Leaving on time
- Started
- Last post
- 44 Responses
- moldero0
in agency land overtime is paid by "job security."
"can you work this weekend, again? we just landed that account and we need you."
"no, im busy this weekend, its my daughters birthday, and my fathers funeral and I have to finally clean my house because I wasnt home for the past month because ive been working to finish that damn pitch."
"oookkaayy? but, when review time comes, well, you know. but dont worry, we promise we will hire you some help soon."fuck big ad agency's, Im glad i did my time, but i hope i never have to work in one again.
- monospaced0
I left work yesterday at 6pm, which is usually a little later than usual, but I cracked open the project and put in work between 9 and midnight. That's why I'm allowed to come and go as I please.
- Wow you really must have nothing better to do at home.qTime
- go fuck yourself, when you've been in the industry as long as I have and in my position, you wouldn't say thatmonospaced
- capn_ron0
I've decided to leave on time. The reason i chose this is because I bust my ass for 8 hours a day and there will always be work. I could technically work 24 hours a day 7 days a week if i was able to survive, so now I just leave on time knowing that I can bust my ass the next day.
- CygnusZero40
I dont work for free so they can go suck a dick. Gonna pay me salary for 8 hours, then thats all Im working.
- My salary and position expects me to put in extra time when necessary, including nights and weekends.monospaced
- mono, that is how i am. But i need to be clear on when it is needed. Or else they want it all the time.capn_ron
- Why is working a weekend necessary? Are you saving a life?qTime
- < thats what they act like sometimesmoldero
- Sometimes things have to get done last minute, especially with hard deadlines and late clientsmonospaced
- Plus, as senior management, I'm expected to put in more time to justify the salary.monospaced
- Why don't you just tell them it will be late?qTime
- And jeopardize an entire conference for thousands of global attendees? Yeah... right.monospaced
- bulletfactory0
I think there are good points here, but there is a difference in salary vs hourly.
Salary = paid according to set wage (based on a typical 40 hr work week, or whatever your company states is a normal work week). Pay is not necessarily affected by time; stay late if required, leave early if able.
Hourly = paid for every hour worked, overtime if over 8hrs in a day (or whatever labor laws dictate); no extra pay = no extra work.
- Its funny how people think being senior means you have to work over timeqTime
- It's not funny when you see the difference in pay.monospaced
- From my POV, I've left early a lot more than cranked out all-nighters. So I don't mind occasionally staying late because it balances.bulletfactory
- doesnotexist0
i've been through this at agencies
i like to believe that all these people that seem to enjoy staying late do so for the perverse pleasure of ruining everything else in their lives except work.
- I knew a traffic girl like this. She got divorced not so long ago.qTime
- desmo0
After working at a few agencies, work/life balance has become super important to me. Personally, I dont mind working a 12 hour day, so long as it means that the project will be a success and will be worth it in the end. I just find that project managers, CD's will abuse this constantly to the point where a lot of agencies become sweat shops.
But anyway, leaving early does not effect me anymore. As long as I have my shit done, I dont feel guilty leaving the office at a decent hour.
- monospaced0
Out of curiosity, what is your work situation, qTime? Are you in an agency full-time right now, and if so, what is your position? No need to answer, of course, but it would give some insight into your viewpoint.
- identity0
The way I see it, you have two choices.
1. Put in the 8 hour work day and go home to work on side-projects, side-business or hobbies. Ultimately, these things may grow to be something you do full-time and reap more financially than if you went the 30-40 year route.
2. Get in there and work hard. If it gets done in 8 hours, see if you can help a teammate - or better yet - scheme up ways to grow business for the place you work for. Do this enough and things will stick and you'll be seen as someone who builds value for the company, thus making you invaluable. This is particularly helpful when its time to negotiate salary (or depending where you work) a junior partner position.
Unfortunately, putting in 8 typical hours at a desk isn't going to get anyone very far.
- CALLES0
Rosa parks fought for leaving on time and so should we!
- DaveO0
I love this topic.
It's sometimes worn as a badge of honor that people stay late but in recent times i've noticed that it really depends on who you're working for, and what their personal situation is. My current boss used to live around the corner from the agency and so would always be in early and leaving late, so it felt like there was a really high bar set when it came to the amount of hours put in. He then got married, bought a house out in Brooklyn and almost overnight, relaxed about it all.
A lot of shoots I've done have run over the weekend, and if they're somewhere nice like LA or somewhere you'd want to go, I've not been too fussed about asking for the time back but last year I was trying to plan my wedding and there were lots of shoots coming in that I had to work over weekends and it really REALLY sucked. What sucked even more was the fact that we never got the time back for those days and there was no policy around it in order to negotiate.
I think it's a trait of younger, more eager workers to want to prove their worth by the amount of time they're spending at the office, and I think everyone has to go through that in order to feel like they're paying into the 10,000 hour rule account.
I've got side projects and freelance work on the go with my wife so would rather switch off at 6:30 and pick up again in the morning when I can think straight, and unless there's benjamins coming my way I'd really rather not work a weekend.
- totally. The book REWORK has a great few chapters on this. http://www.amazon.co…identity
- studderine0
I struggle with this topic because work is still measured by the number of hours spent. Efficiency isn't rewarded — bang your head against the wall so everyone knows you're "working".
- studderine0
Agency Time: Work and Time in Interactive Agencies
- i_monk0
My studio has a policy/agreement with the client: we work when they work. So when they pack it up at 5, so do we. If they take half a Friday off, so do we. It's very rare that one of us has to stay later than 5, but when that happens there's no real compensation for it (not that it could be expected).
I think that's pretty reasonable – I've too often heard (elsewhere) that if you aren't in the studio when the client's at their office, you're "disrespecting" them, so the inverse is only fair.
- stoplying0
I never want to be thought of as someone who can't/won't stay late to get work finished. When I need to stay, I do. And if I need to do something on a weekend, I do.
I notice sometimes people like to stay late at work to simply avoid going home. Maybe their home life sucks and they'd rather sit in their office pretending their "burning the candle at both ends".
- i_monk0
If you want me to stay late it's only fair you give me advance warning. I eventually left a place simply because I couldn't plan to do anything after work during the week even during the slow summer months, inevitably I'd have to cancel, and fall/winter meant 10+ hour days Monday to Friday.
- Peter0
How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 8:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?
Said a guy in this book/movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417…
- scarabin0
my favorite is how the girls here come in 1-2 hours late, then bitch and moan about how they always have to stay late to get their work done and how they're such heroes/victims for it.
just come in on time like everyone else!
- desmo0
Because there is this unwritten rule within agency land that if you dont work 80 hours per week, you are slacking. Its just how it goes.
- BaskerviIle0
When you're on your deathbead, will you regret leaving on time against your agency's wishes? No.
Are you contracted until a certain time of day? If so, and there's no more work to do...leave. No one wants to be the first our the door, but we can all change that mentality. As designers we pull enough late nights to not have to feel guilty about staying late.I once did a calculation that if you stayed 1 hour late every day, then you in essence negate your holiday allowance.
We work 227 days a year (52x5days a week, minus bank hols and 25 days annual leave).
So if you stay 1 hour late each day, that's 227 hours per year extra that you work.
There are 7.5 working hours in a day where I work.227 / 7.5 = 30 days
That's 30 extra days worked, in a year where you're only given 25 days of holiday. So you've cancelled out that time already.
Makes you think.
That said, being a designer is a privilege, and much more fun than a lot of boring desk jobs, so an hour late isn't that bad if you truly enjoy your job.
- Being a designer is a privilege? Hmm.qTime
- Soon they will tell you that having a job is a privilege.
But good points on the maths!qTime - Being a designer should be a privilege, better than being an accountant! And with unemployment the way it is, having a job is a privilegeBaskerviIle
- having a job is kind of a privilegeBaskerviIle
- No its a necessity. Next your be telling us that getting paid is a privilege.qTime
- Some accountants I know like their job. Plus they take home a lot more.qTime
- I feel privileged to be a designer.monospaced
- Exactly Mono. We're lucky our passion is also our jobBaskerviIle
- A pleasure, yes, but privelige? We provide a service just lika anyone else.CyBrainX
- Don't kid your self that this is the best job in the world and your lucky.qTime
- Just look at that guy who die of cancerqTime
- I'm sure accountants like their jobs and feel privileged too.monNom
- Baskerville, the swivel eyed elite want you to think that your 'lucky to have this job' so you slave away more hours. 'lucky'.qTime
- Ummm, you sound like a kid sometimes qTime. Trust me, doing what you truly love is a privelege.monospaced