Back-to-back meetings and endless “busy work” have become the norm in media and marketing—but it comes at the cost of creativity, learning and long-term outcomes. In this op-ed, Maddie Basso, head of Yahoo DSP Australia, argues it’s time for the industry to push back, reclaim thinking time and refocus on the work that really matters.
One of the things I love about this industry is the energy. The ideas, the pace, the camaraderie—it’s why many of us got into media and marketing in the first place. But, somewhere along the way that energy has morphed into something else: a culture where being constantly busy has become a badge of honour. And that worries me.
If your calendar isn’t stacked with back-to-back calls, team WIPs and document rewrites, are you even working? Somehow busyness has become the industry’s default setting—I myself have fallen victim to this.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: all that “busy work” is making us worse at the work that’s most valuable.
Hands up if you go into an office during the week and end up sat alone in a meeting room for half the day talking to people through a screen, rather than collaborating with the actual humans you’re there to see (my hand is up FYI). I think the cracks all of this busy work is creating are starting to show right across the industry.
With mounting client demands and tighter timelines, vendors and agencies often find themselves without the breathing space to push back or reframe expectations, even when they know it would lead to stronger outcomes. The speed of delivery today often leaves little room for the depth of strategic rigour that gives campaigns their edge.
Junior talent – the future of our industry – are being promoted really quickly. While this is fantastic, they still need the mentoring and in-person learning that comes from dedicated time with clients, media owners and senior leaders.
Without those shared experiences, both juniors and seasoned teams risk losing some of the instincts and efficiencies that used to shape our strongest work. This isn’t just an anecdotal issue either. Recent research has found the average employee turnover remains at a staggering 16 per cent, with over a third of organisations (34 per cent) reporting turnover of 20 per cent or more.
The most commonly cited driver behind this exodus? Excessive workload—exactly what the ‘busy work’ culture is producing.
And this year, fewer than one in five Australian employees said they feel fully engaged at work—an 18 per cent drop on last year and a clear signal that our workforce is switching off. The result is a domino effect: high churn, declining expertise and a slow erosion of the creativity that’s been our greatest asset.
The pause that’s gone missing
This isn’t one of those ‘good old days’ pieces calling for a full time return to office for everyone. But the crux of the matter is, when so many of our interactions are squeezed into 30-minute video calls with 12 faces staring out from little boxes, there’s not enough oxygen left for curiosity, creativity or even basic human connection.
This lack of space has consequences. Clients expect more. Agencies are under pressure to deliver work faster and more cheaply and with every minute accounted for, there’s little room left for the kind of deep thinking and collaboration with tech and media partners that turns a decent idea into a great one.
Unfortunately, that means most of us lack the time to pause, reflect or challenge an approach before it snowballs into yet another rushed, rinse and repeat job.
The expertise drain
One of the most worrying outcomes of this “always on” culture is what it’s doing to our talent pipeline.
The industry has always been tough but there were informal structures that helped people learn the ropes. Juniors built their confidence by shadowing seniors in negotiations, meeting media owners and building networks that helped them understand the bigger picture.
Now, junior staff are spending their days glued to screens, grinding through tasks, updating spreadsheets or documents which no one ever checks, but are a procedural accountability hangover from the early days of remote working.
Overseas, research has even identified around a quarter of remote workers reported their social skills have declined, with many struggling to initiate conversations or join group discussions. This is a trend we are seeing locally as well, and is a sign that remote setups can limit the informal learning and mentorship junior staff rely on.
There’s precious little chance to build the relationships and broader knowledge that used to shape strong managers and directors. The result? People are being promoted without the depth of expertise their predecessors had at the same level.
That’s not a criticism of the talent—it’s a failing of the system around them. We’ve designed a way of working that leaves no room for learning or relationship building. And we shouldn’t be surprised when the churn rate climbs.
The cost of saying yes
Another side effect of being perpetually busy is that “no” has all but disappeared from our vocabulary.
Agencies and vendors more widely no longer have the breathing space to push back when requests are unrealistic, timelines are impossible, or budgets don’t match expectations. Instead, people say yes, because challenging it would take longer than challenging something you know isn’t the best solution.
The point is, the resulting output might be fine. It could even tick all the boxes. But without time dedicated to a rigorous strategy, experimentation and ample forethought, we may never know if the work could be even better and not just meet expectations, but exceed them.
So saying no isn’t about being difficult—it’s about protecting the work, the people, the long-term outcomes and mutual client/partner respect. But if busy remains the default, no-one has the time or energy to hold the line.
So how can we fix it?
- Reframe the value of time: As an industry, we need to stop seeing thinking time as indulgent. Debate, mentoring, reflection – these are investments, not inefficiencies. If clients, agencies and partners give themselves permission to carve out this space, the work will only get sharper.
- Use tools that free us from the grind: Intelligent automation and AI can be allies here by taking the weight out of repetitive admin so humans can lean into strategy, storytelling and innovation leaps. The real risk isn’t the tech, it’s under-using it. Yahoo DSP is rolling out new tools that show how automation can cut campaign setup from hours to minutes, giving teams back space for the thinking that matters.
- Lead by example: As leaders, we need to model the behaviours we want to see – taking the coffee meeting, not just the Zoom call; making time to mentor juniors properly, not squeezing them between deadlines; saying no when “busy” threatens to become the default.
Onwards and upwards!
Our next generation is pivotal to the success of the industry. Let’s invest our time into them and show them that clear management of expectations builds stronger bonds in the long-term. Busy doesn’t build brands. Busy doesn’t train the next generation. And busy certainly doesn’t deliver he kind of creative, strategic work our clients need in a market that’s only getting tougher. Yes, pushing back on being busy is going to feel hard and it’s going to take self control.
But our industry has always thrived on ideas, imagination and human connection. If we let “busy” take that away from us, we’ll lose the very thing that makes us valuable.
It’s time to collectively push back against the busy, work together as an industry to set realistic boundaries and get back to doing the work that matters, the work that only us humans can do.
Busy is not the new black.
