Hello. Goodbye.

This is supposed to be a relationship business. But the majority of media planners don't stay in a job for more than two years so how do you create and maintain a relationship? Sure the seniors often hang around but they aren't the ones we have to sell.

Just as soon as we get close enough to somebody so that they will return the occasional call, they're off to another agency (or worse, they have moved to the media side as a rep - a subject for another day). And when we locate them, they are working on a TV-only account. So it's back to the drawing board.

We can spend as much time managing our databases as we do selling. And the new faces just keep coming. You know, those 12-year old media assistants who do the leg work of calling reps for information; one in ten of whom will still be in this brutal industry by this time next year.

Why do they leave so soon? For an office? A couple grand more? A better boss? A more interesting account? A TV account (do TV reps call planners non-stop?)? A funky office with a pool table and cafe? A better-sounding title (I've always liked that MBS calls juniors "Media Executives" - probably saves them $5,000 per employee)? The promise of work-life balance? Because they are bored to stink can't imagine another day doing this shit but aren't qualified for anything but another media job? Me thinks it's a combination of all the above and who can blame them! Would you want to work in an agency fielding/avoiding 1,000 calls a day from hungry reptiles? The very thought sends shivers down my spine.

Sure it sounds cool "Ad Agency Media Executive" but when you are working for peanuts, always being asked to produce more work faster and doing insane hours, the cool factor wear thin fast. But where to go but another agency in the vain hope that it will be better.

One agency that used to keep their people was Leo Burnett. In fact so few people left that everybody would be promoted at the same time (new title, small salary increase, same job and boss). But today even it (now Starcom) suffers from the revolving door syndrome. A classic example was when Suzanne Ware left the agency and her husband John Ware took her job.

This is a big issue for us reps but an even bigger one for the agencies. Some turnover is healthy but this industry is nuts. Why can't they get a handle on this?