Raw, but c*nsored blabbing and blogging of a young journalista
and local news producer in Southern New England.
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Monday, October 18, 2004

Handling It: A Talk With My Boss, Who Calls The Kettle Black

[edited 01092006]

My xxxx xxxxxxxx decided to start screaming and yelling this weekend when the new show full of novices started having problems. Like screaming and yelling is going to help matters. When this sort of bullsxxx happens it can't help but remind me of when I was given a letter of reprimand for my personnel file because I screamed at on-air talent during a show. On three separate occasions. Because the talent were being idiots and I was under the gun.

I also spilled one of the talent's cups of coffee all over her script. During the first week or two of sweeps. (Yes, I was wrong, regretful, and apologetic soon after.)

So I imagined going in on Monday morning after much (other) annoying hoo-ha and asking my boss the following Q & A, not aggressively, just curiously or inquisitively -- innocently. I didn't bother imagining his responses.

So I heard there were a lot of problems over the weekend.

How did you handle them?

Is there something, a lesson of some sort I can take away from this situation and what happened?

I know this medication I’m taking has really mellowed me, though when the freight train of time gets really close to crashing, I am still being a tad short with people by a few degrees, but I think I’m safe in saying I am far less angry or vitriolic when I get slammed now than when I did in the past.

Why? Because if the train crashes, the train crashes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t, and that’s all there is to it.

I’m very slowly coming around to the idea that simply raising your voice or shouting or screaming simply because something is going wrong is not at all helpful, necessary, or acceptable, and I’m starting to realize that people who work around me when I do that hate me and hate working with me because of it, and are very likely expressing their disbelief in my unprofessional behavior when I am out of earshot.

I am trying not to get angry because it is not necessary. If I screw up, I screw up and I should take the blame for it, and if I screw up on a regular basis I should be made to answer for it and be disciplined for it and if it continues I should probably be terminated. If someone else screws up they feel just as guilty or slammed as I do when I screw up and they don’t need me screaming at them to shape up because they either have the voice in their head screaming at them or know enough to strive to do better the next time.

I am trying not to get angry with people who are inexperienced or slammed with too much work in too little time because they cannot help it.

A serious talking-to once the show is over (which could be scheduled as soon as a problem arises with a frank “Can I please talk to you once the show is over, before you leave?”) will resonate so much better than a deafening, strident volcanic explosion, and will cut down on the high rate of turnover going through the building which I have no doubt been contributing to.

I fully comprehend the concept of taking out one's frustration on one's co-workers or underlings. I am all too familiar with it and I have seen myself do it and I am striving to stop it. There must be a way that everyone can be put in check when this happens, and in truth it shouldn't be happening anywhere in the newsroom, because no matter where it comes from it sets a bad example for people, whether making B think it's acceptable because A does it, or simply that A does it at all and B, C, D, and E all feel like they're being verbally horsewhipped.

Apologizing immediately after one does it is one thing. I am striving to apologize in short order if I raise my voice in any fashion. NEVER apologizing is another, far more serious, arrogant, and pompous crime, and such an attitude is spreading among those who are receiving that treatment.

I’m wondering if, since we are obviously one of the flagship stations for the company, seeing as Corporate can see everything we do, if there is an extra degree of scrutiny and knuckle-rapping to be had from the bigwigs, and if there is I’d like to know about it rather than feel the pressure from an immediate threat. It would make more sense for me to be saying to myself, “Corporate is going to be displeased and unhappy in ways A, B and C” rather than “Management might be very angry in ways X, Y or maybe even Z and Q, and I will be screamed at once again”. What does Corporate make of all this? Do they send you comments?

A colleague of mine read this in an earlier format and she said I should write a column of some sort. Ha ha. She doesn't know about this blog and she's not going to.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 10/18/2004 01:23:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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