Kell on Earth S1E2

Manager of the Year, 2010

Darlings there was one question and one question only running through our heads last night watching this episode.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

But first, a little autobiographical diversion. Tom once worked for a high-volume, short-turnaround advertising agency full of extreme personalities. Now, Tom loved the fact that it was such an insane, stressful job because he got to spend his days with over-the-top personalities doing what he loves to do best: marrying the creative side of the industry to the business side, making sure everyone winds up happy. Unfortunately, this agency was run by a bunch of rank amateurs who had zero managerial skills and the interpersonal skills to match. The point? The most exciting, creative, insanely fun jobs in the world can be ruined when the people in charge don't do their damn jobs. Tom spent 5 years there, 3 of which he loved, 2 of which left him fetal every night when he got home. If there's one thing Tom can't abide (and there isn't. There are DOZENS of things he can't abide), it's seeing a poorly run company.

Now, Kell on Earth is a reality show and one must always remember when discussing reality shows the very first rule of reality shows: There is no reality. As such, we're not going to state definitively that People's Revolution is one of the worst-run companies we've ever seen. We don't know that. We only know what's on our TV screen and what's on our TV screen sure looks like one of the worst-run companies we've ever encountered.

As an aside, we had a litte debate last night as to just how staged this show might be. We came to the conclusion that it's probably one of the least staged reality shows we've ever seen, mainly because everyone's so insanely busy they can't possibly have the time to run through staged scenarios, not to mention that as a publicist, her clients wouldn't be too happy to see that sort of thing. We're not saying there's NO staging, just not on the level of a show like, say, Flipping Out.

So. Back to this unbelievably poorly run company. Look, we're not engaging in ageism here (okay, maybe a little), but you can't stock your company ENTIRELY with inexperienced 20-somethings. Sure, they bring a lot of energy and a willingness to learn, but someone, somewhere in your organization has to have a little bit of experience in order to pull the team together. These frikking students can't use a printer or stamp an envelope without fucking it up.

But we don't blame the kids here. Apparently the managerial style at PR is to have all the managers give really vague instructions to the staff and then not check up on their progress. Then, when they find out at the last second that the kids fucked something up, they freak out and do it themselves. That's like textbook bad management. That's the kind of stuff that you role play at horrible corporate retreats in order to demonstrate how not to run a business.

To put it in the most blunt terms, we'll just repeat what we screamed at the TV last night when Kelly addressed all her various managerial problems by burning incense: "HEY! HOW ABOUT YOU PUT DOWN THE SAGE AND PICK UP THE PHONE AND HIRE A FUCKING OFFICE MANAGER!"

In other news, that cute little Irish lucky charm was magically delicious, wasn't he? Terrible handwriting and none too bright, but he's the first real bit of eye candy we've seen on this show.

Honestly, we can't imagine that this show is doing her reputation any good. We said last week that we don't live in their world and we can't imagine all the pitfalls and difficulties of navigating it, but watching them almost completely fuck up the seating for the Ralph Rucci show had us asking how hard it can be. Seriously, how hard can it be to make up a seating list full of your RSVPs and then seat them when they show up? Sure, things go wrong and it's a high stress situation but we saw absolutely nothing that couldn't be attributed to their own fuckups. And you just don't stand in the lobby of the tents at Bryant Park screaming at people to get out of the line if they weren't invited. That's not classy and it's not professional.

On the other hand, we came away from the show not exactly loving Ralph Rucci himself. Sure, he was under a lot of stress and we wouldn't expect him to come off lovable, but still. Prissy, self-important, and impossible to work with is how he looked to us.

Which leads to our next point: the show instantly becomes more interesting when they're not in the office. Bryant Park, model castings, installations. That's why we want to watch this show. Ten minutes of drama over where they keep the stamps or a half hour over a printer malfunction (They have no IT people on-site. Unbe-fucking-lievable) is a little too close to home for most people who work in an office. The point to a show like this is to watch the goings-on behind the scenes in the fashion world. Not to watch clueless interns stand their with their mouths open while Kelly has another eruption over something that ultimately, is her own damn fault.

Anyway, here's the Chado Ralph Rucci spring 2010 collection from last night's show. Beautiful, yes?

[Photos: BravoTV.com/Style.com]


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