experiences. And that’s what this was. Doesn’t really matter if it was superficial or not.
thank you for making me laugh with your instagram vs aus ad people ratio. gold!
You should stay because you want to, not because you have to. There is plenty of time to master your craft within the hours of 9-6.
It’s the responsibility of agency leaders/CDs to get the best out of their staff regardless of their motivation. You can’t exact everyone to want to be David Droga.
It is a shame more don’t, but that’s the adland we live in.
We’re not making art, it’s advertising.
The fact that you expect people to stay late to make the work better is a problem your agency has, not the creatives.
If there’s not enough time to work on a project, push the deadline back, or get the brief from planning to the creatives sooner, or make a quicker decision as the CD on which route is working and which one isn’t.
Don’t place the onus on the teams to cram in more hours to make something work better.
We’re not making art, it’s advertising.
The fact that you expect people to stay late to make the work better is a problem your agency has, not the creatives.
If there’s not enough time to work on a project, push the deadline back, or get the brief from planning to the creatives sooner, or make a quicker decision as the CD on which route is working and which one isn’t.
Don’t place the onus on the teams to cram in more hours to make something work better.
Remember when staying late used to be fun?
Someone would order food. You’d have a few wines.
Make the work better. Bond with the studio.
Make the suits stay late too.
It shouldn’t be every night. But it should happen.
I’d rather have a life, thanks.
Outside of work.
You stay late and bond if you like.
Hi there,
A few interesting points raised i reckon. Of course you’ll have to work back late when you really have to- but I don’t believe it should be an almost every night thing like I’ve experienced along the way. No doubt the best work I’ve done was not conceived in the office.
My brain is my office- as it should be for every creative. It’s always open for business…
When you’re in bed and can’t sleep at 2am because ideas keep popping into your head it’s not something that can be put on a time sheet or impress a boss with. You meet the deadline anyway you can- how you manage your time to do so should be up to you.
My point is that you shouldn’t have to be SEEN to be in the office. There is so much stuff in the world that will improve your work, and your life, that it seems ludicrous not to experience it when it’s your job to communicate to people who could care less about advertising.
They live lives. You should do.
I happen to like writing stuff- and when I’m passionate about something the hours slip away and it gets poured into the two fingers I happen to know how to type with.
When pitches are on, the occasional late night is fun and can bond people together. I’m talking about the day to day grind and things like debriefs at 6pm on a Friday night being pointless.
I once had a debrief at an agency the night before Xmas break up that was due second day back after New Year’s. When we got back after saying that it just wasn’t gonna happen, the straight faced response was, “but you’ve had the brief for the last ten days!” That’s clearly not healthy, nor practical.
Let’s all just be humans and enjoy making stuff people like, hey?
*fist bump*
– ex-McCann ‘Anonymous’ commentator
Great article.
The ‘work week’ has evolved with the needs of its society. As we don’t ‘go down Pit’ or ‘work at t’ Mill’ and computers exist, the five-day week is really not a relevant model to Advertising production today.
Foucault always mentions how structures, such as schools and prisons are designed for the convenience of the ‘owners and bosses’ rather than the workers. It’s looking that way for creatives in many agencies.
I agree the outside world is more relevant to producing ideas than a work space, no matter how cool its set-up – including nap-pods etc etc.
I often hear the complaint that too many creatives are ‘freelance’ and won’t work full time. Crushed by office meetings, waffle briefings and group bondings that are actually irrelevant to coming up with great ideas and visuals.
Advertising doesn’t need to be great art, but it does need to make sure the people producing ideas to move commerce along, aren’t stuck in a dark-ages module.
Hire people who make music, draw cartoons, go to acting class or spent a holiday somewhere weird and email them a brief. Then get them to use the magical power of the computer to send in their ‘outside the compound’ ideas!
Even sending your creative teams to walk around a supermarket for a few hours, would more than likely produce better ideas than a tired team stuck in a studio trying to look like they are ‘working’!
https://www.facebook.com/jakeparkerart/videos/1245516955499088/
@@Why you should also stay at times
@yeah but nah but
I think you missed my point.
I don’t expect people to stay back late. I agree you can be creative between 9 and 6.
But until you have a couple of Grand Prix’s under your belt and you’re capable of producing those within those hours, I’d recommend working back for your own benefit.
As David Droga said himself; ‘I knew I couldn’t outsmart them but I could outwork them.’
I think any junior owes it to themselves to be the best they can be while they have the stamina. And I did state, the best ideas are found outside the office. It’s not about being seen staying late, it’s about delivering and when you’re young you have to work twice as hard as the guys who are more experienced if you want to beat them.
Peace.
Alex is a smart guy. I really like him. We used to work together. He’s pretty interesting.
He also challenges a lot of norms, which is key really.
Anyway, here’s my thing. It’s a bit like Alex’s thing.
I avoid giving my time away to advertising for free.
That doesn’t mean I don’t love the work, I really do. But my work in advertising has a dollar value, just as the agency has theirs, and of course, just as the clients products have a price too.
It’s a commercial agreement.
But…
I also have other projects I need to do. music, drawing, writing, making up stuff.
I like to wander around doing nothing.
That’s when you absorb stuff and where the ideas begin.
Doing nothing is highly under rated.
It’s bloody rewarding to apply your creative energy, your big ideas, your skills to your own life: not just to the next brief that hit’s your desk.
Understand your point totally. You get to the top by working harder than everyone else. No doubt.
It’s just that in this Millenial world the young uns have plenty of exciting options other than ad agencies. Working your ass off for a maybe Grand Prix may not be as attractive as working for AirBnB.
We need to find new ways to inspire drogathusiasm.
So you worked late to get where you are but nobody else should.
Good advice brah.
Good luck. Working for google or a startup is only good for the resume, you can kiss your life goodbye from that point!
But agree entirely with your sentiment.
It used to be a lot more fun when it wasn’t so PC, check your privilege, boring and white. It’s very vanilla these days.
I can pinpoint the 2008 GFC as the moment the accounts guys and financial controllers took over the building, and a lot of the oldschool were swept out.
I remember when (both men and women) were so outrageous, super inappropriate and fun. We all did more drugs and drank more. We had real characters in the industry. We’d finish half-day on a Friday and actually all want to hang out together instead of skipping home to see the kids / missus / etc.
Damn it used to be a lot more fun, and staying back was a lot more fun too.
There wasn’t a ‘cool club’ or a ‘womens club’ or an ‘old club’. All of us in together having a fucking good laugh. Now Friday beers are drunk at people’s desks instead of at the bar.
I miss those days.
Successful adman – “Don’t do what I did”.
Brilliant.
It got shit once Gruen came out.
Advertising used to be this place where all the misfits who couldn’t get a job anywhere else, but kind of knew they liked art or film or writing ended up. And they ended up there because they were good people. Including the suits.
Once Gruen came out it legitimised the whole industry, and people who would have gone on to be doctors, lawyers or accountants suddenly thought ‘I want to do advertising daddy.’
And that’s why it’s shit. Wil fucking Andersen.
Successful Adman: Work your ass off nights and weekends like I did and you’ll do well.
Millenial: Ermahgerd. See ya champ.
Peeps these days are not as interested in slaving away ON ADS with other cool stuff floating round. 15 years ago we didn’t have Facebook as competition, let alone Uber, Kickstarter or Spotify. Point being: you burn them, you lose them. Gotta inspire the same passion in different ways.
So the lesson is as much for the seniors:
Work your ass off to help juniors love the ad business and you’ll do well.