Train rides and teas

My name is Emily Smith and I’ve been working at Wordville for the past three days on work experience. It’s certainly safe to say that I’ve had far more opportunities working here than I would have had done in Tesco, and I am very grateful for the chance to work here and for the insight the experience has given me into how PR really works.

Day one: The commute. With the number of large business men surrounding, getting to work was a daunting prospect in itself.  Once here I was bombarded with tasks: clippings, magazine overviews, meeting arrangements and more. I quickly started on clippings. All of this work was shocking, as my friends’ texts complained they did nothing but watch videos on Youtube, make teas and watch men e-mail all day.

Although work is never supposed to be fun, I was happy to get on with it. That way I wasn’t twiddling my thumbs for hours like my friends back in High Wycombe.

Day two: Clippings finally finished, onto the next tasks. One thing that I appreciate is the kettle. As on weekends I seem to have a cuppa every couple of hours, schooldays feel like 6 hour long periods of tea deprivation. The copious tea consumption at Wordville meant there was always a cup of PG’s on hand. I was also given the huge responsibility of post duty which was an honour.

2:40pm I left Wordville towers to get the train and sit in on a client meeting. This was beneficial as it gave me an idea of the client PR relationship and the way in which collaboration is crucial. This also meant an early finish. By 4:10pm I was out of the meeting and on Tottenham Court Rd with Dorothy Perkins and a rather nice blue dress calling my name.

Day three: Today I have written up meeting notes, researched PR stunts and now I’m just waiting for Jess’ tasks, bobbing along to a bit of Radio 1.

Tomorrow there is a video streaming that I’ve signed up to watch on www.prweeklive.com and I’m also being taken along to another client meeting at that I’m looking forward to.

Overall my experience at Wordville so far has been very enjoyable and everybody here has been very welcoming in the office.

So for my impressions: Lucy is very on the ball during work, with bags of energy in the way that she speaks and acts. Jess is hugely competitive and always well prepared. She knows exactly what is needed when it comes to her clients. Steph is calm and very efficient in the tasks that she does, whilst Pema is a great guide and explains everything extremely well. Last but not least, Polly is great and very ‘in the know’ with her work and prepared for what anyone throws at her. 

Before I came to the company I thought PR was simply organising events for businesses. Working at Wordville has shown me that PR here is all about helping companies ‘punch above their weight’. The Wordvillains have fun but also really care about their clients, and this is something I admire.

By Emily Smith

The Tea Drought

I read an interesting fact the other day. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. In our office, I can quite confidently say it’s the other way round. Our kettle is by far the hardest working member of our team and without it we would be at a loss, or at least the three heavy tea drinkers, myself included, would be. In less than five weeks, we have worked our way through a box of 250 tea bags and countless pints of milk.

 I think tea is a versatile drink that plays a vital role in our daily lives. It’s a drink shared between friends over gossip- it helps to forge bonds. It can be a drink to cheer someone up or an energy drink. Within our office, brainstorms are rarely held without a cuppa in hand – I strongly believe it helps to spur our creativity. Consumed first thing in the morning, the first round of teas is always met with huge enthusiasm and it is only after that first restorative sip that the thunderous sound of keyboards tapping begins.

This Wednesday, our office suffered a fate worse than death. We ran out of tea bags.

Now I know the fact our office was without tea bags for several hours isn’t front page news. It won’t be trending on Twitter or have the FT banging down our door but, for us, the impact was severe.

Working in PR, we pride ourselves on our ability to anticipate change and spot potential crisis. We then take the necessary steps in advance to avoid them. Here at Wordville, we’re experts in crisis management. We anticipated this near disaster the previous Monday and placed an order with Tesco’s for delivery on Wednesday afternoon. Ideally we would have picked Wednesday morning but hey- you can’t win them all. 


By Pema Seely