Hush, hush
Ah, the best laid plans. Today’s post was originally going to be about some exciting new business we have here at Big. But the confidentiality needs of our client prevent us from making any announcements just yet. Which, frankly, is a refreshing change of pace. Because notions like confidentiality, privacy, and discretion feel increasingly quaint these days, like the antiquated values of a bygone era, as more and more business people twitter, facebook, and blog their every move throughout the day.
And yes, I did say business people. Because this over-sharing trend isn’t confined to our personal lives, away from work; in fact, one consequence of the pervasiveness of the phenomenon is the erosion of the line between the personal and professional, between the somewhat more formal persona adopted at work and the causal, real self we reserve for home and friends and family. It’s all one and the same now, especially for the generation just entering the workplace. Behaving differently at work is almost a foreign idea for a lot of twenty-somethings; they consider it pretense and hypocrisy. Which is maybe why they don’t take down all the drunken party pictures on their social networking websites, even though they know many prospective employers search out these sites as a matter of course during the hiring process.
Me, I like a little professional decorum, a little separation between work and home modes. Although Big has a reputation for amicable and close relationships with our clients, we do remember that clients is what they are. Customers. People paying for our service. And you don’t treat clients like friends. You treat them better.
And part of treating them better means not exposing them to every little quirk and eccentricity that make up our personalities—and trust me, as an advertising creative, I’ve got quirks a-plenty. That stuff is private. And I expect my clients have a few things they’d like to keep private, too. Plus, if they’re smart, which our clients are, they know some things absolutley must be kept private. Confidential. Like new business efforts that aren’t quite yet signed, sealed, and delivered. Like the original topic of today’s post. More on that later.