Prawn sandwiches for all
It seems the debate ignited by Mat Baxter last week over long working hours has led to an improvement in working conditions at his agency, UM.
Of the 81 comments so far on the story, one from ‘Social Commentator’ got to him more than most when they said: “Lets face it, the lifeblood of your company are the Gen Y’s, slaving away whilst you’re schmoozing with big wigs about town eating prawn sandwiches and sipping on champagne, ‘adding value’ to the relationship. Give me a break.”
So on Friday afternoon Baxter ordered in prawn sandwiches and champagne for the more than 200 staff at the agency, before announcing to a bemused audience at the B&T Awards that evening when picking up an award: “Prawn Sandwiches for all”.
The gesture was certainly appreciated by strategy director Melissa Mullins, who tweeted a snap of herself munching on the goodies.
UM has prawn sandwiches. Social Commentator has egg on face.
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Top work all ’round… Tim gets lots of people commenting on Mumbrella, and Mr Baxter shows himself to be a leader of great humour and common sense!
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Bloody brilliant response!
nice one Mr.Baxter
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It seems the debate is ignited because it’s a worthy topic 😉
I agree wholeheartedly that hard work gives you opportunity. But too often head counts aren’t replaced, at the expense of someone else’s time.
And although we love the it, other industries have much better pay at an entry level and hard working employees are rewarded more fairly for their time.
These two are facts that should not be ignored.
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Love it. Great response from Mat.
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Hey Matt, any vacancies? I’m only good for 4 hours a day but I do like prawns!
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I would assume the workers had to stay back and make up for their down time.
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Do prawn sandwiches equate to an improvement in working conditions?
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Love a good reactive response.
Now to get back in the IGN Games Room and slave away over an Xbox One for our lifeblood. Hold the champagne.
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I once had a boss with a sign on the wall near his desk “hard work never hurt anyone” but was at a loss as to how he would know.
I think the sweatshop mentality is alive and well, so really we all need to think of better management styles than that
I’m waiting for the prawns to go off and the bubbly to go flat…
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What a babe!
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Nicely done Mat, a very good recovery
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Beau, hiring?
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Just about the only time I got such a lunch was on a TVC shoot which finished early.
The Agency called and said they were bringing the Client after lunch. Our Director said “we’re finished”.
OMG! Can’t be finished! CLIENT COMING!!! Oh! Oh! Oh!.
We agreed to shoot it all again in the afternoon, provided there was a substantial lunch forthcoming.
Lobbies, lobbie tails, champers, sweeties, danish with the coffee… yum.
Client was most impressed, what a great crew!!!
I later learnt there was a name for pretending to shoot with no film in the camera.
Then, there was the Bacardi campaign… aaaahhh. Samples. That’s a story for another day.
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Prawn sandwiches= your pay rise
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‘will work for food’
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@Encyclic! – watch this space!
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Shall do.
Am Gamer.
Can Write.
Brought to you by Mountain Dew and Doritos.
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As a client my observations are quite different. Long hours in the advertiisng industry are not necessarily related to task load or results. Marketing people, both in the client ofice and in the agency offices are notorious time wasters. I cannot believe the amount of time wasted with unneccesary meetings and superfluous discussion within such meetings. If they were just a bit better organised, slightly more disciplined and a lot more focussed, advertising people could achieve just as much output within an 8 hour day. No sympathy, and certainly no prawn sandwiches, from me.
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@Punter X, that is a very valid point. You only have to look at the typical media agency preso to see how much time is wasted on guff that almost nobody is interested in seeing. So much ‘evidence of industry’. Rarely is there a proper strategy, idea or any real point, just regurgitations of bloody data that send everyone to sleep. I’m sure this is only one part of the problem, though its a simple, but big part of it.
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