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in need of some serious advice
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“If you can do this why did you ask for our advice? ”
Because hours after my original post I eventually did find a drive with some footage that MIGHT work for the video I am having the most problems with. And that has given me some hope.
Robert J. Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com -
And you’re right, it was pulled together in the past because it was pulled together by those who are familiar with the content but didn’t bother to organize it.
If I’m still experiencing the same problem for the next couple days, then I will tell them that can’t do it due to the lack organization. But until then I feel I should work at it a little longer before finally deciding to quit..
I apologize if you feel I wasted your time, but that was not my intention at all.
Robert J. Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com -
You should report the lack of organization immediately. You can add that you are attempting to work with things as they were left but you’d recommend an organization of the material ASAP.
If you what a few days to report that and the risk increases that the deadline is missed, you’re still being remiss in not giving an immediate status report. If they know the circumstances you are working under you then give them an opportunity to make a decision that may address the issue. Withholding information under a difficult deadline is not a good employee decision. You are not being a “team player” when you exclude the rest of the team from the decision making process. If you wait, and they determine that your delay in reporting results in a missed deadline then you are responsible and they let you go, not simply for missing a deadline (which might be inevitable) but for exercising poor judgement by delaying the report.
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That’s actually a great idea – keep working but just let them know it will be hard to make the deadline due to the lack of organization. Sounds so simple, I dunno why I didn’t think to just do that.
Robert J. Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com -
Rob,
Chances are your employer already knows about this. Google yourself.You may be in a situation where the employer knows they have given you a complicated project in order to test you. To test your ability to overcome adversity, and your ability to be honest with them.
Getting the job done sometimes involves asking for help.
Mike Cohen
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Welcome aboard, captain…
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Don’t believe in no-win situations.
This thread reminds me of a great Abraham Lincoln quote: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Even if you don’t get all the editing done by the time the crew returns from the shoot, if you can organize all the footage, the footage library will be infinitely more useful, and future work much, much faster — and this could be a big win after all.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
I’ve read the entire thread and two things bother me about threads like this:
1. A young, inexperienced but well meaning Cow member posts a problem and asks for help, yet many of the replies admonish the poster for not being a “team player” or they’re exercising poor judgement etc. etc. for not doing this or that.
Well….DUH. If the original poster had known that he/she wouldn’t have posted asking for help! I originally joined Creative Cow about 5 years ago but experienced this exact same antagonistic attitude the first few times I asked for advice. I was a 20 year veteran at the time and decided it wasn’t worth the grief. I eventually came back a couple years ago and got more involved and weathered the “storm” so to speak. There’s still one particular forum on here that I continue to get hammered on about the suggestions I give to folks. It makes no sense to treat folks this way on a site that bills itself “the peer to peer support community.” The original poster was polite about his request and I got the impression he was unable to speak with his supervisors because they were “in the middle of nowhere” for 10 days.
2. People reply to a post by critiquing the post itself rather than answering the questions posed. Things like, “you’re in the wrong forum for that issue,” or “if you don’t know that then you’re really in trouble,” and on and on.
Give people a break….a lot of folks that post on here are thrown into doing things they have no clue how to do. Maybe you’ve heard that 10 million people have been laid off in the last year? That’s a lot of work that’s being transferred to other people. A manager or owner comes to them and says “do this and I need it next Friday.” Never mind the employee has NEVER done “this” and has no one within earshot to ask. The last thing they need is for people on here to slap them on the wrist for asking something they “should already know…” or be reprimanded because they didn’t give us all the details we need to fix their problem.
Ok…I feel better and I’m sure I’ll get “admonished” for replying to this thread this way. But I belong to a lot of other professional video and marketing forums and this is the only site that exhibits this sort of thing.
As to the original post, my advice would be to work through the problem as best he can, be dogged about trying to reach his supervisors and managers while they’re on the road to get some help, and do his best. That’s all anyone can ask of someone. As to it being partly his fault for not checking his assets as others have suggested. It sounds like he’s a new employee and a very young one at that, so to me that’s just not relevant. You’re telling me a 22 or 23 old recent graduate is supposed to know to ask these things prior to his bosses flying the coup for 10 days and not being reachable by phone or email? If anything, his superiors should’ve known they would have to help him along and should’ve made provisions for regular contact to check on the project.
I can’t imagine leaving a new employee in this situation or going out of town for 10 days without ANY ability to contact someone back at the office working on an important, deadline oriented project. Plug…it’s almost inconceivable that anyone could be so far in the middle of nowhere that they’d have NO contact with the outside world.
Ok…rant over….and go easy on me…please!??!
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Thanks Chris.
While I have seen somewhat hostile responses on the Cow before, I don’t feel I was treated that way. I do, however, feel that no one understands why I can’t just stop working and start organizing their footage.
Like I said above, I was hired by a large shotgun manufacture (large meaning, many of their models are used by the military and law enforcement) and I work in their multimedia department. I don’t work at a video production company, and this isn’t freelance. It’s more like a corporate environment (and I have to wear a button-down shirt every day). So If don’t get the updates to the DVD catalog finished, saying “But look, I took the time to organize your footage” won’t do me any good. The people who hired me and have the power to fire me aren’t video people. To them, not getting this finished means I’m interfering with their sales.
#2, I’m just plain scared to do that. I am young. And I spent all my money to move away from home, by myself, to the DC area. I have no contacts to find work elsewhere, and I still have 11 more months left on my lease on top of car payments/insurance. I really am in no position to get fired. And while the lack of organization is keeping me from creating the best video I can create, I’m not making horrid video. Unfortunately it’s just “good enough.”
#3, I was always under the impression that this industry is just as much about problem solving as it is videomaking/filmmaking/story telling. So I figure I should keep working to solve this problem.
As for not checking the assets before my supervisors left: I agree, I should have done this, and I wanted to. But they were pressuring us to have a few videos finished before they even left for the trip (which didn’t happen). So I kinda just started trying to edit right away. Also, like I said above, I have purchased Shane’s “Getting Organized” video and much of it I was already doing…because it seemed like common sense. So I was in the mindset, “Well a schmuck, recent graduate like myself can be organized, surely these 2 guys who came from major networks are organized too,” but I was wrong.
And my two supervisors are definitely in the middle of no where. They’re shooting a hunting show in Arkansas, Louisiana, etc. Sometimes they are at a hotel that has internet, but phone calls are often very hard to hear and are always cut off eventually.
I appreciate your advice to keep working through the problem. I’ve been working hard and have been working 14 hour days, and it seems we will make the deadline. I will definitely talk with them about the organization when they get back. If they are not into it, then I suppose I’ll be looking for a new job. I just can’t work like this. It’s not fun when you can’t get into that groove where 10 hours of editing feels like 10 minutes.
Thanks again!
Robert J. Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com -
Rob,
First…you’re welcome. Second…I think as long as you continue to work the problem and continue to attempt to keep your 2 supervisors up to date about problems you’re having as well as the progress you’re making, you’ll be fine.
Most business people I know understand that as long as someone is working hard, trying to find information, and making a sincere effort to get the job done, there’s not much more you can ask of them. They also understand (or should) that they cannot expect to throw a new employee onto a disorganized project and expect them to complete the job in the same amount of time it would’ve taken them to do it.
If nothing else, it’s a great first lesson out of college. I always tell our college interns that the work environment is NOTHING like what you experience in college. You have less time, usually less information, and often no formal training to do many of the tasks you’re asked to do. So good employees figure stuff out. The first time through a project is almost always a nerve racking affair, but believe me, it’ll get easier. Stick it out and it’ll likely be worth it.
I’ve also told interns that I feel like I learned more from what could be considered “bad” jobs than the good ones. Why? Because I learned what NOT to do on projects, which makes identifying the right things much easier! I also always had more chances to try new tasks at the “bad” jobs because most people were just slogging their way through the day, while I was trying to learn as many things as I possibly could. They were all happy and willing to let me do whatever I wanted!
Anyway…you sound like a concientious guy with a good head. Chances are good it’ll all work out in the end.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
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