Other agencies have a “Decline” button, so why don’t we?

Oh, boy.

We’re an employment agency. It’s our job to find you work.

Now we’ve honoured our side of the bargain, you want to undo all that hard work by the single click of a button?

Not so fast.

To get you booked, we’ve scrutinised the breakdown of a production’s shooting schedule, followed a strict casting criteria to find just the right candidates within a reasonable radius of the filming location(s), sent out availability enquiries and compiled your best photos into a lookbook for production’s consideration.

This lookbook is sent to several departments, to have your measurements approved by Costume, your hair to be approved by Hair & Make-up and your look to be approved by the Director/Casting team.

Now if you want to go ahead and send us back to square one after we’ve finally landed you the job, we believe it is neither hard nor unreasonable to expect that you get in touch with us directly to explain why.

That’s our principle, but the truth is that we needn’t rely on principle alone to shoot down a bad idea:

The Decline button would get abused. A lot of people would just say yes to everything and anything with little regard to the logistics and commitments required only to then decline the booking when it comes in, resulting in skyrocketing drop-out numbers. This behaviour alone would be so unworkable that it would jeopardise our ability to function as an agency.
The button undermines a vital part of our working relationship: the moment your availability changes, you need to get in touch with us ASAP - before the booking confirmation. We talk about this in our Spreading Your Bets blog - we don’t want to find out at the booking stage that you actually haven’t been available for some time. If you have since become unavailable, it is your prerogative to get in touch with us directly to amend your availability status on our end.
The button would be misused. People would accidentally click ‘Decline’ by mistake, leading to panicked phone calls and emails to bookers who now have to fix people’s booking status - causing more work for bookers and distracting them from doing the tasks that actually land people jobs.
Clicking the button would lose the bookers’ faith in your reliability. Those artistes that show willingness for co-operation and transparency are the ones that our bookers generate relationships with. Bookers will never form trust with those that opt out through a computersied solution, and would likely never book those people again.
Clicking the button would sink your attendance rating. Since declining a booking is just as consequential as a drop-out or no-show (because the same work has to be redone by our bookers to fix the issue), clicking the button would affect your attendance score on our system. This score measures how reliable you are; it affects how prominently you appear on our searches and your likelihood to receive further job opportunities.

Moreover, there are some drop-out reasons that are nuanced and valid. Are you really sure that you want our system to just automatically mark you down as a drop-out? Or would you rather have the ability to argue your case so we can just release you from the job without any punitive consequences?

And this is why the ‘Decline’ button is an idea we refuse to engage with.
We want to make sure this business never loses the human touch.

We’ve launched the Advice Centre, the Profile Clinic and the Learning Course for new applicants because we believe that the more supportive, transparent and open the relationship is between the Supporting Artiste and the Agency, the better.

We never want the business to become so automated that you’re only clicking buttons to accept and reject work.

And if you ever find yourself in that daunting and awkward moment where you need to drop out of a booked job, it is always so much better to work with us to resolve the issue.

The consequences of a drop-out vary depending on how you handle it - if you ghost us or no-show, it will alienate the booker who may exclude you from any further roles that they work on. If you honour it the right way, which is to get in touch and explain your case with honesty and professionalism, we’ll better appreciate your mitigating circumstances.

All you’ve had to do to become eligible for background work is to register a profile on our database. We haven’t charged you sign-up fees, book-fees or subscriptions. For those of you that do it a lot, you know it’s some of the easiest ‘labour’ in the world. In return, we simply expect that you manage your own diary, honour the bookings and conduct yourself professionally with the agency that finds you the work.

Ultimately, a ‘Decline Booking’ button will encourage a more reckless relationship with your calendar and the agency. We always want our artistes to think carefully before responding available to a job, because dropping out of a booking should never be as easy as clicking a button.

How do I contact you?

Our office phone number is 020 3542 3685

If you have any booking enquiries, reply to the last email concerning that project - your email will go to a dedicated email for that production. Or, if you know which booker is handling the project, contact their email address - all of our booker’s contact details can be found on our Team page.

If you have general enquiries that are not pay or booking related, contact team@extra-people.com

If you have any pay queries, please contact artistsupport@wegotpop.com

If you have any profile queries, please contact epcommunity@extra-people.com

We hope this blog clarifies why there is no simple ‘decline’ button on the booking confirmations.

Liked this blog? Read more at the Advice Centre.

All the best,
Extra People.

NOTE: The Profile Clinic that we’ve launched last week was a little too popular - thousands of people have signed up for the service. Our Community Manager spends 5-10 minutes revieiwng each profile to provide tailored suggestions, so if you haven’t heard back yet, please be patient and rest assured we will get to your profile in time.