I honestly don’t know if this is an artworker thing, or a client services thing, or a me thing, or even a thing. For the majority of my working life in agencies (never been an issue at any in-house places I’ve worked) there seems to be a suspicion that I am not working to my full capacity. Perhaps I exude indolence. Whenever you read a job spec for an artworker, the word ‘calm’ will definitely crop up. So what happens when you are, indeed, very much, Commander Calm? Two and two are put together to make five. I could give you hundreds of instances of an account exec telling me “I can find lots of jobs for you to do” as if I were a fidgety eight year-old at risk of setting fire to the bedroom carpet out of sheer boredom. Do you doubt your studio manager? Are they not Victorian enough for you? Should I be flagellated for daring to lift my head away from the screen for a moment?
A while ago I was on a booking where the brief I was given was incomplete, but I was able to piece together the rest of the job with a little digging around on the server, when someone else in the office who I was not working for suggested I pick up various jobs for them until my main point of contact returned from their meeting, because “I have loads of bits and pieces you can do while you’re waiting for clarification”. Yes, I am nought but a tool.
I’m sure there are other non-artwork people who may have experienced something similar – client services colleagues ‘with a creative flair’ are always looking to vent their frustrations on anyone with a creative cloud licence. The less of an opinion they have to offer the better. Despite having someone booked to do the job, I once witnessed a project manager attempting to create a series of logos for a presentation themselves. Tragically, the CC licence on their work laptop had long expired. What could have been…
Trust in the traffic manager. Do not doubt the resource team, the studio manager. It is safe to assume that someone you work with is suitably busy, regardless of whether they are working on your job or someone else’s.
you are not special 