What sort of PR animal are you?

Sometimes I think I should give up PR and become a zoo keeper. After all, I have plenty of experience of working with animals.

Here are a few of the beasts I have to deal with, see if you recognise any (or even yourself) …

Dog. Actually I think a lot of us PROs are like dogs, as we work so hard to keep other people happy, putting our own egos to one side. Let’s face it, we work like dogs. Plus my boss is absolutely barking.

Cat. There are a few silky creatures in this business who seem to get by on charm and schmoozing. Not as many as there used to be mind...…

Tiger. These guys scare me. They are so bloody aggressive, ruthless … and successful. Often the owners of businesses that make huge profits but don’t want to spend too much on PR.

Bear. You know the feeling, you make a perfectly polite call to a journalists only to get your head bitten off. Sometimes it’s because they are on deadline, but more often, I suspect, it’s because they have a hangover.

Snake. We all know at least one snake. That colleague who claims other people’s work as their own, stitches up their work friends and is generally untrustworthy. It’s a shame how far such tactics can take you.

Parrot. I work with an intern who never seems to have an original thought of his own. He just repeats the clever things that other people say in meetings, and spends hours (appropriately) retweeting witty one-liners written by people who are much cleverer than him.

Sloth. That’s me. What am I doing writing this? I must go off and have a snooze.