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‘It’s all in the name of profit’: Confessions of a media buyer on short-staffed burnout during the pandemic | International Association of Digital Marketing Professionals (IADMP)

‘It’s all in the name of profit’: Confessions of a media buyer on short-staffed burnout during the pandemic

Aaron December 3, 2020

By Kristina Monllos

For agency employees, taking time off this year has been more difficult.

With agencies culling staff to manage the financial difficulties that have come due to the coronavirus crisis, there are fewer people on staff who are presently managing the work of multiple positions. At least, that’s been the case for a media buyer at a holding company agency who says he’s dealing with a severe case of burnout — and that he’s not alone.

In the latest edition of our Confessions series, in which we trade anonymity for candor, we hear from a media buyer about the stress he’s been dealing with, how his job has gotten more difficult due to demands from procurement and why he’s considering leaving the agency business. This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Have you been able to take time off? We’ve heard that it’s been more difficult this year for agency employees to do so.

It’s been backlogged, effectively. I was too busy earlier in the year, I had too much to do and didn’t have a team. I think a lot of people feel that way. You can’t take time off when there’s work to do and you don’t have people to hand stuff off to. If the work needs to be done it doesn’t really matter, someone has to do it.

Why don’t you have a team?

We had won lots of new business [before the pandemic] and hadn’t staffed up adequately. Everything is about price and procurement, about margin and profit, about what’s captured on the spreadsheet. That’s how the business works. It’s no secret that procurement is the one [thing] driving this because they get bonuses and KPI’d on saving money. It’s very easy to do that with the agency relationship. But what the spreadsheet does not capture is the toll it takes on a staff member. It’s that simple.

So clients’ procurement teams are making it harder to staff up?

It’s all about cost versus revenue. Say you get $100,000 in and it costs you $50,000 to staff up a team 100%. [Then procurement might say they] need to show more profit than normal and can force fewer people to do all of the work instead of a full team so then there’s more margin being shown. What that doesn’t capture is that instead of five people doing the work now you have two people or three people. The work is still getting done, but those three people are carrying five people’s worth of work. In some cases, it can be one person doing the work of five people. It’s all in the name of profit.

What’s the toll been on you?

I’m burnt out. It impacts your mental health in one way or another. It’s just the nature of the beast, unfortunately, it’s become that way.

Procurement has been in control for a while now. Do you think that’s even more so now because of the coronavirus?

100%. At the end of the day …read more

Source:: Digiday

      

Aaron
Author: Aaron

Categories: International Association of Digital Marketing Professionals

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