Not On My Watch: Adios, Timesheets

Published on by loreleimathias

But all the clocks in the city

began to whirr and Chime…

…O let not time deceive you

You can not conquer time…

…In headaches and in worry vaguely life leaks away

and time will have his fancy

tomorrow or today.


You wouldn’t have caught W.H. Auden filling out a grid at the end of his week, would you?

Almost two months have gone by here at BMB now, and whilst we’ve been knee deep in briefs, Corona and free pizza, the other day we said to each other – ‘hang on, wait, something’s missing.’

Rage.

Your basic, grid-induced, incandescent rage.

You know. You’re there, doing data entry under cover of darkness – inputting numbers into an inept intranet programme beset by I.T. glitches from all sides, trying to extract codes from your inbox, trying to remember what you did six weeks ago, wishing you’d not left it ’til now, only for the whole thing to then crash and populate itself with the mysterious word ‘NULL’ in every box.

Which is just a really a long-winded way of me (Lol) saying that my most favouritest things about working at BMB is:

WE DON’T HAVE TO FILL OUT TIMESHEETS. HURRAH.

Words cannot express how happy this makes me. But I will try nonetheless.

Basically, it’s blinking marvellous. They have a different system of working out the agency’s time, which works much better. The result is that now, we get to come in and DO the work, rather than RECORD the work.

And less time is spent wondering how to record the time it takes you to record your time, and other interesting paradoxes.

I’m know I’m not alone in my phobia of timesheets. I once worked with a creative who actually used to PAY his partner to fill his out for him.

Anyway, rant over. Simply put, BMB, we salute you. THANK YOU.

7 thoughts on “Not On My Watch: Adios, Timesheets”

  1. You lucky things – but if you’re ever feeling nostalgic – you’re more than welcome to complete mine anytime !

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  2. Oooo, tempting Simon, tempting. Which system is it – Maconomy? Adserve? I can’t recall the other programmes but in my experience they were all as buggy as one another (or it was just me. also likely).

    Just out of interest… Do you tell the truth when you fill them out? To the minute, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

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    1. It is indeed Maconomy. At least there you get something that also cover leave & expenses. Err.. mmm…well…to the best of my ability with a smidgin of rounding up here & there, I do try and get into the habit of trying to do it at the end of the day before laptop shutdown when I can, but is usually a last thing Friday or first thing Monday activity!

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  3. Brings to mind
    An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.Alexander the Great (attributed)

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  5. The most predatory piece of traditional media i came across recently is for Bet 365

    They have locked out all of the big bookmakers from live football by buying the entire allocation of airtime that betting brands can get their hands on in the breaks, indefinitely 

    Ouch Ladbrokes Ouch William Hill Ouch the rest of ye gambling fraternity Ouch pain every week, every break. Forever ouch!

    Its a coup: as betting gets closer and closer “into the game” via mobile
    Its a coup: football is the lead sport in terms of coverage of regular sports gamblers
    Its a coup: the first break and every live break of the key games
    Its a coup: every week in the season
    Its a coup :ownership/competitive advantage/differentiation

    The place where the “perfect context” and a critical chunk of the target audience simultaneously convene is a blindspot for industry media research ….. 

    …..and the increasingly commoditised traded media passes over these opportunities.  

    I think these media moments are still where brands can ‘edge up’ are few and far between but when you nail them, wow what a focal point it can bring

    In their absence you can make these moments yourself : in time/place or space ….emulating their attributes/pulling power via the digital approach

    These moments are surely abundant in the world of search, or digital dayparts, instant digital stuff in physical places,  right on the moment…..

    Thanks for remembering the Yershon way, its re-inspiring. 

    Better get back to the day job.  

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