Dear Uncle Carl,
The recent MPs’ expenses scandal has made me examine the expenses my staff put through more carefully. I have found that they are claiming evening drinks sessions as brainstorms and excessive lunches as client meetings. I don’t want to come down like a ton of bricks, but this needs to stop.
If you have created an ‘open’ policy then you are bound to have people take the piss and push for as much as they can get away with. You need to create some guidelines. If your staff are simply ‘out and about’ then why should you pay for their meals – they would have had to eat and drink anyway? If there are clients present, then you give them budgets that will only be okay’d with evidence of receipts and if they go over that level then it needs to be ‘discussed’.
Make it your head of departments’ responsibility to sign off your staff’s expenses – share the pain... sorry, responsibility.  Everyone knows these are tough times and you need to be on top of your cost.

Dear Uncle Carl,
What do you look for in an employee? As a graduate in marketing (almost a year out of Uni) I’m still trying to find my first “real” job. I’ve made the second round in a couple of interviews but have yet to be offered a post. What am I doing wrong?
I doubt you are doing anything wrong, agencies will always hold speculative interviews to keep an eye on what’s out there, it keeps HR managers busy and the egos of creative directors’ by having queues of would-be agencybods paying them homage.
Personally I always looked for genuine enthusiasm and interest as I cannot teach those things – so if you ain’t got them, you will learn nothing. I also wanted candidates to have taken the time to find out about my business, as much as they could, the clients, the staff, the PR, the finances – the more the better. Simple things like making contact before and after the interview itself may make you stand out and be more memorable. Do extra things that the next candidate wouldn’t do.
If you don’t get the job then ask them why you didn’t so you can improve. Bear in mind a ‘no’ might simply be a ‘not now’ so stay in touch and update them on what you are up to. But I would remind you that there are simply too many candidates and too few vacancies.
Consider this, offer to do a week or two for nothing – what have you got to lose? It ingratiates you in the business and allows you to make friends that may help get you a role – if you can prove yourself indispensable.
 
Dear Uncle Carl,
How can I convince my clients to commission photography rather than relying on staid and obvious stock photography? My team is keen to support and champion good, local photographers, but we can’t do this while our clients continually want to use existing stock. One has even gone as far as searching the image catalogues himself. What can we do?
“What’s in it for me?” that’s what your client is thinking. Demonstrate a benefit, a financial benefit, does it cost more or less? Will it increase his sales? Could he charge more for his product or service with better photography? Perhaps there is a brand benefit, will it make his products look less TK Maxx and more White Company? Would it make his service stand out from the competition or reflect the aspirations of his prospects? Vox pop customers or prospects and show them the same piece of work with two different styles of photography and decide if the products or services somehow look more desirable.
You can try and push a donkey into a barn all day long and fail, or you can lead him there with a carrot – so stop pushing him you ass and work out what your Donkeys…sorry, clients ‘carrot’ is.
 
Dear Uncle Carl,
As a marketing man of over ten years in the business, I have forged my career by trying to do the best job I can. However, I am finding that as marketing manager of a large firm, being a “yes man” is getting me further than doing what I think is best for the firm. Should I stand up for what I believe right – even though it could impact on my immediate career?
Isn’t there a balance between being a brown-nosed corporate suck-up ladder climber and an individual?... possibly not. Can you not highlight your own opinions at the outset of strategies but support the majority decision?  If the corporate decision is deemed right, (you may not be right, you know) then you should be happy as you have helped deliver it as part of a team. If however you were right and the corporate decision is wrong, then you can say “I told you so” and do a little hip-swiveling smug jig around the office.
You can express your own opinion without throwing your toys out of the cot or your career out of the window.  If you can’t, then I would suggest you truly are in the wrong environment. Take a moment when you are laid prostrate in front of your superiors and think is this where you really want to be? Then grow a back bone, get a bit of self belief and start being yourself and see what happens... Or carry on saying ‘yes’ when you mean ‘no’ and hold on to the dreams of your pension... which is also like you – fucked.
 
Dear Uncle Carl,
I ended up talking politics over a few drinks with a colleague. He didn’t hold back with his right wing views and his support for the BNP in the European Elections. I feel quite uncomfortable working alongside this person now. Should I talk to my boss about his political views or should I start looking for a move myself?
I’m sure if we were able to scratch the surface of all of our work mates we would find things about them we wouldn’t like and vice versa. The fact that both your political views are not aligned simply demonstrates how fabulously lucky we are that we work in such an open democracy which supports free thinking and free speech. And in the case of your narrow-minded, goose-stepping colleague, isn’t that nice for him? It’s not up to you to tell anyone about his belief system as, unless it’s affecting his performance or relationships at work, what does it matter?
The BNP are not an unlawful organisation, unpleasant perhaps but not illegal. To my scant legal knowledge (a CSE in Law), unless he is inciting racial hatred he isn’t some sort of  criminal, he simply has a different, fucked-up political leaning. The call is yours. If you are afraid you might ‘catch’ the fascism virus then yes run away now but bear in mind you will end up sitting somewhere else with people who may not believe in things that you do... such as Tooth Fairies, Easter Bunnies and Santa.
 
Are you troubled? Don’t be. send your questions for uncle Carl to dear.carl@carnyx.com Or, If you wish to meet with carl to talk about your business, email ch@kloog.ch