Cult of overwork has become a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’
(l-r) Ian Ellito, Dave McCaughan, Mike Wilson, Ian Perrin
Havas Media CEO Mike Wilson warned there is a culture that celebrates overwork in the advertising and media industry, in which long-hours have become the norm in a “self-fulfilling prophecy”.
“Habit is a problem. Things are done a certain way because that’s how they’ve always been or that’s how people in charge were trained. ‘I went through it, so you should’ seems a difficult impulse to resist.”
Wilson was joined by agency heads Ian Perrin of ZenithOptimedia and McCann Worldgroup’s Hong Kong MD Dave McCaughan at the Mumbrella360 conference to discuss the “cult of overwork” in the marketing industry.
I work 100 hours in the media industry! But if you took out all the long lunches, trips to the pub, ciggie breaks and dicking around on Facebook I only do 2 hours of actual work.
Quote from Mr McCaughan “He said: “The dynamics are the same everywhere. Work is getting more difficult because we’re on a 24-hour linker. You can’t force people to switch off their phones or their email or blogs – I wish we could. You can’t kick people out.”
Mr McCaughan should review the example of Volkswagen in Germany who have done just this. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16314901
“Volkswagen has agreed to stop its Blackberry servers sending emails to some of its employees when they are off-shift.” it goes on to say “Under the arrangement servers stop routing emails 30 minutes after the end of employees’ shifts, and then start again 30 minutes before they return to work.”
Agencies need to stop under cutting on cost to win business. Client pressure is a big contributor to this problem.
**Stop forcing agencies to work for free**
Limits NEED to be put on what agencies can do at no cost.
The industry must regulate this.
Pitching for projects has become a joke.
What other industries work for free? Outlaw this and the knock on effect will be significant.
‘Oh I wish something could be done about it’
Bullshit. This is the face you show the world, we’re a good company with a decent work life balance. Like every other company in this industry I bet you hang over people’s shoulders well into the night, book meetings at 5:30 / 6:30 even 7:30 at night and then expect to see something first thing the next morning and treat peoples weekends like they’re optional, not compulsory.
I don’t know you personally but I know this industry far too well. You wish you could do something but you never will.
A shame people don’t take action against employers, there is a law there and this industry is not immune to it.
Good to see a CEO recognise and publicly talk about the problem, however it’s another thing to actually do anything about it…will keep an eye out for Havas to see I guess..
Interesting article link @I wonder, perfectly summarises the current issue that “staff’s work and home lives are becoming blurred”
In a nation with growing unemployment, its something to think about. Young workers are not the only ones who can’t really choose whether they will or won’t work up to 20 hours unpaid a week, and answer their emails/work calls in their own time.
Perhaps its time to legislate in this area.