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Saturday, March 15, 2008

Yes you can have my job

Last weekend, two of my favorite bloggers left the following comments on my blog:

Suburban Turmoil said...
I know travel sucks when you're pregnant, but please please please, can I have your job??? It sounds FANTASTIC!

Blogger Potty Mummy said...
Hi SB, just thought I'ld pop over after your visit and what do you know? We work (or in my case, worked), in similar fields. Reading about your trip really took me back to life pre-kids. Sounds like you're having a ball. And glad to hear that you too love the best city in the world! I love my children but (more than just) occassionally I miss that job...

I do get this comment a lot, and it always makes me pause and feel really thankful for my job. I work at a toy design and manufacturing company and I get to travel to Asia, LA and London regularly along with managing product development and great team of designers – it can be a lot of fun! Then Monday starts and the chaos begins. This week was no different; I walked into work to find my 2 senior creative guys spinning in their chairs stuck with how to proceed with a new line of dolls we are designing this month. Stuck on colors, story, style, you name it – stuck! I looked at my vast mountain of work and decided to drop everything and help them. One trip to Wal-Mart to check out competition to our idea, buy $100 of toys for reference, back to the office to solidify a few basics to get them started. Off to lunch, I stop at Jo Ann fabrics for $60 of fabrics to serve as further reference in material designs with swirly colors and different sparkle applications and they were finally set by 3. The next 5 hours were spent on email, charts and art packages.

Monday – Friday I worked 12 hour days every day! In broad strokes:
• I managed a team in the creation of a Harry Potter concept presentation that the client was vaguely unhappy with when I left on Friday and I can’t wait to get to work on Monday and find out how to appease on this one.
• I have procrastinated for several months on buying the new CS3 Illustrator and this month all art packages from our London client came in this program. I’m actually 2-3 weeks late in getting my art packages sent to Asia and this is bad because it delay’s their start on the samples which could potentially cause major stress to the production team later on. So I finally dropped everything and called Office Depot (upgrade not in stock), Best Buy (on hold for 20 minutes and finally hung up), Comp USA (confirmed they had it in stock but upon driving 20 minutes to Deerfield, found it not in stock and they asked who did I speak with because it’s not been in stock all day – grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr) and finally Apple Store in Aventura mall which represents an hour drive from Comp USA. This day I stayed late to get 6 art packages out, the following day I sent 8.
• Quote project for factory that is increasing prices.
• Worked with guys on the doll project throughout the week and finalized presentation for Monday meeting with CEO.
• 2 weeks late in getting an art package out for a major Pooh promotion in the EU and after sending the entire art package to Asia and art to the client for confirmation, he changed his mind 2 times and Monday I get to start all the concepts over. Yeah!!!
• There was a frantic conference call on Wednesday between myself, Hong Kong GM and London client to clarify corrections for Halloween Pooh & Stitch with sound and movement. The goal of the conversation was to get approval on the sound so we can start the sound chip masking. I got the sound approved but by Friday failed to clarify in writing with the client that they were comfortable moving forward with sound chip masking and commitment to project even though quotes had not been finalized. Friday was the deadline, I’m hoping my Asia team will forgive my negligence and wait for Monday to resolve this.
• I can’t even remember what else I did but it involved a lot of email and updated charts.

I really feel like a ping pong ball when my week ends. So anyone still want my job?

4 comments:

Suburban Turmoil said...

Wow. Maybe I just want the traveling and playing with toys part.

What would happen if you stopped and told all these people....

THEY'RE JUST TOYS! GAH!

R. Molder said...

just toys - thats funny. My clients take toys as seriously as an ER room.

After reading your latest post about how kids prefer cardboard boxes and remote controls, I'm inclined to not take much seriously about toy design!!!

Potty Mummy said...

Now, I know that you are having a busy old time at the moment. And that it is all VERY hard work. But there will come a time when you will be home with baby, merrily surfing the internet, and will come across a post describing a job that sounds identical - and I mean IDENTICAL - to the one you had.

And boy, will you miss it. (Though I imagine you will be returning to work - you sensible woman).

PS - and why can't those creatives get off their butts and go and find their own source material? I mean, they are supposed to be 'creative' right? Pah! They are the same the world over...

Unknown said...

Sound Masking may also be used to hide other unwanted noise, such as the intermittent sounds from machinery.Sound Masking in the Office Reduces noise distractions to increase worker productivity.