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| My Word is a new editorial feature that gives ADCC members the opportunity to have their say regarding just about anything! In the upcoming months we'll be featuring the opinions, rants and musings of our members – but it doesn't end there. You'll also have an opportunity to comment on these editorials and we'll be posting the most provocative feedback... my word! |
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By Brian Flay
Senior Copywriter at The Brainstorm Group
Article Date: 11/2/2007
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Eight hours.
Hard to believe but this took eight hours to write.
I know what you’re thinking. If an infinite number of monkeys working at an infinite number of typewriters for an infinite amount of time could produce the complete works of William Shakespeare, well, then surely a couple of hung-over chimps could have blown this off in an afternoon.
Maybe. But put those chimps in an open concept office and they’ll be back reaching for the bottle in no time.
Hi, I’m Brian and I’m a free range creative.
As I write this, an account executive and an art director are having a fascinating, in-depth conversation about the minutiae of brand standards and two designers are coming up with taglines that are ‘off strategy’ to say the least.
But it hasn’t always been like this. Back in the dying days of morning martinis and strippers in the boardroom, I was an intern with a rather posh office that included a 10ft. desk and a couch. As a junior, my office shrank considerably but still had the requisite 4 walls and a door. My intermediate days? A cubicle. But a cubicle designed for one person strategically placed in a quiet corner of the office.
Now that I’ve paid my dues, did my time and collected the requisite two full closets of swag white t-shirts? I’m out there on display. A living, breathing, coffee-swilling conversation piece.
Which, really, was probably the point in the first place. Productivity be damned. Clients can’t see productivity. They want to see a fun, funky workplace filled with fun, funky people. There’s nothing exciting about individuals or teams working diligently – and free from interruption - behind closed doors.
So why does the open concept horrify me more than hearing the words ‘I know how long it REALLY takes’ from a client who used to work agency side?
To me, coming up with a great idea is like slipping into a really good dream. You toss, you turn, and then – WHAM – all your hair has grown back, Jennifer Love Hewitt is sorting your mail and you’re zipping through the clouds on a shiny rocket bike. Well, something like that. Now imagine if every time you started dreaming, your significant other poked you or shook you or asked you one more time if that ad will be ready for Friday. It wouldn’t take long before you were up, stomping around and grumbling profanities into your coffee.
Don’t get me wrong.
There are definitely things to love about the open concept office space. It creates a sense of camaraderie. It helps build a stronger team dynamic. And, since it’s much more entertaining to work on someone else’s projects, a lot of great ideas get floated around.
Plus, there’s always someone willing to talk about advertising, celebrity scandals or, my favourite, Raycroft’s weak glove hand. If I need a distraction, I can always try to guess the TV theme song a certain art director has been whistling constantly for the past two hours. And the melodrama! I’ll never forget the time I was privy to an over-the-phone screaming match between an art director and his girlfriend because – and I think this might be a first – he had more Facebook friends than she did. Good times indeed.
Not that I’m completely innocent in all this either. Far from it actually. I can be loud. I can instigate. And I can always be counted on to take a joke to its lowest possible level. The problem is, as a writer, I can’t just throw on headphones when I have a last minute radio script come up. Well, I guess I could but everyone would end up sounding strangely like Tom Waits. There are times when you need peace and quiet. And there are times when you find yourself working in boardrooms or stairwells or, on one rather sad occasion, sitting on a bucket typing away in the janitor’s closet.
But things are looking up.
Our agency is moving to a new space next month and I think we may have stumbled upon the perfect solution. It’s still going to be open concept but there will be a writers’ room. This quiet oasis will have it all - walls, a door and, if they haven’t changed the plans on me, account service booby traps each more deadly than the last. I’ve talked with the other writers and we have great plans to stock it with books, maybe get a nice couch, perhaps some classical…hey, what’s that? Did someone just start talking about Leafs?
F%^*(@ RAYCROFT!!!
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