WARNING: If you hate bitching and moaning, then you may want to stop reading this post now. There, you've been warned. Have a nice day.
I basically need to vent about something that happened yesterday, and I figured, hey, this is my space why not do it here? So that's exactly what I'm doing. I realize there are more important things in this world than work, but it's the center of mine right now and it's annoying the crap out of me. What else is new, right?
Yesterday I received a mean email from one of our sales guys in response to my decision to cut a feature in one of our big online editorial packages. Keep in mind that he sent this to the entire sales staff and conveniently took my boss and coworker off the list:
"I earn my living by selling fashion advertising. Exactly how do you think that I feel about your decision to cut the fashion information from one of the most successful promotions we've done in years? Is there any information that you can pass along to me about this that I can use?"
Here are a few points I'd like to make:
1) This is an EDITORIAL package. There are no advertisers paying for this and I am not obligated to include a fashion designer just because they advertise with us. Yes, in the world of publishing sometimes the lines are a little blurry, but it is not my job to do your job. Again, this is an editorial package so stop calling it a promotion.
2) Editors cut editorial all the time for whatever reason. Were there things I wanted to include? Of course! I had an entire plan outlined for this package from the beginning, but because of lack of info, time and resources I had to let go of a few things. We already had a fashion feature, so I decided to cut the second one because it wasn't as important as the main one. When you're the sole person in charge of the editorial schedule and content for an entire website of a national magazine you have to sacrifice a few things. I am my own worst critic and I will always be the first one to tell you what I did wrong or what I need to improve. So stop criticizing other people's work and do your own, asshole.
3) It is not my job to tell you how to do your job. This editorial package was only sent to the sales team as a model of what they could possibly provide to potential advertisers. They didn't even know we were running this on the site for the past three weeks until that email was sent. Why? Because they never look at our site. How is it possible for our sales team to actually sell the site if they don't know what's on it? I have no idea. The bottom line is that advertisers only care about numbers. Mentioning a designer in an article is not what's going to make them buy advertising--why should they if we're already mentioning them for free? It's the numbers that are going to push them to hand over the money. This package was something we'd never done before and by our standards it was a success. We increased traffic through this partnership and set up a great example of what can be done in the future. For a first run, I think we did a pretty good job. Can we improve it? Yes, we can, and when the opportunity presents itself again, we will produce something better.
Not knowing how to respond to the man's email, I forwarded it to my boss who then said she'd take care of it. What really irks me about this whole situation is that the next time an opportunity to do what we did comes up, I'm pretty sure my boss is going to be on top of me the entire time, like I'm some college intern who doesn't now what she's doing. I'm sorry, but when she was in charge of maintaining the site, she didn't have nearly as much work as there is now and she never produced as much content. Fine, if everyone else thinks they can do a better a job, then just fire me and do it yourself. Better yet, just hire an intern--they cost less.
I basically need to vent about something that happened yesterday, and I figured, hey, this is my space why not do it here? So that's exactly what I'm doing. I realize there are more important things in this world than work, but it's the center of mine right now and it's annoying the crap out of me. What else is new, right?
Yesterday I received a mean email from one of our sales guys in response to my decision to cut a feature in one of our big online editorial packages. Keep in mind that he sent this to the entire sales staff and conveniently took my boss and coworker off the list:
"I earn my living by selling fashion advertising. Exactly how do you think that I feel about your decision to cut the fashion information from one of the most successful promotions we've done in years? Is there any information that you can pass along to me about this that I can use?"
Here are a few points I'd like to make:
1) This is an EDITORIAL package. There are no advertisers paying for this and I am not obligated to include a fashion designer just because they advertise with us. Yes, in the world of publishing sometimes the lines are a little blurry, but it is not my job to do your job. Again, this is an editorial package so stop calling it a promotion.
2) Editors cut editorial all the time for whatever reason. Were there things I wanted to include? Of course! I had an entire plan outlined for this package from the beginning, but because of lack of info, time and resources I had to let go of a few things. We already had a fashion feature, so I decided to cut the second one because it wasn't as important as the main one. When you're the sole person in charge of the editorial schedule and content for an entire website of a national magazine you have to sacrifice a few things. I am my own worst critic and I will always be the first one to tell you what I did wrong or what I need to improve. So stop criticizing other people's work and do your own, asshole.
3) It is not my job to tell you how to do your job. This editorial package was only sent to the sales team as a model of what they could possibly provide to potential advertisers. They didn't even know we were running this on the site for the past three weeks until that email was sent. Why? Because they never look at our site. How is it possible for our sales team to actually sell the site if they don't know what's on it? I have no idea. The bottom line is that advertisers only care about numbers. Mentioning a designer in an article is not what's going to make them buy advertising--why should they if we're already mentioning them for free? It's the numbers that are going to push them to hand over the money. This package was something we'd never done before and by our standards it was a success. We increased traffic through this partnership and set up a great example of what can be done in the future. For a first run, I think we did a pretty good job. Can we improve it? Yes, we can, and when the opportunity presents itself again, we will produce something better.
Not knowing how to respond to the man's email, I forwarded it to my boss who then said she'd take care of it. What really irks me about this whole situation is that the next time an opportunity to do what we did comes up, I'm pretty sure my boss is going to be on top of me the entire time, like I'm some college intern who doesn't now what she's doing. I'm sorry, but when she was in charge of maintaining the site, she didn't have nearly as much work as there is now and she never produced as much content. Fine, if everyone else thinks they can do a better a job, then just fire me and do it yourself. Better yet, just hire an intern--they cost less.
I suppose sales guy felt bad for having pissed off my boss and coworker (but not me), so he sent them an email this morning telling them how smart they were because a video he saw said that people with their "background" are smarter--something about the proof being in their DNA. He proceeded to tell them they were smarter than everyone else (probably meant me) and that they were princesses. Yeah, I have no words for that display of idiocy.
So, if I were one to draw conclusions, this man is basically saying that I don't know how to do my job and I'm stupid because of my inferior "background." Hmmmm, you'd think I'd be used to this by now considering one of my college journalism professors basically said I'd have no future as a journalist and the editors at my first job didn't have enough confidence in me to make me a staff writer or copy editor. Yes, there was a little bitterness in that statement even after all these years, but the truth is I should be thanking them. The college professor's comments only made me work that much harder and forced me to find an area of journalism I liked. The editors who didn't give me those promotions actually pointed me in a different direction that has proven to be a much better fit for me. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that although a particular situation may seem horrible at the time, there's also something positive that can come out of it--and that's what really matters.
What exactly is the positive to this latest work drama? I'm not exactly sure yet, but I do know that with time it will be clear and I will be thankful.
OK, venting session done. We can return to our regularly scheduled program.
So, if I were one to draw conclusions, this man is basically saying that I don't know how to do my job and I'm stupid because of my inferior "background." Hmmmm, you'd think I'd be used to this by now considering one of my college journalism professors basically said I'd have no future as a journalist and the editors at my first job didn't have enough confidence in me to make me a staff writer or copy editor. Yes, there was a little bitterness in that statement even after all these years, but the truth is I should be thanking them. The college professor's comments only made me work that much harder and forced me to find an area of journalism I liked. The editors who didn't give me those promotions actually pointed me in a different direction that has proven to be a much better fit for me. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that although a particular situation may seem horrible at the time, there's also something positive that can come out of it--and that's what really matters.
What exactly is the positive to this latest work drama? I'm not exactly sure yet, but I do know that with time it will be clear and I will be thankful.
OK, venting session done. We can return to our regularly scheduled program.
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