Today at work I had a situation arise that I’ve been confronted with in the past. Different person, same results. It went something like this:
1. Person asked for a “huge favor” for a tight deadline.
2. I delivered a product in 6 hours, when it should have taken a minimum of 3 days.
3. The person’s reply? “Well this is kind of lame, but I can make it work.”
4. He then asked for additional help.
Now I’ve been working since I was 15, and buttheads like this guy don’t bother me anymore. I simply replied and said that I wished his feedback had been more constructive, but since it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be able to help him further. I then wished him the best of luck with his project.
Up until that email, I was more than happy to help, despite being swamped myself and this ask being VERY last-minute. Now as far as I’m concerned, it’s up to him to find someone else to finish the project, or explain to his boss why he missed his tight deadline.
Attitude is so key in this business, and it’s something people often forget.
A few weeks back, we interviewed an extremely talented Artist, and all agreed that we loved his work. We also all agreed collectively that we would not be bringing him onto our team. Why? Because he knew he was a gifted Artist and had such a poor attitude about it, that we wouldn’t have chosen to work with him even if he was Pablo Picasso.
I’ve also seen it work in reverse where people (myself included) have overcome artistic deficiencies with a great attitude and willingness to learn. When I started in my present group, I was VERY green, and they had many other options for people to fill my role. The reason they chose me, as I was later told, is because I had potential and I showed a great attitude. If I had been an asshat from day one, I would have never even been considered for the position I’m in now.
Even if you manage to overcome your horrible attitude and manage to rise through the ranks, I’ve never understood why you would want ill feelings towards yourself, or why you would want to constantly battle for help because nobody wants to work with you. It’s so much easier just to be friendly to folks and foster communication.
This is a collaborative industry, and we all need to work together. Not only that, but it’s an insanely small industry. I can promise you that I can do the “Six Degrees” thing with almost any person in CG film or games today (even the big names), and I’ve only worked in the artistic side of things for 3 years. Why on earth would you risk your bad reputation leaking out to such a close-knit community?
I guess I could sum this post up with the whole, “You’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar,” saying, but I just prefer to sum it up as follows:
Don’t be a dillhole.
Thanks for stopping by!
