There is one thing that people who work in public relations know with certainty. Our moms don?t have a clue what we do. Neither do our dads, spouses or children. That makes it hard to claim you?ve had a stressful day because they think the toughest part of your day is choosing brown liquor or clear from the office booze cart, a la Mad Men. But now there?s proof. Public relations has been rated the world?s fifth most stressful profession by the job search company CareerCast, ahead of police officers, taxi drivers, newspaper reporters and senior corporate executives. Here?s how you explain it to mom.
People get most stressed when they have responsibility for (and are judged on) an outcome, but they have little authority to affect that outcome. It?s like judging the weatherman on the weather, rather than the accuracy of the weather forecast.
So, as a PR professional you may be responsible for getting a glowing story in the (National Post, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, whatever) that describes your client?s leader as having the heart of Gandhi, brains of Einstein, vision of Steve Jobs and business acumen of Warren Buffet. The PR person?s only lever to make this happen is persuasiveness. He/she must convince a cynical, skeptical reporter to write a fluffy, promotional piece highlighting only the very best information about the client. Of course, no credible reporter will do that, so we start from the position that under the best possible circumstances, if everything goes right, the goal is unattainable.
Still, the PR person dutifully tries to find a positive yet newsworthy angle to meet the journalist?s requirement that the story have some element of conflict and transformation. (There are no bad stories, only bad PR people.)
Often this is where the client gives the PR person helpful direction.
?You?ve got to focus on the fact that we are a strategic, cutting edge company, a global leader with leading strategic solutions and that our revolutionary prizo-digi-voltaic innovative diphthong solution positions us for strategic growth and strategic performance. I know everybody else already has prizo-digi-voltaic diphthong solutions but we need the market to know that we do too. And whatever you do, don?t let them mention in the story that the CEO has been charged with embezzlement and theft of intellectual property ? And we have to see the article first before it is printed.?
When you apply this reality to the PR agency environment, where each PR person serves three to 10 clients, you multiply the stress by the number of clients. (Except at Ketchum, where we are uniquely fortunate to have only smart, attractive clients who are skilled communication professionals and with whom we work in close partnership to achieve measurable business objectives.)
And you add other agency stressors ? your boss?s expectation that your clients must love you, you must meet your targets for billable hours, you must be continuously upgrading your skills and your professional relationships, and you have to be good at the office karaoke party or there will be intra-office buzz. ?Her performance had more keys than a janitor.?
Then there?s the pressure you put on yourself, because most people want to do great work.
And the very personal nature of feedback. You pour your heart into writing something you think is smart and effective, and your manager or your client comes back and says: ?I?d really like it if you could find a more creative way to pitch our prizo-digi-voltaic diphthong solutions as a feature story for Moms and Tots Magazine, but don?t use so many words. Also, you took all the industry jargon out and didn?t even say once how strategic and innovative it is, so put all those words back in. Can you get me the revisions yesterday morning??
After you?ve spent weeks going to meetings, developing plans, and writing and rewriting press releases, tweets, blog posts etc. to create success for the strategic prizo-digi-voltaic diphthong solutions, on the very day you issue the ?revolutionary? news and are waiting for reporters to besiege you with request for interviews,? Apple and IBM announce they have merged and have compressed the entire Internet onto a wristband that reads your mind and automatically anticipates your every need, materializing it beside you instantly. Want a piece of pizza? Bing, there it is. No one is interested in diphthong solutions.
So your client says: ?You didn?t get me any coverage. Why should I pay for that??
And your best friend who graduated from PR school at the same time as you ? two years ago ? was just promoted to senior vice president and is being sent to Paris for two weeks of pastry-identification-and-movie-star-relations with Brangelina. You think your life sucks.
So yes, mom, there can be stress in PR. Yes mom, that?s why Don Draper drinks so much??
?No mom, he?s not in PR. He?s in advertising. That?s not what I do ??
?No mom, it?s not the same thing ??
?Yes mom, I probably am drinking too much.?
Source: http://o.canada.com/2013/01/17/most-stressful-jobs-pr-is-5-please-send-scotch/
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