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For all you employers out there
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[Rich Rubasch] “Having to cut all day then head home to cut some more is not a great creative outlet.”
I appreciate your concern, especially after seeing that you provide good pay AND benefits. The latter in particular is too rare, so good on ya.
I think the creative outlet comes if they’re cutting other stuff. Maybe narrative work on a script they wrote, or a documentary about a passionate subject. That’s the stuff they’ll enter in film festivals.
Of if that’s the kind of stuff you’re having them do on a daily basis, maybe they’re cutting industrials on the side. Who knows? But it’s a big ol’ world, with plenty that needs creating.
So, out of curiosity, what prompted this question for you?
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[Mads Nybo Jørgensen] “However, if an employee works for 40-50 hours a week and then goes off to do other work, then there this does raise the issue about that employee being tired and not able to give you and your clients their best?
Insurance wise, it also raises the questions of an employee driving on a job whilst being to tired to do so – who is liable if there are an accident?
Or the editor developing repetitive strain injury (a recognised disability) whilst putting in 18 hours editing shifts for you, and other activities.”Change “has a side gig” to “is training for a marathon” or “is getting a degree” or “is a civil war reenactor”. Employees have a life outside of work and there are a billion different things they could be doing that could negatively impact their time on the job. The key question is, “does it”? If the answer is “no” where’s the problem?
To be totally honest, in all the places I’ve worked (big or small, staff or freelance, midwest or west coast) the only demographic that I’ve noticed duck out early on a consistent basis are parents. Families… talk about a huge distraction from work. Some people even change jobs (or stop working period!) so they can spend more time with their families. Now how is *that* fair to employers? 😉
[Rich Rubasch] “Having to cut all day then head home to cut some more is not a great creative outlet”
I would have to disagree 1000%. If someone is cutting the same type of content day in and day out the only thing keeping them sane could be the funky music video or the no-budget horror film they are doing on the side.
My advice is just to let it ride and be supportive. If they are meeting your expectations on the job where’s the problem? If someone loves the job and wants to be a lifer they will. If they don’t, or if they aren’t sure, trying to clip their wings is just going to make things worse, not better. I think employees perform better when they feel like employers care about them as more than just revenue generating cogs in the company machine.
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I do side gigs all the time. But it isn’t cutting, it’s online/color grading. And it doesn’t take away from my main job at all…you can ask my producers. I also post on the forums a lot, and still am able to get out a good cut in a timely manner.
How, editing all day, and then going to edit for part of the night might be a tad much for me. That’s using the same part of my brain. I’d prefer the break. What I do on the side is exercise another part of my brain. After cutting all day, going home to online and grade, while listening to music…is relaxing to me. Yes, it’s still work, but I’m flexing different muscles.
But I have cut on the side, I know tons of editors who do as well. Mainly cutting things I don’t normally get the opportunity to do…like feature docs, or narrative. I know a guy who has no family, and just cuts day and night. And does a great job on all projects…heavily sought after. I know others who are writers at night, others who do sound work…others who have hobbies like making beer or building bikes.
It all depends on the person. If you hire someone, and they do quality work, who cares if they edit on the side. Unless it is a direct competitor. You hired them to do work for you…and if they satisfy that requirement, then that should be enough. You, as an employer, don’t really have a say in what people do after work…unless that interferes with the work they are doing for you. If they show up drunk, then you can say “stop drinking or I’ll need to fire you.” If they start doing substandard work…or show up tired, mentally not there…then you can say “I need you to come to work rested and able to do your job. Otherwise I might need to let you go.”
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
I follow what seems to be the general consensus here, which is that side gigs are okay… as long as they aren’t competition.
The fellow who is on staff as our full-time Senior Editor came to us that way. He was a freelancer, doing most of his work for another production company in town (the only one that we really consider competition, and not even very much at that).
That other company was keeping him busy pretty much full time and had been doing so for months and months… but as a freelancer. He’d begged to be put on as real staff there, but they didn’t want to do that. So, he jumped ship and came here. I understand that we were cursed fairly heavily in the other shop at the time for hiring him away… which made me feel a little bad because the other shop is run by someone I respect and am very friendly with in the business. But hey, they wouldn’t hire him, so I did.
Our only mandate to him before he took the job was that after he joined our staff he could no longer freelance at that other company… and he was fine with that. We have a lot of little production techniques and “tricks” which although aren’t exactly proprietary, are sort of our signature way of doing things… and we didn’t want those things to make their way to a competing production house.
And as I said, he was fine with that. If he hadn’t been, we couldn’t and wouldn’t have hired him.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hey Andrew,
Interesting comments, although I think that Shane nailed it better in his follow on post to yours. But here is my observation on your post:
Family is not work – unless the person in question have got their priorities wrong and think that it is.
The point of having a full-time job is exactly just that; it is a full-time job. Strictly speaking there are no way’s, if’s and but’s about that description. So a full-time employee should not treat any full-time employer as part time employment.
Some countries out there, in particularly in Europe, have a very short working week of 35-37.5 working hours. And yes, in such circumstances there might be more “space” than in other places for hobby activities outside of full-time employment. And if that includes editing pet-projects then I’ve got no problem with that. The same goes for family life, collecting stamps, walking the dogs, playing ping-pong or building LEGO.
However, in the time that an employee is at their full-time job, one would expect them to give it their best, and not having “dumped” all their creativity on a late night video project that they find more inspiring, but won’t pay their mortgage…
[Andrew Kimery] ” If someone is cutting the same type of content day in and day out” And if they are tired of doing that (burned out), then it is their responsibility to themselves and their families to change into a more rewarding job. But do not blame the boredom on the company that pays the bills, when there are a long list of CV’s in the filing cabinet ready to fill that hole.
Just an alternative opinion 🙂
All the Best
Mads@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk -
[Mads Nybo Jørgensen] “Family is not work – unless the person in question have got their priorities wrong and think that it is.”
Hello Mads,
I agree that family isn’t work and I was trying to be tongue-in-cheek hence the smiley face while I was talking about family.
My overall point is this, if employees are meeting or exceeding expectations at their day jobs what does it matter if they go home to hang with their family, collect stamps, play video games or edit other (competing) projects?
Conversely, if employees aren’t meeting expectations at their day job does it matter why? Is it okay for Bob to underperform at work because he’s staying up late playing video games but it’s not okay for Steve to underperform at work because he’s staying up late working on a pet project? Or does it just matter that they are underperforming and, regardless of the reason, it needs to be corrected?
[Mads Nybo Jørgensen] “And if they are tired of doing that (burned out), then it is their responsibility to themselves and their families to change into a more rewarding job. “
In my experience (and this is probably because Los Angeles is such a competitive market place) you can’t get work without prior experience and you can’t get prior experience without work. Side gigs (usually no or low paying affairs) are the only way to get the experience you need to get the more rewarding jobs you want.
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Mads:
Responding to your remark about “creativity”: I don’t see it as a finite resource that gets depleted by outside application. Rather the opposite: it’s more like a muscle, that gets better the more often and varied manner in which you work it. There’s a saying about knowledge, – sometimes ascribed to The Buddha – that applies as well to creativity: “the candle flame is not diminished by igniting more candles – it just spreads the light more” (or some variation of this idea)
The more creative endeavors your workers have on the side, the more creativity they bring to their work for you. Your bigger worry is that you’re not challenging their abilities enough on a consistent basis, that they are getting bored of working for you and doing the same thing every day. Spending a little on training and even some spec work projects or entries into contests, can have a great morale-boosting effect on your team.
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[John Davidson] “Walter, we may have similar past experiences working for CNN in regards to this. The best thing about working there was was using those facilities for personal stuff during off hours. It helped make up for low pay!”
Absolutely. That and the ability to really learn the gear on our own time.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative MediaSoutheast Creative Summit, Returning in 2014!
Foul Water Fiery Serpent, an original documentary featuring Sigourney Weaver. US & European distribution by American Public Television
MTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People. -
[Bill Davis] “The people who do the work in the trenches will likely NEVER have the loyalty to their employers that prior generations did.
“When you treat your people right, yes they absolutely will have that same loyalty.
Case in point, I had to leave my company abruptly to attend to a family emergency back home. During that time, a snowstorm hit Atlanta that shut down the city and my offices for two days. A project was due in Germany the following Monday evening.
My staff volunteered to take iMacs home with portable drives so they could continue working on the project at home to make sure the project was not only completed on time, but got the same level of attention to detail that is a hallmark of our company. Project was delivered yesterday and the client was extremely happy with the final product and the extra effort by my team.
And this is not an isolated incident. My staff continually does whatever is needed to make sure the client is happy with the end product and does extra work around the shop to help keep everything in great shape.
I treat my staff the way I like to be treated and it pays back tenfold in loyalty.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative MediaSoutheast Creative Summit, Returning in 2014!
Foul Water Fiery Serpent, an original documentary featuring Sigourney Weaver. US & European distribution by American Public Television
MTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People. -
Mark,
I agree with all of your comments – but this thread has turned into the editing-suite equivalent of the boardroom bingo game. Let’s all shout “BINGO!” each time we get a right word such as creative, new, thinking, fun, right etc…
However, not to spoil the excitement; Rich’s original issue was “As an employer I am more traditional and appreciate loyalty to the goals of the company and its team. But the young guys might have been editing and creating animations for several years and may even have a small side business already set up as they seek full time employment.”
Responding to that, I say that an employee can only have one full-time job.
The splitting of that cake goes both ways: You cannot have a full-time job and then demand to be able to do paid work outside of that job. Likewise, you cannot have a happy employee if you don’t motivate the person with possibilities of doing more and better work.
The point is, that if you have multiple pay-masters then you are no longer in full-time employment. And depending on your job, if the outside personal jobs, family, life etc have a negative impact on being able to concentrate on the job. Then you might even put you own, and your colleagues health at risk. Not to mention the business of your employer.
By all means, one should take inspiration to do better from any parts of life – but when it comes down to the job market, most of what is on offer is about being a good crafts person and knowing your tools and how to use them. And not about re-inventing the wheel into a different shape every minute of the day. And yes, even crafts people have to continuously train and gain new skills – that part is for most employers a tax deductible expense, where as moon-lighting could become a competitive loss and/or increase of insurance.
As an employer, just be careful as to what you encourage your full-time employees to do outside of work, opposed to managing what you find agreeable without taking the cost or responsibility. Because once the genie (multi-jobbing employee) is out of the bottle, you’ll find it difficult to put it back in. Not to mention any other employee who wants equal rights…
My 5p 😉
All the Best
Mads@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk
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