Agency Agony Uncle - Problem page
Uncle Carl’s questionable moral position has often allowed him to offer the sound business advice that he does. But, when times are tight, which side of the ethical edge should you cling to? Our Agency Agony Uncle offers some stern advice.
Dear Uncle Carl,
The agency I work for has been appointed by a client that I consider to be morally bankrupt. It’s not an account that I’ll feel comfortable working on, but I’m just a humble creative, and can’t afford to upset my pay masters. Should an agency and its staff take the moral high ground and turn down businesses with questionable ethics – regardless of how much they’re paying. Or should we just get on with it?
Oh jeez a creative with a conscience, what next, account managers with opinions? I suppose I should say good for you, my little moralistic mac-monkey, for having some principles. I’m not sure who you think you are to be passing judgment on the state of other people’s moral funding positions, bankrupt or otherwise. It’s this simple; your ‘paymasters’ obviously have no trouble with the morality or financiality (made up word) of your newest client, so you simply have to make your boss aware that you would be uncomfortable working on the account. But then you may have to look at the ethics of every account you work on and you may find issues of many kinds that could upset your finely balanced moral position.
Issues ranging from working for large retail brands that are killing local retail and small towns while bullying their suppliers, big brands that utilise child labour in sweat shops, food and drink retailers who fix prices from third world countries, financial institutions selling mortgages to people who cannot afford them, medical businesses experimenting on animals and selling over-priced drugs to people who need them most, the list could go on. As you sit there in your little ivory tower you might find there are very few clients you can work on unless you turn a blind eye.
Dear Uncle Carl,
We’ve just lost a huge account to London and the bosses are going to have to make redundancies. Having worked on that business solidly for years, I’m likely to get the boot. But the London agency that has won the account is obligated to take me on through TUPE. Do I move a couple of hundred miles along with the account to an agency that might not even really want me there, but at least guarantees me employment. Or do I stay where my family and I are settled and risk being out of a job soon?
I have said before that I think TUPE is sTUPEd… stupid… you know what I mean. If you were in, say, manufacturing and you were part of some ‘systemised’ process and your employer lost an account, then I can see how you can take your skills to the new manufacturer and carry on. But in ‘our game’ and in your situation, the client has moved because they want new ideas, better servicing, perhaps simply a London postcode on their agency letterhead or they aspire to lunch in Charlotte Street? Whatever their reasons, they have pretty much said ‘we don’t want you’.
So back to you, you may think you are likely to get the boot but you don’t know for certain. You worked on the account for many years so you must be good at what you do and you will be expensive to get rid of!
You are right to think of your family; is a risky move to somewhere you are not really wanted really worth the upheaval and potential loss of your partners’ job, or schools for your kids, or your own family support network, your own contacts within the agency world?
Also, don’t kid yourself, the village of London is not paved with gold and endless jobs, times are tough there too and the cost of living there is even more expensive. Look, there are no ‘guarantees of employment’ anywhere, under any circumstance, at any time – unless you are a civil servant of course. If I were you, I would do my job, believe in my own abilities and see what happens at your agency. If the worst happens, trust me you are not alone and there are jobs out there for people like you who have shown skill, commitment and loyalty.
Dear Uncle Carl,
We are close to completing an MBO – a deal that has been in the pipeline for over a year now. However, the trade press have been sniffing about it. And if they cover the deal, before the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed, I fear that the value – or even the deal itself – could be affected. Is there anything I can do?
Oooh I do like an MBO. A year in the making though? Fook me, I’m not surprised it’s ‘leaked’! I have to say my deal-making chum, that if it’s a year old and you haven’t crossed the ‘t’ and dotted the ‘i’s and now we have hit a downturn, then it either isn’t going to happen at all or, if it does, someone will be taking a spanking!
And I have a feeling it will be the MBO team who are possibly buying a business on a multiple of past trading profits in a declining market. As for keeping it under wraps, I think you have to admit it’s ‘out there’ and it’s a matter of time before some lazy journo prints a half-assed story, so just ensure the people who matter – staff, clients and even suppliers – are kept in the loop as much as legally possible. When it does hit the press then you can always deny it like Poulters did with their sale… and their troubles…and their imminent closure… On second thoughts, just be ‘unavailable for comment’, less said sooner mended as mummy Hopkins always says. But allow your old Uncle Carl to make a prediction – your deal…it will never happen.
Dear Uncle Carl,
I am in the process of starting my own business. However, it is starting to take up a lot more of my time... So much so that it is starting to encroach on my current job as an account director at a busy agency. I can’t really afford to leave that job until my new business is underway, but I feel that it would benefit my business – and probably my employer’s business too, given my mind isn’t fully on the job.
Your boss is getting up every day to run the business that pays you. They are probably struggling to make ends meet and have big decisions to make, decisions that costs people’s jobs and livelihoods and all the time you are fiddling about in your back bedroom trying to get your own enterprise off the ground? I’m glad you have started to have at least a pang of guilt.
These days, I spend a lot of my time talking to groups about enterprise and encouraging them to follow their own dreams and goals.
So, with my enterprise, head on I would say to you, strap a pair of balls on and commit to your new venture, for it to succeed it will probably need your full attention and to spread your focus across two areas is probably doing neither of them the justice they deserve nor will you be exploiting the full impact of your talents on either venture.
Your news to try your own thing may be welcomed by your boss in these downsizing times, perhaps there is even a half way house, you get off his pay roll and he brings you back as a part-time consultant/freelancer which will give you some income and the freedom to explore the new venture. I applaud your desire to start something new for yourself and I wish you luck but put yourself in your boss’s shoes - how would you want him to act?
Are you troubled? Don’t be. send all your questions for the drum’s agony uncle to dear.carl@carnyx.com Or, If you wish to meet with carl to talk about your business, then simply email him on ch@kloog.ch