Saatchi Is Making Me Ill

Saatchi is making me ill. Literally. There’s been a lot of work since work on the pitch started. And a lot of Xploring (a proprietary Saatchi research tool) are ongoing for various jobs. The latest one involved going from one coffee shop to another looking for random 35 – 45 year old Chinese men who drink Guinness and showing them some creative work to get their feedback.

The last time I did that, I finished work at 12.30am after roaming the streets for 5 hours. We didn’t have time to eat and we had to endure men who were drunk, sarcastic and / or stupid.

And I end up with a massive headache and cold sweat the next day. Paul’s mum was so sweet to make me pork and dried scallop porridge which Paul delivered to my place last night. I went to bed at 9pm and after 12 hours of sleep, I feel much better today.

Sometimes I feel so stressed in my job that I just wanna say ‘fuck it’ and throw my letter in. Maybe I’ll just quit and go work in Starbucks. I spend a lot of my time there anyway and I’ve always wanted to be a barista. That’s also the only way I can get the Starbucks apron ‘cos you can’t buy it with money. Plus, I’ll get 30% off the products.

Sure it’s not a lot of money. Full time staff get RM1,100. And part time staff get about RM800+. That’s before tax & EPF deduction. But I get those perks as mentioned above and if I work part time, I’ll have more flexible hours. The small money I earn plus my savings will just tie me over if I wanna quick Saatchi and work in Starbucks for a few months. Maybe I should do it just before the wedding so that I won’t be so stressed out and I’ll have time to go for many spa sessions too.

Hmmmm …. I was about to post this when my boss came up to me and gave me a long hug. I asked him if he was drunk (we just had a Creative Review which involves 30 mins of looking at the latest ads followed by 3 hours of drinking). To which he replied “No-No. You’re on FIRE!”

Okay. Either he really was drunk or he knows how much stress I’m in over the past few weeks.

Anyway, there’s more Xploring tonight (different from the one we did at the coffee shops) and it takes place at Somo. It’s about men and masculinity. I’ve got my strategic planners from Singapore, some bosses, colleagues and friends attending. There will be a few questions asked and dozens and dozens of Guinness pints downed.

I hope I survive the night tonight.

The only consolation is that tomorrow’s Xploring involves Ashley going for a Brazilian wax due to a bet he lost to Paul. I thought that it would be an interesting idea to get my strategic planners to meet with Ashley and talk to him about his experience. Ashley is still trying to wrangle his way out of it.

Will definitely blog about it! Read more here. Till then, have a great weekend everyone!