For many years, my dad has had the pleasure of working at Haggie Partners and I always knew he really enjoyed it, but I have never fully understood what he actually does for five days a week to pay for my barbecue steak at the weekend.
This week I had the opportunity to be the inside man and learn about the world of public relations at Haggie Partners and how it all works.
My dad has been working at Haggie Partners for nearly 10 years now. When he tries to explain it to me, and/or my brother and sister, he makes it sound like he asks people to write and edit things other people have written and edited to then send off to the newspapers. Luckily it is much more interesting than that and there is a bit more to it.
When I started off on a Monday morning, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I didn’t know if I was going to have a wonderful time or if it would be the worst week of my life with my new shoes blistering my feet and the Zara suit my mother had dressed me in cramping my style.
But to my surprise, it did go quite well. I started by reading a proposal my dad wrote for a new client while he answered all his emails and kept up to date with all his much-loved clients. After I finished that he took me through to the meeting room where he spoke to me about insurance. I learnt about the various types of insurance and how they are used. This was particularly important for me to know because my dad works specifically with insurance companies.
I then went on to sit in on some meetings he had with clients and other businesses to understand how they talk to each other and what they talk about. In that first day I really grasped the basic concept of PR and how it was important. I was lucky enough to sit in on a client interview (off camera, of course) and then saw the piece published in the Insurance Insider later that week.
Over the course of the week, I quickly learned more and more about the job, and I was adapting nicely to office life. I also realized that hard work and decent work is much easier to get done if you are surrounded by nice people and a good atmosphere. It is more motivating and makes you more willing to go into the office – where you will definitely get more work done than working at home. And then at the end of you day you feel so much more pleased with yourself and happier because of everything you’ve achieved.
So, after one week at Haggie Partners, I have learned that my dad does a lot more than get other people to do his work for him. He drafts press releases, oversees client media interviews, talks to journalists, keeps up to date with existing clients and pitches to new clients. But most importantly he keeps everyone in the office happy and motivated. Haggie Partners has the best work environment ever and everyone is so kind and funny which makes for some brilliant banter. But they work hard too, to get the job done to a high standard for happy clients.
By Mungo Beeley