Rule Number One is, of course, "They're lying." "They" changes, but the lying is constant. Usually, they don't know and so they make stuff up. Sometimes, in the agency's case, they're just passing on the lies of the client, who may just be passing on the lies of the vendor. You can't always tell who is lying, but you know for certain that someone is. Maybe they're just puffing, maybe just exaggerating, whatever -- they're lying.
Why? To get people to take a project, to get people to stay on a project. The promised overtime doesn't materialize, the six-week project lasts nine days. What it boils down to is, if you ask a question and they have an answer, the real answer is that they don't know the answer and whatever they just told you is bullshit. While this is not always true, it's a good rule of thumb. The race goes not always to the swiftest, nor the fight to the strongest, but that's the way to bet.
So, what brought on this rant, other than a need to post something before everyone wanders off, wondering if maybe RBW was the only one taken away by a Mayan mini-apocalypse? In my desperate efforts to find something better than the miserable gig I'm on, I finally hit upon something that might do the trick. It was to be a short gig (note the past tense) but at one of my favorite agencies, which tends to roll me from one project to the next. Big overtime for about 10 days. The market always improves after the holidays, so I figured this would be a good stepping stone to make a little money to close out the year and vault into new projects after New Year's.
Yeah, not happening. This time it was either a client lie or a vendor lie, but they don't need folks next week. Or at least not me. Hell, for all I know the project really is starting next week, just without me. Just remember Rule Number One.
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