STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Okay, a little background first- I work in an in-house ad agency where I'm a writer. A large part of my job is working with the graphic designer to come up with creative concepts for ads and other marketing material. This is right in my job description. I'm also in grad school for design and have an marketing background. I've been at this job for about 9 months and have received lots of good feedback from my projects.

So, a few months, the graphic designer started to get extremely territorial of jobs that we are both assigned to. He has intentionally left me out of meetings, told me that I'm not supposed to do anything but write and I have no business trying work on concepts because that's his job. He's also started acting like my boss and tries to tell me what to do. And he's very condescending. So, after we had some words about him leaving me out of big project and refusing to give me information about it saying that I "wasn't needed," I went to our boss (the Creative Director) for clarification on my job description. My boss told me that I was right in my interpretation of my job description and that he would speak to the designer and give him a copy of my job description so there wouldn't be any more confusion. Fine. Great.

Fast forward to last week, when the graphic designer decided to work on ad concepts without me, then came to me and told me that I needed to write copy for his concepts. I told him that I had some concepts to discuss, but he refused and acted like my boss by telling me that I needed to work on his concepts. So, again, I went to our boss, who schedule a meeting for the ads we're currently working on.

That meeting was today and I cannot believe what happened. I'm absolutely stunned. The graphic designer started showing all of these concepts that I had never seen (with mediocre headlines.) He also mentioned that he had a meeting with marketing about the product got some more info about what they wanted for the ad. I told him that it would have been nice if he had included me in that meeting since I'm on the project, too, and needed to work on concepts. Then, he said, "You're not allowed to work on concepts. You just write about mine." And I told him that wasn't true and that my job description states that I'm to work on creative concepts. Then, he actually said, "I don't believe you. Why don't you go get your job description and prove it." (Remember, our boss was there, too.) I actually keep a copy of my job description in my desk, so I went and got it and "proved it" to him. My boss backed me up and told him that wherever he got his information, it wasn't correct.

Then, (and this is the really unbelievable part), the graphic designer started to berate me and tell me that I'm not talented, I'm unqualified, worthless at creative meetings and that he knows so much more than me (we're the same age- I have a BA and am in grad school, he has an Associate's and is working on BA - but likes to tell people he's working on his Master's - and he only has about 3 more years of experience than I have and not as much education.) He even went so far as to demand to see my porfolio from previous jobs so that I could prove to him that I was qualified for my job. WHAT?!!!!!! He also belittled me because my last marketing job was in a less-than glamorous industry (hvac) and indicated that I couldn't possibly be qualified with that kind of work experience.

Then (no, he still wasn't done and our boss was still there), he tried to accuse me of the things that he was doing (leaving me out of meetings, exclusion from projects.) Fortunately, his arguments were about as watertight as a sinking ship, so he kind of looked like an idiot. Then he actually tried to get up and leave, saying that he "was done with this." Our boss spoke up and told him to sit back down.

From there, our boss pretty much corrected all of the designer's statements and told him that we need to work together and that's why I was hired. Long story short, our boss is working to correct the issue, so hopefully, things will improve.

But, still, I cannot believe the things the designer said to me. Not once did I degrade him or tell him that he wasn't qualified. My complaints were legitimate and backed by examples. He was just trying to say as many bad things about me as possible, even though they weren't true.

Whew. Thanks for letting me vent.



-- Edited by kenzie at 22:50, 2008-03-04