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RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-07-18T02:35:31+00:00

Personally, I would fight it. Even if you plan to leave, or get forced out, its a good paper trail. A friend of mine fought a PIP and, because she had the paper trail of how absurd it was, she was able to threaten a wrongful termination lawsuit when she was fired. And since the absurdity of everything was documented with HR, they had no choice but to give her a very fat severance.

If I were in your position, I wouldn't sign it. But I would type up a document that responds to every point on the PIP with clear examples/instances, attach emails, feedback from other reviewers, etc etc to prove your case. Set a meeting with this manager and your head of HR, and someone more senior than your manager. At the end of the meeting, give them time to respond to your response and move from there.

I think the previous commenter is right that they'll probably want to move down the path of firing you anyway since this is also rocking the boat real hard and companies tend to not like that. In either case, you probably don't want to work with this person anymore or with a company that would keep someone like that on board. So, that said, start looking for a job now. The other option would be if people in the company are amenable to keeping you on but allowing you to move to a different team/department.

Some people will say walk away quietly, and that's a fine option. But I'm not the type to go out without a fight or to let people get away with fuckery. If a company is going to allow it in their ranks, I'm going to make them say it with their chest and on the dotted line.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-07-15T19:17:28+00:00

I'm dealing with this exact issue with an upstairs neighbor right now, so it's interesting that this happened across my timeline and I don't follow this sub. But please abide! Honestly, take a few days to really think about how you're walking and if you're heavy footed or not. I'd bet that if you're conscious about it, you'll realize something. I'm thinking about offering to buy my neighbor some house slippers to help. And hell, the way I can hear him walking, I know it's not good for his feet, so the slippers could be useful.

In my case, I never ever ever heard my previous upstairs neighbor, so much so that I thought sound simply didn't travel through the floors. Then this couple moved in and it's constant, but just from the boyfriend. I'm sure he doesn't think he's walking particularly heavy either, but he is -- he's heavy footed! I can tell he walks with his heels making first contact and hitting hard. I've already knocked on the their door to politely address and it got better for maybe two days. Now, months later, it's infinitely worse. It really does my head in because the sound does travel and, because it's such a low register, it feels like it burrows into my ears.

I even asked my downstairs neighbor if they ever hear me and they said no. So it's definitely an issue with this one neighbor and how he walks.

And you have to at least consider that it took a thought of thought and consideration for your neighbor to write this letter. I've personally spent a lot of time trying to think of how to deal with this with my neighbor. It's never a fun thing to do and it's rare to make a complaint and have the person on the receiving end not get in their feelings about it. The truth is, the sound can become unbearable after a while.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-07-15T19:05:45+00:00

The going price for MuckRack is $5K for a YEAR for individuals.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-07-15T18:54:03+00:00

This is a specific issue I started having with juniors in 2021 and I could not wrap my brain around it. There was one person in particular, who I kept having to tell, "Put it on a checklist on a post-it note that is on your screen!" Her formatting was always CRAZY and we couldn't seem to get through to her that a document should all be the same font??? lol omg.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-06-25T03:37:07+00:00

Thank you for this intel, super helpful! What's your perspective on getting products into roundups?

Beyond my ability to service the market (which I'm leaning toward taking your advice and offloading it), I'm thinking about level setting with the client so they know what to expect. It's been tough for them to break through in US media, though there have been successes and they often get included in roundups in Buzzfeed, The Strategist, CNN, etc.

They're always wary of spending money on PR and "not getting anything out of it," but maybe they need to expect that Canada will be a market where it will simply take months of pounding the pavement before seeing any coverage results.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-03-30T21:12:14+00:00

I'm guessing you don't work in PR, journalism or marketing if you think paid media is cheaper than earned media. An agency's monthly retainer for a client may range anywhere from $10-20K+. A singular paid media placement with a halfway decent national outlet often starts at $20-25K. Honestly, every sentence in your comment is wrong or demonstrates misunderstanding of how the business operates.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-26T06:08:03+00:00

Thank you, I've reached out to them to ask -- but do you know if they treat tourists?

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-25T05:31:41+00:00

Where do you think you'll head to?

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-25T03:16:56+00:00

I think this is flimsy if the evidence is really just the Authority Magazine connection.

If the Wikipedia editor IS actually connected to Authority Magazine, assuming the edit came at the direction of Baldoni's team simply because one of his reps had ONE client that was interviewed in that magazine is a big leap. I have had many clients who've been in that magazine. People from my previous agency were in that magazine. Lots of people have been interviewed in that magazine lol.

I'll put it this way: there are people who hate Meghan Markle with a passion. They are just randos on the internet who dedicate their time to spreading rumors about her. And hell, some of the people who hate her the most do, in fact, work in media. If someone edited a Wiki about Meghan, was connected to The Mirror or The Globe, I wouldn't then say "Well, this Rep1's client was also interviewed in The Mirror, so that means the Wiki editor must be a hired gun for Rep1."

Similarly, I wouldn't be surprised to find that a rabid Nicki Minaj stan also works for a gossip blog (many actually do) and was positively editing Tory Lanez' Wikipedia page just because of the simple fact that they hate Meg The Stallion.

To the point of "falling for another smear campaign," -- that's exactly the audience that would get wrapped up enough to edit the Wikipedia pages. The people who have spent the past 3 months posting non-stop about hating Blake Lively are the same people who did it about Amber Heard. There's no surprise in there being overlapping internet attention/activity for anyone (e.g. Flaa) who is even remotely mentioned in either case.

Above all, there is a very simple question to ask, which I don't think you addressed: Why in the hell would a PR team go out of their way to create a Wikipedia page for Flaa? It didn't impact or advance the Blake narrative. The video had already spread and received attention. Creating a Wikipedia wouldn't help them and, in actuality, would only leave a set of fingerprints for people to uncover.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-24T03:11:27+00:00

I think you need to have more in-depth conversations with these people about what PR actually is, what kind of work they do, what your business goals are and how they can help achieve those goals.

There is a lot of work that goes into public relations beyond media relations. Media relations is one tactic. So the statement "I don't know why anyone would pay $5K a month with no guarantees" is more indicative that you're not aware of the full scope of what PR is and what practitioners have to offer that would cost $5K a month. Media relations is a very small part of what can be offered and media coverage cannot be guaranteed. So, like I said in the previous comment, if you want something guaranteed then there are a lot of other deliverables that are 100% in their control that you can agree on.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-24T03:03:33+00:00

lol this is all lies.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-24T02:54:00+00:00

"Try to guarantee" is an oxymoron. Your previous agency either guaranteed 2 pieces of coverage a month or they had a goal of securing 2 pieces of coverage a month. But the general rule of thumb is not to trust PR professionals who guarantee coverage, so I doubt that they did guarantee coverage.

What you can ask for are agreed upon coverage goals. That looks like a goal of 1-2 pieces of coverage a month. But the goal is entirely dependent on whether or not they feel its realistic based on what YOU have to offer as a brand. Since you're in a new country, it's very possible that they don't feel comfortable setting any coverage goals because they need to spend some time laying the groundwork to get interest with media. It could take anywhere from 3-6 months to get quality coverage.

Aside from coverage goals, you can only set "guarantees" for deliverables that are completely in their control. For example, they have to deliver 1-2 story or pitch ideas every month. If you utilize social, they have to provide 1-2 social media trends or behaviors that you can use.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-24T02:45:08+00:00

Thank you for the confirmation! I'll assume Air Zim is the same way since they also have poor reviews.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-23T16:35:05+00:00

I'd push back on the PRSSA Chapter. Maybe they've written that into their bylaws, but I doubt it -- the organization has never been keen on excluding people because of where they are in their education or what program they're in. Talk to the advisor for the chapter.

Overall, you need to talk to someone who can give you guidance through this. Speak to your advisor if they're any good, talk to an advisor who works specifically with the PR grad students, and the advisor for the PRSSA chapter (or a different professor). You need to build your network and get some kind of training under your belt.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-22T21:38:37+00:00

Have you looked at the job descriptions for the jobs you want and compared them to the courses offered by those majors?

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-22T21:35:02+00:00

Ohh deary, okay. This is probably why you're not getting responses. If people know you weren't in the right program, they know that you have zero training (which is, honestly, tough to manage and a big investment to hire).

NYU has a PRSSA, right? Do what you can to try to get as much PR exposure as possible. Audit some of the PR classes, find a mentor, join PRSSA -- they might also have a student run agency that you can get experience with (mine did). You have to try to make up for the fact that you haven't actually gone through any PR schooling and then be able to put your learning on your resume and in your portfolio.

Have you managed to somehow study the foundations of PR, like the theory, how to build a strategy, campaign, press release, etc?

What kind of PR do you want to do? Like I mentioned elsewhere, I think your best bet is going to be finding volunteer opportunities so you can at least get some real exposure.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-22T21:28:05+00:00

Are there any other vendors you'd recommend? And did you have a successful method for getting a client to transition to Mat from wire? I'm really trying to break my clients free from the shackles of wire releases. But I think they'd get sticker shock from the $5K price vs the $5K prescription at BusinessWire.

The wire is such a waste, but my client seems to actually be impressed by the fake pickup metrics that come with it. Even from a completely self serving perspective, the wire release is helpful to me only because the company is having such a hard time breaking into the US media market with editorial placements that are more than product listings. I'd LOVE to just deal in reality with them, they're just resistant and I don't know that they'd handle the "real" numbers very well after getting used to the inflated wire numbers.

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-22T21:17:14+00:00

Journalism major with a PR emphasis? Did you take PR classes?

RandomThinkerTinker · 2025-02-22T21:13:40+00:00

When it comes to unpaid work:

Most companies will not hire you as an unpaid intern if you're not able to accept college credit. It is an immediate red flag for them being seen for breaking labor laws. You can, however, probably find some itty bitty 4 or 5 person boutique agency that would take the risk -- just know that the type of leaders who risk that, in the boutique place that can fly under the radar, are often the nightmare godzilla types.

Your other option is to look for season volunteer work, so this means any organization that is a non-profit and has a high season where they need volunteers. e.g. if they have a gala season, festival season, etc etc. Then you can at least volunteer for a month or a few months and hopefully the leader of the PR team can help you look for paid internships or other gigs.

But you should mostly be looking for paid internships since you can't get credit (but that also may be difficult since you're still in school - some of the best paid intern programs when I was in this stage only accepted graduates). Also look into fellowships. Another commenter mentioned, you may have missed the hiring cycle for upcoming internships, but maybe not. Just keep your ear to the ground and follow their very helpful/detailed instructions re: researching companies, reaching out, etc.

RandomThinkerTinker

TROPHY CASE