It has been
unofficially announced that another magazine is being closed as of its current issue.
By that, I mean
certain managers know, and the Copy Controller was today instructed
not to chase copy for the next issue, but instructed not to ask
why.
This leaves my counterpart with even fewer magazines and even fewer ads to set to run in them. In turn, our boss was concerned that the workload will become more dramatically uneven.
I've been thinking about that over the last couple of days, and considering the dynamics of my team. I have three designers: One cantankerous but excellent, one lazy but reasonably reliable, one new and still fairly enthusiastic (particularly having played a significant role in her magazine winning an internal company award last year). All three have excellent working relationships with their respective editors, all three pull their weight on ads, and there would be
huge disadvantages to moving designers
with their magazines between teams.
I proposed to my boss today that, rather than redistribute the
workload, we realign our Junior Designer so she's ostensibly on my team. She'd still act as a 'floater' and as holiday cover but would be, by default, working on my magazines and ads.
While not entirely
convinced, and of the opinion that this gives my counterpart and his team an easy ride, my suggestion has been accepted for the time being... but I reckon I'll have a meeting with my team once the official announcement is made, just to confirm that I've read the situation correctly. It may well mean that we're staying late(r) more often than my counterpart's team, but I'd like to think that my designers are happy with their magazines, and willing to put up with the late press days out of pride in their work.
I
really hope I'm right... The downside to keeping all my magazines where they are is that my boss doesn't want to hear any of my team complaining about late press days.
