I got written up at work for 'Multiple revisions'

[HotButton]

While it sucks that your supervisor is so out of touch with your position, being victimized by that is partially on you if you allow it. Whether or not you can get the reprimand out of your record won’t be entirely up to you, but taking steps to prevent recurrence will be. Make it clear to your supervisor, HR, and the VP if possible, that you are deserving of more respect than has been demonstrated, and that you won’t have this. Assert yourself as the expert in your field and act, if necessary, as though they’d be dead in the water without you. Express your unemotional and unrelenting resolve to produce the best possible design product for the company no matter how many revisions it takes, and tell them straight out that quibbling over how many changes are too many is not only a waste of their executive time, but just as surely, beneath you.

You may not feel as though you’re in a position to be that assertive, but I’ve found that nearly always, people who push others around stop when someone pushes back. Others’ confidence in you must start with your own confidence in yourself. Years ago, I had some talks with a “career coach” that were largely about how to write a good resume and cover letter (and that stuff changes all the time), but at some point he threw in this: “Always be respectful…and act like you own the place.” Later he rephrased: “Don’t be arrogant, but leave no doubt that your role is crucial, and you own it.” Best advice I ever got, and it has been critical to survival in my current position.

[grady00]

@Just-B

Seriously, be proactive about this. You’re the designer and the de facto art director It sounds like they’re just asking for your help. You’re supposed to have the expertise to work with them as a partner where you all share your respective talents and experience to develop a product that accomplishes a goal. If it’s a fundraising goal, great — put your two heads together, share your collective expertise and come up with a winning solution. That’s what art directors do and, from what you’ve written, that’s what they need and are asking for.

@HotButton

While it sucks that your supervisor is so out of touch with your position, being victimized by that is partially on you if you allow it.

I’m glad I read this whole post. Honestly I needed to “hear” these two tidbits of advice for myself.

[Kaegro]

Everybody’s raising good points, and I’d like to add my own two cents. It does seem odd to me to write someone up for too many revisions, when, if they were as you described, they weren’t related to any faults or mis-applications on your part.

What you described with the repeated revisions reminds me of some of the clients I’ve worked for. We’ve got a wide range, from Mom-And-Pop stores to big organizations who all have different standards, and some of them can be very micromanage-y. When I’m working on complicated jobs for those clients, we break the usual rule of “no client interacts with the designer” and set a time for them to watch me make changes live so they can see how the changes echo throughout the document and we can nail down exactly what they want, rather than going through the sales rep over and over again. This sort of approach sounds like it would have been better for your situation than what happened, especially since it sounds like this was a heavy redesign.

Consider asking your supervisor what an acceptable number of revisions would be on similar projects in the future - then when you reach a certain portion of that number on any project, you escalate to a similar method. Say he says five is the maximum, the next time you’ve done three and got revisions back, you start a Zoom call/screenshare with the person in charge of the project while you work on it. It is the sort of thing you have to schedule, and I imagine that a VP might not want to block an hour out to work on something they’re paying you to do, but if the message isn’t getting across the best way to address the issue is to establish a direct line of communication, and it usually saves everybody time in the long run. Say with that green to orange change, she could look at it and say “Hmm that green isn’t communicating what I want it to,” and you could respond by, in real-time, showing alternative swatches in the same place, instead of sending different revisions each time.

As far as the work situation goes, this is the kind of thing that can be the stretching pains as everybody gets used to each other - but it sounds like you might be having some other issues, so it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out for trouble and the other watching for a potential new roost. If an honest attempt to make things right doesn’t go well, your work environment might be shifting to the toxic side, and I personally wouldn’t want to stay in a place with that kind of energy.

[Fabvs]

A lot of great points made!!
You definitely need to have your meeting with HR to get to the bottom of some of these issues and to see if it can be resolved.

[Just-B]

@Fabvs

You definitely need to have your meeting with HR to get to the bottom of some of these issues and to see if it can be resolved.

As soon as something’s elevated to HR, it turns into a formal process with lots of possible ramifications. It’s always an option, but it’s good to keep in mind that HR stands for Human Resources. In other words, most companies view their employees as needed resources that keep the company running.

Businesses set up Human Resources departments to manage the miscellaneous hassles associated with employees. Never forget that the Human Resources people work for the company, not for its employees. Their bias will always favor the company’s position.

[Fabvs]

You make a very good point.

[sprout]

@Just-B

Businesses set up Human Resources departments to manage the miscellaneous hassles associated with employees. Never forget that the Human Resources people work for the company, not for its employees. Their bias will always favor the company’s position.

The second they renamed Personnel ,HR, you knew things were going downhill. Human Resources is such a dispassionate, almost inhumane term, the irony gets lost. Humans are not resources!

[grady00]

@Just-B

Businesses set up Human Resources departments to manage the miscellaneous hassles associated with employees. Never forget that the Human Resources people work for the company, not for its employees. Their bias will always favor the company’s position.

I called our HR department for this first time ever (worked here almost 4 years) and they came across as fairly cold. After discussing the reason I called, she asked me how my life was going, which seemed nice, but when I gave an answer (very brief description of one of my on-the-job woes) the response was basically “try harder”. Which lol I probably need to do to some degree, but at the same time…she asked seeming like she cared but in the end there was nothing caring about it. I got the sense that she was checking a gauge on a piece of equipment rather than asking me a question in a human sensitivity kind of way.

…and how does this rant benefit the OP…? I dunno.

[noahmatt]

@Just-B

You’ve been there eight years. Why do you need a creative brief written by someone else to tell you how to do the sort of thing you’ve been doing for eight years. Write your own creative brief and run it by them.

I know how I would do this project, and I thought my draft(s) were fine. It would be great to meet with the new VP and get a sense of if they have a vision that is drastically different, but under this new structure I was told I have to go through my supervisor. Writing my own creative brief and running it by them is actually a great idea.

@Just-B

You might not have the title to go with it, but from what you’ve described, it sounds like they’re expecting you to step up to the plate and serve as the equivalent of the art director without them having to tell you how to do your job.

Since I have never worked under a ‘real’ Art Director, and have never been one, how would you describe the role of an AD? Are they the ‘sign-off’ person? Do they create content? How does that role differ from a lone-wolf graphic designer working with non-design directors & VPs like in my situation?

[Smurf2]

These people tend to like structure and processes.

If you have Microsoft Visio you could start by making some workflow charts.
This would trigger procedural changes in your company for your work.

Everyone has them, it’s how we get our ISO certificates.

There’s a lot going on here - but I think you need to address the elephant in the room and find out why it was you who gotten written up for excess versions when all your versions were at the behest of management.

Once you clear that up - you can then ascertain that there are procedural issues and you can discuss them.

No.1 rule you should push is that nothing comes to design without sign off at management first. All that content needs to be signed off before you even touch design.

People will argue that there is no way it can all be signed off before getting to you and they need to see it in layout first. But you have to stay strong and admit - yes there are times where there will be reworks.

So you need to get your Flow Charts going Microsoft Visio and start making plans for iterations or reworkings.

It can be simply something like

<

VP writes article
Proofread by management
Amends
2nd proofread
CEO sign off

If CEO makes amends
VP instructs management
Management amend
Proofread by VP
Signed off by CEO

Article submitted for Design
Must submit image suggestions

<>

Design Iterations x 2 layout options (2 pages not whole document) (or whatever is practical
Design offers image suggestions where practical
Management/VP decide on layout (or mix match)
Layout finalised
Design from start to finish with supplied content
Designs submitted to management
Management proofread

Design changes if required
Management approves
Submits to VP
VP makes amends
Management + Design sits with VP to discuss amends
Deisgn changes done
Management reviews
VP reviews
VP submits to CEO

It will end up looking something like these

Automatically document Visio process diagrams in Microsoft Word

And to management type people these things look pretty and gives them a sense of structure.

Once everyone agrees to the structured process you should have a clearer pathway.

[Smurf2]

The whole formatting of my post changed - but I think you might get it.

[Just-B]

@noahmatt

…under this new structure I was told I have to go through my supervisor.

From how you described things, that doesn’t seem to be working out too well. Why your supervisor doesn’t want you talking to the VP, I don’t know. There’s could be a bunch or reasons having to do with anything from her own micromanaging insecurity to organizational, chain-of-command norms within your company.

Whatever the reason, it seems to be at the root of the problem. You’re doing what you think needs to be done. It’s handed off to a middle person with no design experience who takes it to the VP. The VP makes a bunch of comments, then it filters back down to you through your supervisor. The probability of miscommunication in this kind of situation is close to 100 percent.

Assuming your supervisor is a reasonable person (a big assumption), she wants to fix the problem as much as you do, so explain the situation from your perspective and present her with some solutions that you think will help prevent these kinds of problems going forward.

@noahmatt

…how would you describe the role of an AD?

The main role of an AD is to make sure things get done and done well, on time and within budget. How that happens differs between companies and situations. What it always entails though, is someone who has lots of experience, is a problem solver, knows how to work with people and has enough experience, talent and self-confidence to be a leader.

@noahmatt

Are they the ‘sign-off’ person? Do they create content? How does that role differ from a lone-wolf graphic designer working with non-design directors & VPs like in my situation?

Like I mentioned, ADs work with other people and do what’s necessary to get things done by leveraging their experience, convincing others by making good arguments, solving difficult problems, providing leadership, and backing it all up with the expertise and authority that comes from experience, know-how, talent, people skills, and good judgment.

For the past 30 years, all my different jobs have had combinations of the following titles: art/design/creative/communication/marketing directors. Each job has been very different from the others, but they’ve all had a few things in common, like the need to assume that I’m the expert in charge of my piece of the puzzle, convincing others of that through my actions and willingness to help them achieve their goals, using the appropriate people skills to form friendships and alliances, and backing it up with the kind of results that let others know that I wasn’t just faking it. The actual title itself doesn’t necessarily mean all that much or automatically grant you the authority needed — that comes with playing the part, having a positive impact, being a team player and showing results. These are all things you can do in your current situation — even without the title to go along with it.

One final thing: none of us here know the details of the situation you’re in. There’s been lots of good advice, but you’ll need to decide for yourself whether the advice applies to your unique situation.

[Eriskay]

@Just-B

The main role of an AD is to make sure things get done and done well, on time and within budget. How that happens differs between companies and situations. What it always entails though, is someone who has lots of experience, is a problem solver, knows how to work with people and has enough experience, talent and self-confidence to be a leader.

Damn right.

[Maria]

you’ve gotten a lot of good advice here which I would just add, you might want to try a little humor. Try explaining to the new VP that it takes time for you to get to know a new person before you can read their mind. In truth, designers must be mind readers, who likes green, who hates it, who likes serif fonts, who thinks they are archaic. It’s tougher because you are working remotely. However I understand, I was an in house designer, later AD, and then worked in the same position freelance from home after I had kids. I had a revolving door of marketing people, who didn’t know the company as well as I did, and didn’t know me from anywhere, (this was 15 years ago, so no FaceTime either). I had to learn everyone’s quirks. It’s tough, but if you use some humor and explain that given some time you will get a shorthand with them, it should be ok. And you MUST be your own AD, it’s clear they are looking to you. Design with confidence, give them 3 good choices and defend why you did them. And make sure everyone uses Acrobat for edits. NEVER TAKE NOTES, make them type everything. Do not be responsible for typing, cut and paste is your best friend, this way you are never the one who spelled it wrong. Take it from someone who spelled “edition” wrong on the spine of a book that got printed…
and if all else fails, look for another job quick