Professional Courtesy

In business, there are things you do and there are things you don't do. You don't neglect clients and you don't go over somebody's head unless you have a reason--a very good reason. I was guilty last week of the first which twice led to the second.

In two instances last week I had allowed work to crowd out some minor, but necessary items on my agenda. Both times a phone call would have sufficiently avoided any problems. Let's get that out of the way.

In both cases though my agency contact's for each of these items went over my head to garner a response. Now, in and of itself, I understand the concept; I've even done it myself. When employee A isn't responding, often times Manager B can urge them on and get you what you need.

There's a right way to do this and a wrong way. Going to a manager is the obvious next step when something else is required. However, skipping that level of management and going to the head of the organization is out of bounds.

Not once, but twice last week I received a call from the publisher to discuss these situations. That is never fun.

In both cases the situation became a bigger deal than it really was because the senior person in the organization suddenly has to step in and get involved--unnecessarily. And there is my issue.

Neither of these situations warranted that level of action. A nudge from the Ad director would have been sufficient to get them what they needed. The only thing that happens when the publisher gets involved is that everyone gets cranky.

Though from the agency standpoint it does bring results, which is really all they wanted in the first place. I don't remember a lot of this kind of thing happening when I worked in broadcast media.

Maybe it's a print thing; I was threatened with the same action yesterday afternoon when I gave another buyer an answer they didn't want. It just doesn't feel right, nor does it sit well with me.

It's kind of like jumping from "dare" directly to "triple-dog-dare". It just shouldn't be done.