Saying Goodbye

I'm not thrilled at the way my last day at the marketing and PR agency played out. 

I don't know what I could have done to have improved things, and I've thought about it a lot. There is so much that's out of our hands as employees and it is so frustrating. Our agency principal left the office early on Friday without so much as telling me goodbye and she didn't come in yesterday, which ended up being my last day.

I didn't manage my resignation as well as I could have, and I allowed my superiors to dictate my last day. That wouldn't have been so terrible except that I never was notified what my last day would be. Instead, our agency principal called me yesterday morning and let me know that she felt that we could wrap things up and have that be my last day. Okay, fine. I take some responsibility in that. I really do. I should have called out a final date and then offered to be flexible in pushing it back if need be. 

What really disappointed me, was the fact that I wasn't given an exit interview and there was no in person farewell from the agency principal, who knew she would be out of the office on Monday and Tuesday, one of which would be my final day. 

Life goes on, and this whole experience has definitely taught me a lot of lessons in what I don't want to be as a manager. It also taught me the value in being the bigger person and taking the high road. Each of my co-workers was equally outraged by the poor performance set by the agency principal and I know that I left in good standing with my head high.

I will absolutely miss the incredibly talented team of girls I was able to work with - I wish them nothing but the best and anticipate they will all have incredibly bright futures ahead of them.  

Create Something Awesome

Seth Godin wrote a post that I couldn't agree more with: Perhaps you could just make something awesome instead.

I often feel like there is a lot of pressure put on marketers to manipulate the facts about a product or service to drum up interest and generate sales.  I understand that's part of my job, but I believe that is only to an extent.  I do not believe in trying to get people to buy into a lie.

I would much prefer that we just make something awesome instead, something that doesn't need to be 'spun' in a positive light.  It's kind of like the articles poking fun at Microsoft for all their smear campaigns putting down Apple products.  Can't they just talk about how great the Microsoft products are instead?  Maybe they can't.  And consumers are smart enough to perceive when brands are being evasive and trying to put down the competition to stay relevant.

Thankfully, I don't have to do much faking it with my marketing, but I am painfully aware that some of my colleagues do.