Enter a PR office and on the face of it everything’s normal. But just beneath the surface of the motivational posters, bean bags and the trendy open cubicles lies a range of office habits; designed to get your stress levels up faster than you can say “client social media crisis”!
Due to a consensus among PR pros, we have decided to leave bosses out of the list of annoying office habits!
It’s NOT the sound of music!
Yes, we Indians like to talk and we are loud. And this is precisely what brings us to annoying habit number 1.
Alok Kumar Dash, an account manager with a leading PR agency says that, “There is too much cacophony at work which disturbs the rhythm and it becomes hard to hear what the other person is saying when one is on a call. Given that PR firm offices are usually small in size; the noise is unwelcome.”
Alok says that, “PR pros should discuss work with their teams in conference or meeting rooms instead of shouting within the office. Teams should sit close to each other so that the whole office is not disturbed.”
Geetika Chadha, PR consultant who has recently joined her second PR firm says that another annoying habit is the lack of professional privacy. She says, “Doing media pitches over the call is a part of our job. And every PR executive has their own way of pitching the news to the journalists. But in every office there are a few PR executives who listen to the calls of others and tnudge them in between or after the call. This habit of PR professionals really annoys me!”
Geetika says her solution is to always try to do media pitching alone, where someone is not around. She says she steps into a lobby sometimes to be alone. Geetika feels this helps her in being more confident and concentrating better.
Lack of office mentoring
The millennial generation feels that they are not guided properly at work. Says Divya Singh, account manager at 20:20 MSL, “Seniors often delegate work to the young newcomers and trainees without giving them a proper brief and telling them why this work is important and what it means to the client or to the company internally. This results in poor outcome of work.”
Divya says, “Delegation of work needs to be more streamlined. Managers needs to be patient and should spend time with their team. This culture is so annoying to me that when I see young executives struggle at work, I want to change my profession and become a mentor at a PR agency!”
Geetika Chadda agrees that, “There are many PR professionals who pass on their work to other people without giving a proper brief, which results in poor output.”
Clients still don’t get digital media!
The lack of briefing extends to the client as well. PR executive, Shreya Khatri, says that, “ The office habits which really annoy while working are the clients expectations when they provide zero information and expect that we will do wonders for their brand. The main problem is the people's unrealistic approach towards PR. Some clients are still not clear about exactly PR is all about. Also the most annoying thing is people still don't understand the importance of online media.”
Shreya says that, “To fix all such issues what we need to to do is while signing up with any client we should explain clearly about the services we are going to provide. And set a benchmark and targets of what actually is practically possible. “
Our take
If too much noise grosses you out, try a stint at a TV news room. I guarantee you will be able to work through an earthquake! Compared to a TV news office, PR offices are tame!
If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe for free to our weekly event and subscriber alerts.
We have four email alerts in total - covering ESG, PR news, events and awards. Enter your email address below to find out more: