For Agency Managers

This project seems to be getting some talk -- not all of it good.

I had one person say to me (not unkindly), "Well you better make sure you offer solutions." I have also heard people ask "Why would you study that?"

So for all you managers out there, this is for you.

Karl Marx once wrote....wait, did I lose you there? Did you just roll your eyes? Why? Do you assume that I have one way of looking at the world and whatever I might have to say would be blinded by this?

My dissertation does rely on Marx. Why? Because he was the first to look at the work/non-work divide as more than just "the way it is." He said that the length of the working day is a political struggle, not just hours on a clock. So yes, I do look at Marx, his ideas about time, money, technology.

And Schumpeter said....wait, did I lose you? Why? Schumpter's notion of creative desctruction doesn't mean I think the world should continously be insecure for everyone. Creative destruction means that organizations must reinvent themselves -- repeatedly.

My dissertation relies on this view too, that organizations that do not innovate are destined to die.

The findings from this study will inform workers in interactive agencies about the structures that “enable or constrain” their choices about work. This study will also inform interactive agency employers about how to structure their employees’ working experience to minimize “role conflict” between home and work, and to increase worker engagement and fulfillment. This study will also contribute to the sociological field of work and labour by providing an analysis of the political struggle within this industry over issues relating to working time, technology use, and domestic labour.

Stay tuned for solutions -- they will come.

"Exceptional" high-tech workers?

Some of you may recall the firestorm that "EA Spouse" touched off when she wrote about her husband and his working time spent at Electronic Arts. For those of you who missed it, here's a snip:

If I could get EA CEO Larry Probst on the phone, there are a few things I would ask him. "What's your salary?" would be merely a point of curiosity. The main thing I want to know is, Larry: you do realize what you're doing to your people, right? And you do realize that they ARE people, with physical limits, emotional lives, and families, right? Voices and talents and senses of humor and all that?

The blog had over 2,000 comments from game industry workers, their partners, and even software workers in other sectors. The blog is widely credited for fanning the flames of a class action lawsuit against EA for unpaid overtime.

And all the while, "high technology" workers are often deemed "exceptional" by labour codes. California and the U.S. federal laws support "special" categories of high-tech workers that are exempt from overtime laws. B.C. started with this code, allowing for workers in companies with at least 50% "professional technology" workers to work unpaid overtime.

That means that even receptionists in a Vancouver agency could work up to 80-hour weeks without being paid overtime. Legally.

My question is: What is so exceptional about high-tech workers? Why is exceptional labour law required for this class of worker? Do they save lives? Why the need for "special" circumstance?

What is 45 minutes worth to you?

Do you think you spend more time at work than with your family?

If you said yes, the evidence says you're right. Statistics Canada reported today that between 1985 and 2005, the average Canadian has added more than 5 40-hour work weeks to their year.

Who loses when people work that much? Families.

Stats Can reports that in 1986, the average Canadian spent 250 minutes per day with family. By 2005, that fell to 205 minutes. This was true for both men and women, though women spent 39 fewer minutes, and men spent 45 fewer.

The Globe and Mail has picked up on this story and its forums are going wild.

This isn't news, however. Juliet Schor reported this trend back in 1991 with her book "The Overworked American". And way back in 1967, can you believe they were talking about the leisure "problem"?

So the truth is, we're overworked. We spend far more time with our co-workers than with our families. What does that precious 45 minutes do to our lives? Since 1986, what has changed?

What is 45 minutes to you?
* is it a story at bed time?
* is it dinner at the table with your partner?
* is it time to smooth over an argument?
* is it a chance to help choose next semester's course with a teenager?
* is it extras time for pillow talk?

Billable Hours Are So Last Century

Billable hours force employees to abide by a strict time code, have their time managed by a central authority, be told what is the "most efficient" method of doing something, and have their work broken down into smaller, less discretionary tasks.

Interactive agencies seem to want creative employees be accountable, but at the same time, to control them. This is a mixture of two theories of management.

1. "Responsible Autonomy" Model of Management
Managers trust their employees to be a good judge of what is important and what must be done in a timely manner. The benefits of responsible autonomy are that employees tap their own creativity to come up with meaningful and useful solutions to everyday work problems. They self-organize and complete tasks as they see fit. The drawback of responsible autonomy is that managers lose day-to-day control over work and even working time.


2. "Taylorism" or "Scientific Management"
Managers control every element of employees' work time. They break down complex tasks into their constitutive parts, and only allow employees to complete each individual part, with little discretion. The benefit of scientific management is that workers can be trained to be highly efficient and waste little time. However, workers' creativity is never utilized.

The Agency Model "Responsible Taylorism"?
Billable hours have made agencies embraced responsible autonomy, on the one hand, and reject it on the other hand.
Billable hours is the heart of the problem because each hour an employee works needs to be tracked in detail. This is the heart of Taylorism. But interactive agencies require employees to be responsible for their own work, to bring their creativity to bear on day-to-day problems, and in general, be held accountable for an account's success.

Billable hours force employees to abide by a strict time code, have their time managed by a central authority, be told what is the "most efficient" method of doing something, and have their work broken down into smaller, less discretionary tasks.
The net result is that the employee is required to have all of the responsibility of the model, but none of the autonomy. The company/employee bargain is supposed to be autonomy at work in exchange for responsibility for results. This exchange has broken down.
This disconnect is manifest in several ways:

• Resistance to times of work: employees reject the time-keeping aspect of management by flouting hours of work, complaining about firmly established hours of work, calling in sick, and taking personal time. Overtime is deeply resented and perceived to be pervasive. 


• Lack of accountability: employees who feel the bargain of "responsibility for autonomy" is not being honoured are likely to reject responsibility. This will result in a loss of forward thinking, rejecting ownership of results, failure to be proactive on accounts, and an increased need for leadership to guide and support.

• Alienation: employees who are denied the ability to drive the creative process are alienated from their own work. They are unhappy with the product of their work, they lack pride in their work and fulfillment. Alienation leads to poor work execution, depression, company conflict, and lack of employee engagement.

• Negative Word-of-Mouth: complaints are like cockroaches: for every one you see, there are hundred more that you don't. If complaints are not voiced internally, they will be voiced externally.

Post-Agency Syndrome?

I have just finished working at an interactive agency. And boy am I tired!

Is this post-agency syndrome?
* inability to get out of bed
* constant sneezing
* falling asleep in yoga class
* eating like E.T.

Hopefully this will fade