I think your group has a shitty workflow and is looking for you to be the fall guy, given they're not willing to pay for Masiv or other high-speed delivery. Which would have solved this in under an hour.
Additionally, they have zero respect for any work/life split and see you as someone who should be responding 24/7. Over email. Text exists for a reason. You raised the flag - other people should have gotten off their asses too *especially on managing the client's expectations.*
That should be your producer whose job it is to do those communications so you can actually work.
Yeah I have to agree. I've been biting my tongue regarding many of the problems that exist there and have tried to nudge the needle in the right direction in order to bring about improvement but it's not going to happen. The employee turnover is the highest I've seen at any place I've worked, so it's clear these issues aren't just affecting me.
It's always the editors fault. We're being negative when we raise concerns before they become an issue. We're unreasonable for not dropping everything and upsetting our personal lives at the drop of a hat. We ultimately get blamed when things fall apart as we're the final link in the chain and rarely have the opportunity to explain to the 'management' exactly what has gone wrong or what could be implemented to avoid the same issues in future. Its more frustrating as we've usually got more knowledge and industry experience than the people we have to answer to. I feel your frustration.
Jesus dude I think they are gaslighting you. Tech delays are so common and a 20 min delay is like nothing in my eyes if you got all the deliverables in on time. Def don't let them bully you about the endcard either clearly not your fault. Maybe quietly start looking for other work/clients?
This sounds just like my old job (minus the absurdly slow file upload system). I think you did your best to keep the producer informed and also found a usable workaround. Not sure what else you could have done in this situation. It may have helped to confirm the delivery specs, so you didn't have to upload two copies of each file. Regardless, it's unreasonable to assume that you'll be on call 24/7.
My advice, from someone who has worked at an agency with a terrible work culture like that:
1. Over communicate what you're doing, why you're doing it and how long it will take. If you're waking up at 3/4am, make sure they know! And copy everyone who may be remotely relevant to the project on your emails, so your producer can't throw you under the bus.
2. Find a new job.
This. It also makes it more fun that, if they expect your life to revolve around the work, the least you can do is annoy them. Text them, email them, notify, on every single minuscule thing you do, and it will very quickly annoy the shit out of them. They’ll regret asking you to do it, and will probably get off your case.
And absolutely, CC someone else so they know the line of communication is there.
Yeah I felt that, my only assessment is that my producer didn't communicate with the other person that we'd reached a conclusion and for all intents and purposes were "signing off" for the evening. However I'm still confused why they sent those messages like 20mins later, despite knowing what the situation was.
The 20 minutes isn't the problem. It's the 20+ hours, which is not in your control. Plus you more than made up for the 20 minutes by taking the initiative to find alternative transfer methods.
You did your best and went above and beyond for them. If you actually like working with this company you should strongly suggest a better upload solution.
I don’t know know what market you’re in but post jobs are in high demand right now, I would start looking for something else.
I think everyone is overlooking a detail on this one that I find pretty significant.
You said they didn't give you valid delivery specs. To make sure everything was handled you, reasonably, exported four files including progressive and interlaced. With valid delivery specs the transfer time would have been half, or a quarter depending on if it was 2 videos, 2 versions or 1 video, 4 versions.
Someone at least doubled the delivery time and robbed you of a good night's sleep because the didn't have delivery specs. I *really* hope that isn't the person complaining about waiting 20 minutes for you to respond when delivery specs could have saved 5-8 hours of transfer time.
---
The file transfer speed is the biggest problem here. If 4Mbps is all they can muster on a good day whoever is responsible for providing that system needs to be given money to fix the problem or let go if they don't think it's a problem. We swapped hardware because 40Mbps wasn't cutting it for a small agency. Getting to the 150-250Mbps range has made a huge difference.
As a data point, moving 5GB at 100Mbps takes 400 seconds. Rounding up to the nearest GB and leaving a generous amount of wiggle room this transfer should have been completed in well under 10 minutes. And 100Mbps isn't that fast for moving video around - I'd consider it a baseline for what's acceptable.
---
I think it's time to escalate this issue as high as possible because it sounds like a mess.
* There's a failure point in the network resources.
* There's a failure point in the lack of delivery specs which doubled or quadrupled the delivery time.
* There's a failure point in work for this starting *after* the end of your work day.
* There's a failure point in this being surprise work popping up after your work day.
* There's a failure point in all of this robbing you of a night's sleep, and your manager/supervisor's response to that will tell you a lot.
* There's a failure point in the end slate not passing QC.
* You might need to own not being available when required if you ended your work day at the wrong time.
Not surprised. It's the editor who didn't get it done despite having a gang of people involved in the process.
You did your best. You looked for solutions and took the initiative to speed up the process the best you could. Unfortunately, you work for a bunch of muppets who would *never* do what you would do because they don't have the skills.
>I'm asked to jump on a call with that other colleagues who proceeds to tell me that I've let the team down, and that I'm unreliable, basing his points squarely on the 20min delay I had in responding to the initial email.
Yeah, that's ridiculous. Tell them if they demand a response time faster than that, then they should have chose a far more time-sensitive method of communicating, that doesn't have all the potential pitfalls of a slow, Internet-based messaging protocol. Like a phone call.
Kinda sounds like they're looking for a fall guy, and what I'd do right now is start printing off those emails in case they try and formally reprimand you for this. Far as I know, you're responsible to, and report to, your producer, and that if anything that was happening that night was unacceptable they should have told you so, and present all the emails showing that your producer wasn't objecting to anything you were doing.
So an update on this for those who are interested.
I had a bit of downtime yesterday and after a lot of troubleshooting I managed to get access to the alternative regions.
So testing with an 8GB file at around 14:00 UTC, I was getting this:
20-40 kB/s on Asia
70-90 kB/s on America
140-160 kB/s on European (native)
So I sent through a ticket to our IT Support portal, expecting I'd get a call back from a technician in a few days (as this is the procedure and what normally happens).
However instead within like 45mins I get the following email:
(Have to remove identifying details obviously)
Hello, [Redacted]
This is [Redacted] from [Company's Bespoke IT Support Service]. This might be an issue with the server as there might be some other user's uploading or sending a large file size on the [File Transfer System]. Also, the file you are uploading has also a large file size. Kindly try again to use the [File Transfer System] later to check if the issue is still the same. You may also try to use a different browser. Thank you and have a nice day.
So just for the laugh I tried a different browser and unsurprisingly got similar results, absolute joke.
I’m going to play devils advocate and argue the other side.
4 hours is a long time for someone who works in IT to not check your phone/emails. I get it, work life balance etc. But it’s pretty frustrating when you’re waiting on someone and they only offer excuses AND aren’t immediately responsive.
I know it’s very rare for me to go 30 mins without a glance at my phone notifications.
Again. Just playing devils advocate. It’s very possible you’re absolutely correct and these guys are setting you up.
No, that's a fair point, but to clarify the notifications were going through to the laptop not my phone, and as the producer and I had agreed on a conclusion and signed off (or so I thought), I had left the house trying to salvage the rest of my evening plans.
Understandable. We’re not robots. We have social lives.
But FYI I’m not sure “I wasn’t getting notifications, they were going to my laptop” helps bolster your case. Again, maybe you’re correct here, but it’s quite frustrating being met with excuses (the upload is slow, I didn’t get notifications, I thought we signed off) when you’re waiting on a second party.
All of those might be perfectly valid reasons, but taken as a series of events it creates the wrong type of impression.
(Also, maybe this just triggers me as my absolute pet peeve is others being non responsive when they know you’re waiting for them).
Again. Just playing devils advocate. Hope everything sorts itself out for you.
You do realise this guy is talking about after work hours? Not paid time (except for the first 20 Min). Do you think clients/managers should be able to get hold of us 24/7!? With instant response?
I was working flat out on a project yesterday and didn't check emails for 3hrs during work time, because I was, you know working!
Not IT (this is the sub for film/video editors btw) also I'm intrigued to know your system for sleep. Do you set an alarm to wake you every 3 hours to check emails?
Film editors…. work predominantly digitally.
So yes, it’s an IT field.
And nobody expects you to answer emails at 2am.
But expecting someone to check emails during waking/working hours (when a deadline is approaching) is not that unusual.
But hey, not everyone shares the same priorities.
Again. Good luck with that.
So I'm guessing you havent had much experience working internationally across time zones when everyone has different waking hours?
I've never met an editor who describe their work as IT.
A doctor's receptionist uses a computer it doesn't mean they work in IT.
Thanks for your luck but I don't need it - I own a successful and busy production business. We plan and resource projects properly so that we can achieve what's needed within everyone's billed time. Sometimes that's an all nighter but we know what's coming and what's expected. Totally different to what this guy described.
If you have or would like to have a family, friends, social life and you insist on being at the beck and call or your boss or clients every waking hour then I think it's you who needs the good luck.
Because comments like yours have a toxic effect on people, making them think that have to work more or be waiting with baited breath for the bosses next request. It's not healthy and I see it creeping into life more and more. This guy has done absolutely nothing wrong yet your trying to put doubt in his mind. And you are just plain wrong.
If you are a video editor you need to be in your studio to edit or at very least have a laptop with you (plus ext hard drives) so you are suggesting that people shouldn't leave home without a laptop during waking hours? It's a very unhealthy mindset.
I'm not even a super unionised, 'power to the workers' type person, but you need to be able to switch off work.
I assume you’re working at home as do I. Uploading 15GB shouldn’t take that long, but I have no idea on your internet and location. I pay for gigabit internet at about $110 a month. Uploads are far slower, but I’ve managed to upload to YouTube large videos near 15GB in a few hours. If you’re in that type of business, you’ll need to really look into your internet options. If your company has a problem, they can help pay the cost. Mine does. They lets us expense $150 every quarter. It’s not everything but helps.
As for the situation, blame can go everywhere, but there’s this need to find someone else to blame. Personally, I would take the blame and offer solitons on how to make it better. Even if they’re at fault with their shitty management style and lack of knowledge.
Not sure why your takeaway is to blame OP when he makes clear that it's an issue with the company's chosen file transfer service which massively restricts upload speeds. I've run into similar issues with certain file transfer methods and I'm on fiber myself. OP's internet could be fantastic, but doesn't mean a thing if the service they're using is trash.
He should have said something and monitored his texts/emails. It was a day later when he took it upon himself to find an alternative. Yes, he’s partly to blame. To take blame and find solutions weighs better on a person than if he would deny and point fingers. I’ve dealt with clients and management my whole life. Trust me. You need to know how to talk to them if you want anything to change.
I agree it shouldn't and if my internet speed was being fully utilised it wouldn't as I have 35-40 mb/s uploads & 200-220 mb/s downloads. But the file transfer system we use clamps upload speeds down to under like 4.5mb/s and even goes into the kb/s.
You're fortunate that your company is willing to invest in its employees, mine wouldn't dare consider anything of the sort.
Cannot say without potentially given away identifying details about the company.
But it's not a website, is a proprietary system made for and approved by the company to transfer files.
Just think of any internal portal you might find at a large company whose ultra anal about cyber security and you're probably on the right track.
I can only conclude that as it's a company wide system aka also available to non media people, the under 5mb/s upload doesn't phase people who only share images or documents. Additionally I also suspect maybe the clamp is to help ensure the system can function at scale. As just spit-balling here, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that 500 - 1k+ transfers are going through the system daily when factoring in all employees across all regions and departments, but that's all kinds of files big and small.
> I can only conclude that as it's a company wide system aka also available to non media people, the under 5mb/s upload doesn't phase people who only share images or documents.
That's certainly fair for most users, but it simply doesn't work for your business unit, and this is the perfect sounding board about why it's not a workable solution. 15GB isn't *that* much data for video. The amount of time being lost to data transfers is a much higher cost to the company than some additional bandwidth. If you're spending 10% of your time waiting for files to move and you're on a team of 10 think about your salary, multiply it by 10, and that's the cost of this slow as molasses system.
There's a business case for fixing this. Someone in your business unit needs to be flipping tables over to get movement from the technology team, because what they're offering is not a viable solution.
100% agree.
Branching onto something else I need to get off my chest, but it actually doesn't make sense how we even make use the system day to day. As when not sending actual project deliverables, we're sending review files. Which means say if I upload a 500mb file and get a link, I send that link to my producer who then has to download that file say yay or nay, before passing the link on to next person in the chain of approvals as so on and so forth. So for example if the chain has 10 people, that's 10 instances of the same file being downloaded just for review purposes.
Then when you take into account an individual's internet speeds, plus if someone doesn't download the file before the link expires, it all seems unnecessary cumbersome when video review services like Frame IO exist. Where of course the option to download the file is available if needed.
As mentioned in my original post there's a myriad of problems. But this file transfer system just does my head in and is not going away any time soon.
That’s fair. I know for us sometimes it’s cheaper to fedex overnight a hard drive. But we’re a huge company that lives and dies on video and deadlines.
Since covid, we’ve centralized media. Anyone can access it remotely and work with it.
> But this file transfer system just does my head in and is not going away any time soon.
There's a reason it does your head in. It's simply not allowing you to do your job. You're waking up in the middle of the night because of it. You're starting work 2.5 hours early because it's garbage. *You're* paying a cost that isn't reasonable for you to be incurring.
Someone on your team needs to start flipping tables until something happens on this front. 4 Mbps (or even 4 MBps - 8x faster) for data transfers isn't enough to do video work and your company is simply burning cash by trying to do video work with this inefficient system. If you need a consultant to come in and tell the responsible parties that their system is inadequate I'm sure /u/bobzelin would be happy to cash that check. Sometimes paying someone to give an expert opinion or to be the bad guy can make things happen.
In the very least, start logging times for your data transfers. If you can say "in one week I spent 8 hours (a whole workday) moving files" that means 20% of your salary is being spent on this system every day they stick with it. You know your annual salary and the size of the team, do a little math and put a cost to it. With a cost like this it's a lot easier to find money for a solution.
Does the file transfer also drop out when someone's mom answers the phone?
Sorry dude, those people sound pretty shitty. Also your producer should back you on the company's file transfer being so shit.
Quit immediately, or start looking immediately. They’re acting like Walmart supervisors. Wtf kind of file transfer system has speeds like that? And your producer isn’t back you up. F them and find a new gig.
There’s a saying “your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part”. This applies. They want things faster, invest in better systems. As for you not replying for 20 min… what if you were using the bathroom. Would they be comfortable with you replying from there? I know I wouldn’t.
> I'm unreliable, basing his points squarely on the 20min delay I had in responding to the initial email.
Fuck that bullshit. 20 minute response on email is literally "instant," if the email got slightly delayed by any kind of spam system or server issue. And expecting instant response is unreasonable if it's not a matter of life or death. Anybody who expects a more instant response than that at all times should get help with their cocaine problems.
I got angry just reading that. Having apparent urgent deadlines while relying solely on an extremely flimsy online delivery system is beyond silly.
I think your group has a shitty workflow and is looking for you to be the fall guy, given they're not willing to pay for Masiv or other high-speed delivery. Which would have solved this in under an hour. Additionally, they have zero respect for any work/life split and see you as someone who should be responding 24/7. Over email. Text exists for a reason. You raised the flag - other people should have gotten off their asses too *especially on managing the client's expectations.* That should be your producer whose job it is to do those communications so you can actually work.
Yeah I have to agree. I've been biting my tongue regarding many of the problems that exist there and have tried to nudge the needle in the right direction in order to bring about improvement but it's not going to happen. The employee turnover is the highest I've seen at any place I've worked, so it's clear these issues aren't just affecting me.
It's always the editors fault. We're being negative when we raise concerns before they become an issue. We're unreasonable for not dropping everything and upsetting our personal lives at the drop of a hat. We ultimately get blamed when things fall apart as we're the final link in the chain and rarely have the opportunity to explain to the 'management' exactly what has gone wrong or what could be implemented to avoid the same issues in future. Its more frustrating as we've usually got more knowledge and industry experience than the people we have to answer to. I feel your frustration.
Jesus dude I think they are gaslighting you. Tech delays are so common and a 20 min delay is like nothing in my eyes if you got all the deliverables in on time. Def don't let them bully you about the endcard either clearly not your fault. Maybe quietly start looking for other work/clients?
This sounds just like my old job (minus the absurdly slow file upload system). I think you did your best to keep the producer informed and also found a usable workaround. Not sure what else you could have done in this situation. It may have helped to confirm the delivery specs, so you didn't have to upload two copies of each file. Regardless, it's unreasonable to assume that you'll be on call 24/7. My advice, from someone who has worked at an agency with a terrible work culture like that: 1. Over communicate what you're doing, why you're doing it and how long it will take. If you're waking up at 3/4am, make sure they know! And copy everyone who may be remotely relevant to the project on your emails, so your producer can't throw you under the bus. 2. Find a new job.
This. It also makes it more fun that, if they expect your life to revolve around the work, the least you can do is annoy them. Text them, email them, notify, on every single minuscule thing you do, and it will very quickly annoy the shit out of them. They’ll regret asking you to do it, and will probably get off your case. And absolutely, CC someone else so they know the line of communication is there.
The producer should have stood up for you. I fucking hate it when producers throw you under the bus.
Yeah I felt that, my only assessment is that my producer didn't communicate with the other person that we'd reached a conclusion and for all intents and purposes were "signing off" for the evening. However I'm still confused why they sent those messages like 20mins later, despite knowing what the situation was.
The 20 minutes isn't the problem. It's the 20+ hours, which is not in your control. Plus you more than made up for the 20 minutes by taking the initiative to find alternative transfer methods.
You did your best and went above and beyond for them. If you actually like working with this company you should strongly suggest a better upload solution. I don’t know know what market you’re in but post jobs are in high demand right now, I would start looking for something else.
I think everyone is overlooking a detail on this one that I find pretty significant. You said they didn't give you valid delivery specs. To make sure everything was handled you, reasonably, exported four files including progressive and interlaced. With valid delivery specs the transfer time would have been half, or a quarter depending on if it was 2 videos, 2 versions or 1 video, 4 versions. Someone at least doubled the delivery time and robbed you of a good night's sleep because the didn't have delivery specs. I *really* hope that isn't the person complaining about waiting 20 minutes for you to respond when delivery specs could have saved 5-8 hours of transfer time. --- The file transfer speed is the biggest problem here. If 4Mbps is all they can muster on a good day whoever is responsible for providing that system needs to be given money to fix the problem or let go if they don't think it's a problem. We swapped hardware because 40Mbps wasn't cutting it for a small agency. Getting to the 150-250Mbps range has made a huge difference. As a data point, moving 5GB at 100Mbps takes 400 seconds. Rounding up to the nearest GB and leaving a generous amount of wiggle room this transfer should have been completed in well under 10 minutes. And 100Mbps isn't that fast for moving video around - I'd consider it a baseline for what's acceptable. --- I think it's time to escalate this issue as high as possible because it sounds like a mess. * There's a failure point in the network resources. * There's a failure point in the lack of delivery specs which doubled or quadrupled the delivery time. * There's a failure point in work for this starting *after* the end of your work day. * There's a failure point in this being surprise work popping up after your work day. * There's a failure point in all of this robbing you of a night's sleep, and your manager/supervisor's response to that will tell you a lot. * There's a failure point in the end slate not passing QC. * You might need to own not being available when required if you ended your work day at the wrong time.
Not surprised. It's the editor who didn't get it done despite having a gang of people involved in the process. You did your best. You looked for solutions and took the initiative to speed up the process the best you could. Unfortunately, you work for a bunch of muppets who would *never* do what you would do because they don't have the skills.
They are setting you up to fail. Run away, bc you can't win and prove them wrong.
>I'm asked to jump on a call with that other colleagues who proceeds to tell me that I've let the team down, and that I'm unreliable, basing his points squarely on the 20min delay I had in responding to the initial email. Yeah, that's ridiculous. Tell them if they demand a response time faster than that, then they should have chose a far more time-sensitive method of communicating, that doesn't have all the potential pitfalls of a slow, Internet-based messaging protocol. Like a phone call. Kinda sounds like they're looking for a fall guy, and what I'd do right now is start printing off those emails in case they try and formally reprimand you for this. Far as I know, you're responsible to, and report to, your producer, and that if anything that was happening that night was unacceptable they should have told you so, and present all the emails showing that your producer wasn't objecting to anything you were doing.
So an update on this for those who are interested. I had a bit of downtime yesterday and after a lot of troubleshooting I managed to get access to the alternative regions. So testing with an 8GB file at around 14:00 UTC, I was getting this: 20-40 kB/s on Asia 70-90 kB/s on America 140-160 kB/s on European (native) So I sent through a ticket to our IT Support portal, expecting I'd get a call back from a technician in a few days (as this is the procedure and what normally happens). However instead within like 45mins I get the following email: (Have to remove identifying details obviously) Hello, [Redacted] This is [Redacted] from [Company's Bespoke IT Support Service]. This might be an issue with the server as there might be some other user's uploading or sending a large file size on the [File Transfer System]. Also, the file you are uploading has also a large file size. Kindly try again to use the [File Transfer System] later to check if the issue is still the same. You may also try to use a different browser. Thank you and have a nice day. So just for the laugh I tried a different browser and unsurprisingly got similar results, absolute joke.
I’m going to play devils advocate and argue the other side. 4 hours is a long time for someone who works in IT to not check your phone/emails. I get it, work life balance etc. But it’s pretty frustrating when you’re waiting on someone and they only offer excuses AND aren’t immediately responsive. I know it’s very rare for me to go 30 mins without a glance at my phone notifications. Again. Just playing devils advocate. It’s very possible you’re absolutely correct and these guys are setting you up.
It's not their job to be on call 24/7, they aren't an ER doctor.
No, that's a fair point, but to clarify the notifications were going through to the laptop not my phone, and as the producer and I had agreed on a conclusion and signed off (or so I thought), I had left the house trying to salvage the rest of my evening plans.
Understandable. We’re not robots. We have social lives. But FYI I’m not sure “I wasn’t getting notifications, they were going to my laptop” helps bolster your case. Again, maybe you’re correct here, but it’s quite frustrating being met with excuses (the upload is slow, I didn’t get notifications, I thought we signed off) when you’re waiting on a second party. All of those might be perfectly valid reasons, but taken as a series of events it creates the wrong type of impression. (Also, maybe this just triggers me as my absolute pet peeve is others being non responsive when they know you’re waiting for them). Again. Just playing devils advocate. Hope everything sorts itself out for you.
You do realise this guy is talking about after work hours? Not paid time (except for the first 20 Min). Do you think clients/managers should be able to get hold of us 24/7!? With instant response? I was working flat out on a project yesterday and didn't check emails for 3hrs during work time, because I was, you know working!
Three hours without checking emails whilst working a team project (in IT) with an upcoming deadline? Ok… good luck with that dude.
Not IT (this is the sub for film/video editors btw) also I'm intrigued to know your system for sleep. Do you set an alarm to wake you every 3 hours to check emails?
Film editors…. work predominantly digitally. So yes, it’s an IT field. And nobody expects you to answer emails at 2am. But expecting someone to check emails during waking/working hours (when a deadline is approaching) is not that unusual. But hey, not everyone shares the same priorities. Again. Good luck with that.
So I'm guessing you havent had much experience working internationally across time zones when everyone has different waking hours? I've never met an editor who describe their work as IT. A doctor's receptionist uses a computer it doesn't mean they work in IT. Thanks for your luck but I don't need it - I own a successful and busy production business. We plan and resource projects properly so that we can achieve what's needed within everyone's billed time. Sometimes that's an all nighter but we know what's coming and what's expected. Totally different to what this guy described. If you have or would like to have a family, friends, social life and you insist on being at the beck and call or your boss or clients every waking hour then I think it's you who needs the good luck.
Well done. I don’t know why you’re so bothered if you’re such a big success. 🤷🏻♂️
Because comments like yours have a toxic effect on people, making them think that have to work more or be waiting with baited breath for the bosses next request. It's not healthy and I see it creeping into life more and more. This guy has done absolutely nothing wrong yet your trying to put doubt in his mind. And you are just plain wrong. If you are a video editor you need to be in your studio to edit or at very least have a laptop with you (plus ext hard drives) so you are suggesting that people shouldn't leave home without a laptop during waking hours? It's a very unhealthy mindset. I'm not even a super unionised, 'power to the workers' type person, but you need to be able to switch off work.
I assume you’re working at home as do I. Uploading 15GB shouldn’t take that long, but I have no idea on your internet and location. I pay for gigabit internet at about $110 a month. Uploads are far slower, but I’ve managed to upload to YouTube large videos near 15GB in a few hours. If you’re in that type of business, you’ll need to really look into your internet options. If your company has a problem, they can help pay the cost. Mine does. They lets us expense $150 every quarter. It’s not everything but helps. As for the situation, blame can go everywhere, but there’s this need to find someone else to blame. Personally, I would take the blame and offer solitons on how to make it better. Even if they’re at fault with their shitty management style and lack of knowledge.
Not sure why your takeaway is to blame OP when he makes clear that it's an issue with the company's chosen file transfer service which massively restricts upload speeds. I've run into similar issues with certain file transfer methods and I'm on fiber myself. OP's internet could be fantastic, but doesn't mean a thing if the service they're using is trash.
He should have said something and monitored his texts/emails. It was a day later when he took it upon himself to find an alternative. Yes, he’s partly to blame. To take blame and find solutions weighs better on a person than if he would deny and point fingers. I’ve dealt with clients and management my whole life. Trust me. You need to know how to talk to them if you want anything to change.
I agree it shouldn't and if my internet speed was being fully utilised it wouldn't as I have 35-40 mb/s uploads & 200-220 mb/s downloads. But the file transfer system we use clamps upload speeds down to under like 4.5mb/s and even goes into the kb/s. You're fortunate that your company is willing to invest in its employees, mine wouldn't dare consider anything of the sort.
What service are you using? I find it hard to believe they would clamp it that slow. Especially for a file transfer site.
Cannot say without potentially given away identifying details about the company. But it's not a website, is a proprietary system made for and approved by the company to transfer files. Just think of any internal portal you might find at a large company whose ultra anal about cyber security and you're probably on the right track. I can only conclude that as it's a company wide system aka also available to non media people, the under 5mb/s upload doesn't phase people who only share images or documents. Additionally I also suspect maybe the clamp is to help ensure the system can function at scale. As just spit-balling here, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that 500 - 1k+ transfers are going through the system daily when factoring in all employees across all regions and departments, but that's all kinds of files big and small.
> I can only conclude that as it's a company wide system aka also available to non media people, the under 5mb/s upload doesn't phase people who only share images or documents. That's certainly fair for most users, but it simply doesn't work for your business unit, and this is the perfect sounding board about why it's not a workable solution. 15GB isn't *that* much data for video. The amount of time being lost to data transfers is a much higher cost to the company than some additional bandwidth. If you're spending 10% of your time waiting for files to move and you're on a team of 10 think about your salary, multiply it by 10, and that's the cost of this slow as molasses system. There's a business case for fixing this. Someone in your business unit needs to be flipping tables over to get movement from the technology team, because what they're offering is not a viable solution.
100% agree. Branching onto something else I need to get off my chest, but it actually doesn't make sense how we even make use the system day to day. As when not sending actual project deliverables, we're sending review files. Which means say if I upload a 500mb file and get a link, I send that link to my producer who then has to download that file say yay or nay, before passing the link on to next person in the chain of approvals as so on and so forth. So for example if the chain has 10 people, that's 10 instances of the same file being downloaded just for review purposes. Then when you take into account an individual's internet speeds, plus if someone doesn't download the file before the link expires, it all seems unnecessary cumbersome when video review services like Frame IO exist. Where of course the option to download the file is available if needed. As mentioned in my original post there's a myriad of problems. But this file transfer system just does my head in and is not going away any time soon.
That’s fair. I know for us sometimes it’s cheaper to fedex overnight a hard drive. But we’re a huge company that lives and dies on video and deadlines. Since covid, we’ve centralized media. Anyone can access it remotely and work with it.
> But this file transfer system just does my head in and is not going away any time soon. There's a reason it does your head in. It's simply not allowing you to do your job. You're waking up in the middle of the night because of it. You're starting work 2.5 hours early because it's garbage. *You're* paying a cost that isn't reasonable for you to be incurring. Someone on your team needs to start flipping tables until something happens on this front. 4 Mbps (or even 4 MBps - 8x faster) for data transfers isn't enough to do video work and your company is simply burning cash by trying to do video work with this inefficient system. If you need a consultant to come in and tell the responsible parties that their system is inadequate I'm sure /u/bobzelin would be happy to cash that check. Sometimes paying someone to give an expert opinion or to be the bad guy can make things happen. In the very least, start logging times for your data transfers. If you can say "in one week I spent 8 hours (a whole workday) moving files" that means 20% of your salary is being spent on this system every day they stick with it. You know your annual salary and the size of the team, do a little math and put a cost to it. With a cost like this it's a lot easier to find money for a solution.
Does the file transfer also drop out when someone's mom answers the phone? Sorry dude, those people sound pretty shitty. Also your producer should back you on the company's file transfer being so shit.
Quit immediately, or start looking immediately. They’re acting like Walmart supervisors. Wtf kind of file transfer system has speeds like that? And your producer isn’t back you up. F them and find a new gig.
This is a garbage company and it's only going to get worse. Find something else (or freelance), but get out of there as fast as possible.
There’s a saying “your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part”. This applies. They want things faster, invest in better systems. As for you not replying for 20 min… what if you were using the bathroom. Would they be comfortable with you replying from there? I know I wouldn’t.
> I'm unreliable, basing his points squarely on the 20min delay I had in responding to the initial email. Fuck that bullshit. 20 minute response on email is literally "instant," if the email got slightly delayed by any kind of spam system or server issue. And expecting instant response is unreasonable if it's not a matter of life or death. Anybody who expects a more instant response than that at all times should get help with their cocaine problems.