Tiffany Farrington, founder of the innovative Social Diary and PR industry stalwart, wrote a blog post recently on losing a job in PR.So many people I know want to work in PR - and anyone who works in the industry will tell you just how much hard work is involved. Here are some pointers from Tiff to ensure that once you are in the industry, you stay there...
(Tiffany is pictured here at the 2009 Social DAIRY Christmas party, dressed as a carton of Social Dairy milk. Of course! Tiff's parties, held each year for the media and associated industries, are LEGENDARY - hands down the best in the country!)
How to Lose a Job in PR
Everyone talks about how tricky it can be to get a job in PR and the various ways to get your foot in the door, but perhaps we should have just as much discussion on how to keep the job once you actually get it. So you've gone to Uni, studied PR, done some work experience, completed an internship, and scored a job - what do you do to ensure you don't lose it? As I've blogged before, there is NO crime in making a mistake - we are all human, and it's how you handle that mistake that proves your worth. Being shown the door is usually not due to mistakes, but rather deep-rooted character traits. I chatted with a group of Sydney's top PRs to find out exactly what the fireable offences were...
Lies & Cover-ups
Who could forget the pearler about the PR gal who doctored an email to a client and got caught? See my previous blog, PR F@#k Ups. Lies & cover ups of this kind are the very worst, so it's ALWAYS best to 'fess up rather than cover up.
One PR states "One of my Senior Account Managers was in effect useless, but constantly blamed me or the client for not getting results. After questioning her for months, sitting in meetings where I knew she was lying, we finally got an email saying our services were not going to be renewed - with the finger firmly pointing at her. When confronted she just looked at me blankly and said the client was a punish and she didn't want to work on it anyway - and so it was best the agency didn't have them on board anymore! She is hardly in a position to decide what's best for my agency. Needless to say...Sayonara."
Theft
For one top PR, a theft was accidentally stumbled upon after a media sendout of luxe grog was one case short. Two weeks later, a friend of the boss came in the office, saw the grog in question and said "Wow, you've got those, I went to a party recently and she had them too!" Apparently young...let's call her Shazza Sticky-Fingers had taken it upon herself to relieve the office of the case for a party she was having at home. And of course, they had taken delivery of the only batch of the product available in the whole country. All eyes then darted to young Shazza, who nervously pretended to receive a phone call and quickly left the room...only to return to hear the boss say, "Shazza, in my office. Now." And to make matters worse for herself? Her response to being fired was "Well I'm not happy here anyway". There is nothing more class-less that being ungracious in the face of the firing squad when you have been so spectacularly sprung. See ya Shaz!
Partying too hard
One PR friend says: "We flew a junior to Melbourne to work on a music gig and she decided to carry on all night long, ringing with a bollocks story the next morning about missing her flight. Pics immediately surfaced of her on Facebook as well as in Sydney Confidential of her partying hard, clearly off chops. BUSTED."
Another company tells of a 9am new business meeting the morning after a huge media launch. An employee, let's call her Sleepy Sheila, rocked up to the office at 8:50am in the same clothes from the day before, smelling like vom and begging for chewing gum. After frantically trying to get it together, the meeting commenced. The witness says: "Within 20 minutes, her eyes started dropping and her elbow slouched onto the table as she desperately tried to keep her head upright. Within another 10 minutes, Sleepy was officially snoozing. It took another 15 minutes for the team director to realise, and luckily at this point the client had failed to notice. One team member nudged Sleepy and another started coughing loudly but nothing worked. Eventually the client noticed and asked the director to wake the girl. Sleepy promptly found herself unemployed...and most likely returned to the woods to join the other 6 dwarves."
To read the rest of this scarily accurate piece, go here:
http://socialdiaryaustralia.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-lose-job-in-pr.html
And to follow Tiffany on Twitter, go here: http://twitter.com/tiffsocialdiary
Everyone talks about how tricky it can be to get a job in PR and the various ways to get your foot in the door, but perhaps we should have just as much discussion on how to keep the job once you actually get it. So you've gone to Uni, studied PR, done some work experience, completed an internship, and scored a job - what do you do to ensure you don't lose it? As I've blogged before, there is NO crime in making a mistake - we are all human, and it's how you handle that mistake that proves your worth. Being shown the door is usually not due to mistakes, but rather deep-rooted character traits. I chatted with a group of Sydney's top PRs to find out exactly what the fireable offences were...
Lies & Cover-ups
Who could forget the pearler about the PR gal who doctored an email to a client and got caught? See my previous blog, PR F@#k Ups. Lies & cover ups of this kind are the very worst, so it's ALWAYS best to 'fess up rather than cover up.
One PR states "One of my Senior Account Managers was in effect useless, but constantly blamed me or the client for not getting results. After questioning her for months, sitting in meetings where I knew she was lying, we finally got an email saying our services were not going to be renewed - with the finger firmly pointing at her. When confronted she just looked at me blankly and said the client was a punish and she didn't want to work on it anyway - and so it was best the agency didn't have them on board anymore! She is hardly in a position to decide what's best for my agency. Needless to say...Sayonara."
Theft
For one top PR, a theft was accidentally stumbled upon after a media sendout of luxe grog was one case short. Two weeks later, a friend of the boss came in the office, saw the grog in question and said "Wow, you've got those, I went to a party recently and she had them too!" Apparently young...let's call her Shazza Sticky-Fingers had taken it upon herself to relieve the office of the case for a party she was having at home. And of course, they had taken delivery of the only batch of the product available in the whole country. All eyes then darted to young Shazza, who nervously pretended to receive a phone call and quickly left the room...only to return to hear the boss say, "Shazza, in my office. Now." And to make matters worse for herself? Her response to being fired was "Well I'm not happy here anyway". There is nothing more class-less that being ungracious in the face of the firing squad when you have been so spectacularly sprung. See ya Shaz!
Partying too hard
One PR friend says: "We flew a junior to Melbourne to work on a music gig and she decided to carry on all night long, ringing with a bollocks story the next morning about missing her flight. Pics immediately surfaced of her on Facebook as well as in Sydney Confidential of her partying hard, clearly off chops. BUSTED."
Another company tells of a 9am new business meeting the morning after a huge media launch. An employee, let's call her Sleepy Sheila, rocked up to the office at 8:50am in the same clothes from the day before, smelling like vom and begging for chewing gum. After frantically trying to get it together, the meeting commenced. The witness says: "Within 20 minutes, her eyes started dropping and her elbow slouched onto the table as she desperately tried to keep her head upright. Within another 10 minutes, Sleepy was officially snoozing. It took another 15 minutes for the team director to realise, and luckily at this point the client had failed to notice. One team member nudged Sleepy and another started coughing loudly but nothing worked. Eventually the client noticed and asked the director to wake the girl. Sleepy promptly found herself unemployed...and most likely returned to the woods to join the other 6 dwarves."
To read the rest of this scarily accurate piece, go here:
http://socialdiaryaustralia.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-lose-job-in-pr.html
And to follow Tiffany on Twitter, go here: http://twitter.com/tiffsocialdiary
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading your post and read the comments. Really a nice post here!
ReplyDeleteknowledge closet
Well thanks so much, Jazzie! Good to have you here, and love having your feedback! Tiffany's guest blog post is such a brilliant one, whether or not you are in the industry!
ReplyDeleteLet me know what else you'd like to see on Josie's Juice and I will deliver... :) xx