Mutter and whine
Nov. 24th, 2003 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynThis is so childish, to mutter and whine about my job, but I'm in one of those moods... The main reason I have a job in this design/branding firm is that when Very Large Software Company gave our agency the role of doing all their packaging a number of years ago, they insisted on us staffing a number of jobs that you don't normally find in agencies, especially copy editors. Most of the contract and freelance writers we work with on the packaging for VLSC know about the editor roles, or if they don't, adapt pretty quickly because they've worked with editors before.
My very favorite client over there is coming out with a new version of their software next year, and so we've been developing the new look for the cartons, a set of brand guidelines, etc. And the client decided they wanted to hire someone who wasn't all entrenched within the VLSC mindset, but had a fresh voice and vision. Well, yeah, he does, but it's also a voice that insists on using language that can't be translated into other language markets (what they call localization), that comes across as weird and sometimes insulting, and that seems to require he take regular snipes at me and my role in his e-mails.
I actually called him last week, hoping to connect with him and try to move this sniping out of the game, by offering to help with the copy changes the client had requested, because it was all pretty standard stuff, and I could tell what direction my client was going. The writer, whose experience comes from advertising, and not packaging oriented writing, not only didn't answer the phone, but he e-mailed me back and blew me off by saying that his four-month-old doesn't like him talking on the phone and that he was sure he could make the changes by himself. Completely ignoring the fact that I'm trying to smooth out this bizarre situation -- he's balked throughout the months-long guidelines process, and now is balking over my changes to the carton copy, and makes snotty little asides in e-mail that aren't insulting enough to seem like insults to anyone else, but I know what he's doing. It's all so passive-aggressive that it's hard to see. I've had writers like this before, but never for such a high-level project, and never in a situation where I'm caught between the account manager here, whom I adore and is the only good person left in this office, and my client, whom I also think highly of.
I almost wouldn't care if he ignored the edits, if he'd stop with the sniping. But he does things that are serious no-nos legally by VLSC's standards, and I've been doing this long enough to know what plays on a box and what doesn't. Only every time he challenges me, the designers challenge me too, and then I end up with all of them completely undermining my work; the only person who seems to get that I have any stake in this project is the client, who thinks I'm very good at looking out for his interests. I don't know how long, though, that'll keep up. I wrote a long mail to the account manager and explained what it is that I do, that it's not just making sure that the "possessives and trademarks are all intact" as the writer denigrated me with one day, just to remind him and the designer that I'm not their freaking enemy. VLSC tasked us with looking out for a lot of things before it gets too far in the process, yet no one seems to believe I'm doing that half the time, especially with this writer kind of hovering around the edges being a dork.
He has a lot of trouble with common expressions -- that it's not "till your heart's content" but "to your heart's", and that it's not mallett and anvil in American English, but hammer and anvil (today, after he'd changed it back again, I just said "Google shows 13 hits for mallet and anvil, over 7,000 for hammer." Usually the writer has the last word, but I try to make it a collaborative process, to help them when it comes to things where they've heard an expression differently, etc. I mean, that's why I carry around this esoteric nonsense in my head -- so I can help writers come up with the best stuff they can, and they don't have to worry over the details. I'm all about the details, man.
I'm sure that his inexperience with an editor is partly to blame, but by blowing me off on the phone, he's not making any future experience potentially better. And despite what my friends think of me in regular life, in my work life, I'm usually highly praised by my clients because I always try to approach everything positively and I have a very light touch, and am pretty easygoing about editing. At my newspaper one day I called an advertister, which I didn't have to do, to tell them that their ad had printed very badly, and I thought we should make sure it wouldn't do that again. They became enraged, even though it was their fault because they'd hired a designer who didn't know how to make an ad for a web-printed newspaper and they started hurling epithets around and demanding compensation. By the time I got off the phone, they'd increased their ad size three-fold, and had extended their contract with me for three months. So I'm usually pretty good at the sweet-talking and the calming and the solution-oriented conversations.
But I'm damned if I can figure out how to work with someone who seems determined to snipe at me. I'm completely stumped and I've spent the day gnashing my teeth over his latest little salvo in e-mail about how the client had changed back all my edits -- when he'd merely changed two small words that more closely mirrored the writer's originals. I'm more used to full-bore loaded for bear types, who come at your like a freight train and want to blame you for every typo or problem or legal issue. I'm not used to well-liked writers who keep chipping away at my "authority" -- of which I have nearly zilch, but you'd think that 20 years in this field would at least give me a sheen of knowing what I'm doing.
My very favorite client over there is coming out with a new version of their software next year, and so we've been developing the new look for the cartons, a set of brand guidelines, etc. And the client decided they wanted to hire someone who wasn't all entrenched within the VLSC mindset, but had a fresh voice and vision. Well, yeah, he does, but it's also a voice that insists on using language that can't be translated into other language markets (what they call localization), that comes across as weird and sometimes insulting, and that seems to require he take regular snipes at me and my role in his e-mails.
I actually called him last week, hoping to connect with him and try to move this sniping out of the game, by offering to help with the copy changes the client had requested, because it was all pretty standard stuff, and I could tell what direction my client was going. The writer, whose experience comes from advertising, and not packaging oriented writing, not only didn't answer the phone, but he e-mailed me back and blew me off by saying that his four-month-old doesn't like him talking on the phone and that he was sure he could make the changes by himself. Completely ignoring the fact that I'm trying to smooth out this bizarre situation -- he's balked throughout the months-long guidelines process, and now is balking over my changes to the carton copy, and makes snotty little asides in e-mail that aren't insulting enough to seem like insults to anyone else, but I know what he's doing. It's all so passive-aggressive that it's hard to see. I've had writers like this before, but never for such a high-level project, and never in a situation where I'm caught between the account manager here, whom I adore and is the only good person left in this office, and my client, whom I also think highly of.
I almost wouldn't care if he ignored the edits, if he'd stop with the sniping. But he does things that are serious no-nos legally by VLSC's standards, and I've been doing this long enough to know what plays on a box and what doesn't. Only every time he challenges me, the designers challenge me too, and then I end up with all of them completely undermining my work; the only person who seems to get that I have any stake in this project is the client, who thinks I'm very good at looking out for his interests. I don't know how long, though, that'll keep up. I wrote a long mail to the account manager and explained what it is that I do, that it's not just making sure that the "possessives and trademarks are all intact" as the writer denigrated me with one day, just to remind him and the designer that I'm not their freaking enemy. VLSC tasked us with looking out for a lot of things before it gets too far in the process, yet no one seems to believe I'm doing that half the time, especially with this writer kind of hovering around the edges being a dork.
He has a lot of trouble with common expressions -- that it's not "till your heart's content" but "to your heart's", and that it's not mallett and anvil in American English, but hammer and anvil (today, after he'd changed it back again, I just said "Google shows 13 hits for mallet and anvil, over 7,000 for hammer." Usually the writer has the last word, but I try to make it a collaborative process, to help them when it comes to things where they've heard an expression differently, etc. I mean, that's why I carry around this esoteric nonsense in my head -- so I can help writers come up with the best stuff they can, and they don't have to worry over the details. I'm all about the details, man.
I'm sure that his inexperience with an editor is partly to blame, but by blowing me off on the phone, he's not making any future experience potentially better. And despite what my friends think of me in regular life, in my work life, I'm usually highly praised by my clients because I always try to approach everything positively and I have a very light touch, and am pretty easygoing about editing. At my newspaper one day I called an advertister, which I didn't have to do, to tell them that their ad had printed very badly, and I thought we should make sure it wouldn't do that again. They became enraged, even though it was their fault because they'd hired a designer who didn't know how to make an ad for a web-printed newspaper and they started hurling epithets around and demanding compensation. By the time I got off the phone, they'd increased their ad size three-fold, and had extended their contract with me for three months. So I'm usually pretty good at the sweet-talking and the calming and the solution-oriented conversations.
But I'm damned if I can figure out how to work with someone who seems determined to snipe at me. I'm completely stumped and I've spent the day gnashing my teeth over his latest little salvo in e-mail about how the client had changed back all my edits -- when he'd merely changed two small words that more closely mirrored the writer's originals. I'm more used to full-bore loaded for bear types, who come at your like a freight train and want to blame you for every typo or problem or legal issue. I'm not used to well-liked writers who keep chipping away at my "authority" -- of which I have nearly zilch, but you'd think that 20 years in this field would at least give me a sheen of knowing what I'm doing.
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-24 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-24 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-24 03:35 pm (UTC)Does he *ever* answer his phone? If he does, I'd probaby try calling him again, but instead of leaving a message if I got his machine, I'd hang up and try back later. I don't know how this can be sorted out via email, because we all know how many problems crop up just with email alone, let alone trying to fix a situation.
I hope things get worked out, but wow, what an asshat. I'm sorry you're stuck dealing with him!
no subject
Date: 2003-11-24 04:55 pm (UTC)Email is so bad for this kind of situation. Is he ever in the office? Maybe you can talk to your manager, or someone else in authority whom you trust and set up a face to face meeting. Be very well prepared with evidence and so forth, and see what comes out of that meeting.
That's the best I have to offer, except lots of support and hugs.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-24 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-24 07:07 pm (UTC)And gee, 4 months seems an awfully short time to become so baby-whipped.
I hope you find a way to overcome this schmuck.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-25 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-25 10:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-25 10:10 am (UTC)(Though I doubt he's all that sweet, really; your account manager just hasn't seen his less patient, more snippy side...)
no subject
Date: 2003-11-25 10:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-25 11:08 am (UTC)Hey, looking forward to meet you at