RE: UKNM: RANT ALERT - shortsighted 'net' experts

[anj medhurst]

Some very familiar points raised:


I have been working in the production side of this industry for over 5

years, as a programmer and also as a researcher and occasional project

manager/producer. I've always worked on a freelance basis because I also

teach (as well as being half way though a PhD looking specifically at new

media production process).


Although I accept that as a producer or a project manager it's often

necessary for me to be 'on site' right through production (clients don't

like freelance project managers even though they often don't have the number

of 'company' distractions that a permanent member of staff has to deal

with - so do a better job for the client), I see no reason why programming,

design and a lot of research work can't happen elsewhere. In the last five

years I have managed to work through a complete job from home no more than

half a dozen times and my feeling is that this is usually because the

production company that is hiring me as a freelancer can't bear the thought

that I might actually be able to do this stuff from the comfort of my home

office - or, god forbid, my patio if the sun's out!!


Even when it's been agreed that I'll work from home I've often been asked to

go into a production agency in person to collect assets and when I've asked

why the files can't be put on an ftp server, or emailed to me I'm told that

'the designer needs to go through them with you' (a sure sign that they

won't work properly) only to travel into shoreditch/farringdon/soho and be

handed a couple of zip disks and a bunch of screen prints and sent on my

way. This only confirms my belief that it's simple jealousy that results in

these incidents. The permanent members of staff can't bear the idea that I'm

able to justify working from home!


The reality of the production process means that I'm far more likely to get

the job done quickly and without mistakes in a quiet home environment than

in a 'typical' new media office environment with account handlers asking

pointless questions and arranging endless meetings to discuss job progress.

Not to mention having to work on the 'freelance' machine in the corner

that's had every dodgy bit of shareware under the sun installed on it by

bored programmers over the last year and crashes every five minutes...


Which is why no production company has ever tempted me to become permanent

and why my email address is still an academic one, (the university moan if

you *want* to work on site - it means they have to find you an office with a

desk, a network connection and a computer in it!!)


I spend a lot of time reading literature that evangelises 'flexible'

employment practices, teleworking and the like but I have rarely experienced

anything that lives up to the ideal - hence I channel my frustration and

industry cynicism into academic research...


anj


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Anj Medhurst

Lecturer/Researcher/Producer

Digital Media

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Department of Communication & Creative Industries

University of Westminster, Harrow Campus, Watford Road, Northwick Park,

Middlesex, HA1 3TP

t: 020 7911 5000 x.4585

e:

angelahrc [dot] wmin [dot] ac [dot] uk

[Sam says: Niki's tale of woe chopped]



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