I read a post by an old agency cohort of mine from the true days, who was reflecting on a Friday afternoon in her beautiful countryside back garden on how DIFFERENT Fridays are now for most of us seasoned marketers and agency bods.
Marketing and Agency life has somehow always seem inherently surrounded by alcohol and excess. If you were an agency who managed to avoid using the term “work hard, play hard” on a job description in the 00s, well done you. That cliché was trotted out a lot, but it has some basis, as many clichés do.
The pub on a Friday lunchtime was sacrament in my agency days and boundaries were often pushed, particularly if one of the bosses joined us, in which case, you didn’t leave until they did!
Then we’d return to the office, sit at our desks for an hour (while the poor creative team tried to hit an impossible deadline we’d given them before leaving for the pub) before “cocktail hour” would start and the office bar would open!
Not to mention the legendary Christmas Parties of those times and even when I went in house, those didn’t stop. The Christmas parties at Stopgap – Marketing, Digital & Creative Recruitment were unforgettable and Friday prosecco or a Gluten Free Peroni for me, a staple!
It was all great fun of course (aside from perhaps falling into a bush and losing my phone once) but I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.
In many ways I miss those days as I expect a lot of people do. But what it has meant, with Covid and working from home, particularly as a freelance consultant, that those boundaries in relation to work and play became more blurred.
Stepping from your home office to the fridge for a Friday beer didn’t quite feel the same. And I think my relationship with alcohol probably changed and not for the better – a bad week and I might find myself cracking open that Friday beer earlier than usual! Or not just on a Friday. With no train to catch but equally nowhere to go for that “Friday feeling” afterwork drink from home with colleagues, it can easily all become a bit sad. When you’re having your 2nd beer as the One Show is about to come on, it makes you think.
So anyway, I thought it was time for a bit of a reset and with the obvious health benefits and the all important bit of raising money for the wonderful cause of Macmillan Cancer Support – I thought I’d give #SoberOctober a crack!
I’ve not set a very ambitious fundraising target as I know money is tight for everyone but if you can spare a fiver, please do, and if you see me with a Gluten Free Peroni in my hand before the end of October… I’ll donate the £100 myself!
I originally posted this via my LinkedIn newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.