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New Boss: Sucking up without being obvious.

Many TV stations, like many football programs are constantly changing the “coach.” If the ratings don’t go up quickly the news director is gone. That means a new chance to be fired, since the new boss will want to make an impact right away. First impressions truly can make or break your future at that station. So let’s talk star power.

All managers have one thing in common. They want staffers that do not whine. They want people that can change and adapt quickly. To prove you can do this, research the new ND and see what type of news philosophy was implemented at their last station. Did the place do a lot of consumer news? Did the station cover a lot of breaking news? What was the turnover like? Calling and asking for an long time reporter or photojournalist to dig a bit will be helpful. You want to ask what the ND liked to see from the staff. What kind of story ideas got the ND excited. Try and find out if your new ND is a big football fan or has kids or a dog. Now you have a leg up.

Listen to the ND during the first few story meetings. See if the ND is getting excited over the type of stories you heard he/she will like. The ND will give you clues about where the place is going next pretty quickly with offhanded comments. Most people don’t listen. They should and you will. Next, adapt story ideas or input about newscasts to the trends you notice from the ND. After a few weeks try and catch the ND for a minute and request a critique. Don’t say “hey did you watch my show/package. etc. that day.” Just say: “I am checking in to see if you have any critique for me on what you’ve seen so far. I am looking forward to taking my work to the next level with you.” The ND will probably say he/she needs a few weeks. That’s fine. You just want the early impression to be that you are hardworking and eager to adapt to this person’s style.

Now let’s talk personal connection. Remember you have intel on the ND’s personal interests. Use it to make a human connection. Let’s say the ND is a big football fan. When you see ND in the hall or at the end of a meeting ask what person thinks of some headline, “How about that new recruit? What about that last play in the last game?” You get the idea. Don’t linger. Listen to the response and walk away. You don’t want to force it.

You also need to make deadline and not complain about anything for the first several months; even if you are getting screwed on vacation time. Stay out of the office and let other people seem difficult. The ND is overwhelmed the first few months and doesn’t need to deal with any “little” issues. Fair or not, your vacation time qualifies as little.

If you are in a meeting with the ND do not be the first person to run out of the room at the end. Organize your papers, take one more sip of coffee, do what you need to linger a minute in case the ND starts small talking. This is a subtle way to start building a connection without seeming obvious.

Remember ND’s are looking for employees who are loyal and willing to work hard. So when you are asked to cover an extra shift or work late, do it without complaining. You will get a chance to occasionally say no after the ND has been there awhile. This is a way ND’s test to see if you are a diva or a battle tested, nose to the ground journalist. We watched it time and again. Staffers turned down shifts or complained about working late and the ND made a quick judgment call that the person was lazy and didn’t appreciate the job. It was usually downhill from there.

The key in all of this is being subtle. This is like dating. Give the ND a taste of who you are, express some interest, but do not overdo it. The people constantly in the office putting out will end up being the ones the ND takes advantage of and overworks long term. The hard workers that stay out trouble survive and end up with some time to breathe. You will keep the ND interested in seeing more. That’s what you want.

Is there such a thing as… too in your face?

“60 Minutes” and later tabloid journalism began the push for ”in your face” confrontations between a reporter and a person considered caught red handed. Now it is the norm for investigative reporters to use ambush interviews after laying out tons of evidence against a company or person who may have crossed the line. Don’t get us wrong, these interviews can be very effective in this type of package. What’s interesting is how the concept is bleeding over into everyday news coverage more and more.

Case in point, the Casey Anthony trial down in Orlando. We won’t spell out the details of the case because everyone in the news biz has some idea of the trial and surrounding media circus. We are taking a closer look at recent headlines about an interesting walk shot into the courthouse with reporters, photojournalists, and attorneys. In case you missed it, watch the video courtesy of WESH TV and the Orlando Sentinel. “Courthouse Confrontation” Make sure you let the video play out all the way to the end. There is a lull, but in the end it gets interesting again.

Now look at some of the headlines on the internet after the walk shot you just watched. The Orlando Sentinel called it “ A Bizarre situation with reporters…” The Florida News Center headline read, “Anthony attorneys are annoyed by Orlando media.” Now consider the News Blues headline, “Orlando reporter harasses Casey Anthony attorney.” See a common link? In all of these headlines, the sympathy characters were the attorneys, not the journalists.

Now, let’s consider why fellow TV journalists should care that the reporter gets little love in the coverage of the walk. It’s an example that shows when there are confrontations, the public tends to sympathize with anyone but the journalist. Yes, there are some exceptions especially in investigative reporting. But, remember, we are talking about general news coverage here. The reporter is described as the aggressor and gets less sympathy in coverage of a situation like this.

Partner this with the fact that, increasingly, news managers are trying to differentiate coverage by “being more aggressive” and you have an entirely new set of ethical issues to consider. There’s also the matter of there now being so many cameras around that your actions can easily go viral on the internet. The incident we just linked you to above did, and quickly too.

So here’s what you need to consider when you get into an intense situation.

What is your stations news philosophy?
How far is too far? (i.e. – What is management’s threshold?)
Will you be typecast? (Will it hurt your professional image?)

Your station’s news philosophy must come first because it is the best gage you will get on how far you can take questioning and still have management’s backing. Some newsrooms are very against confrontational interviews. Some thrive on them. News philosophy also determines how you phrase everything you say. For example, some stations encourage the use of slang to try and relate to the viewer. Some are completely opposed to it and would be horrified if a reporter used a word like “jerk” in this type of setting. Some want action no matter what. They want you to yell. Others define that as highly unprofessional.

Which leads to our next point: You need a clue as to management’s threshold. Managers cannot and will not give you black and white answers about this type of situation for legal reasons. You can get good reads though, by discussing scenarios ahead of time with a boss. The video of this reporter covering the Anthony trial can also be a discussion point with a manager. Ask your managers what they think of the situation and try to talk it out.

Take another look at the video of this walk scene and consider your personal reaction to it. This is a good opportunity to gut check whehter you are being true to your view of what being a journalist is all about. In this day and age, you have to worry as much about the next possible boss reacting as you do your current news director. There is so much turnover, you need to be true to yourself in these situations. Many times I saw reporters act in a way that seemed very unlike their journalistic style. When I would talk with them later, I got the same answer each time: “I thought that’s what the ND wanted me to do.” Most ND’s will push you and tell you to be “aggressive.” Most bosses also understand that “aggressive” for one type of person is different than for another. Remain true to your heart and your carefully cultivated professional persona. You do not want video of your out of character attempt to impress the ND, to go viral on the internet. It will live forever in the digital world and may come back to bite you one day with another ND. Even if only the other stations in town see you doing an ambush type interview, this is a small biz. The other ND’s in town will soon know how you act in the field. Often ND’s considering hiring you, call your competition to learn more about you and see if you are a commodity. Keep that in mind. You are trying to impress all the ND’s in town every day. The only way to do that and not go crazy with stress is to stay true to your personal limits on what’s acceptable. You do not want to be typecast as something you are not.

One final thought: if something like this happens to you in the field, call your immediate manager right away. This is very important. You want to give management time to come up with a reaction before they start getting calls. We suggest calling your boss even if you aren’t the TV station directly involved. Just witnessing and recording the whole thing, could mean your ND will get a phone call. The last thing you want is your ND or GM getting blindsided, by something you knew about, then having to “save face” for you and your station because of an ambush style interview, no matter how common they’ve become.

“Thank you sir, may I have another”: How to handle newsroom hazing.

Newsrooms are notorious for hazing. It happens often in larger markets, but we’ve seen it in small markets too. You have to prove to coworkers that you deserve the job. You don’t truly have friends in the workplace. Everyone is out for themselves. Why? Because so many people are quitting the biz, less experienced people are being hired. Some veterans in the newsroom, find this tiring and insulting. I started in a large market right away and quickly wound up in another big city. The hazing was awful. I was asked if I slept with the news director to get my job. I had reporters and anchors purposely rewrite copy to insert factual and grammatical errors to try and get rid of me. One anchor even told me and several other producers it was his “God given right” to torture and make me cry. He had the cry test and graded you on how long it took before you broke down. People hide your gear, steal your rolodex, sit on the set during commercials and laugh at your news copy. Coworkers don’t want to carry dead weight. Many times fellow journalists will decide you are a moron unless you prove your worth, and quickly. So do it. Here’s how.

The number 1 rule: Don’t involve management. Management doesn’t care. Period. There are too many other things they have to take care of.

However, you should take the reigns and show the hazers you are not the patsy they think you are. That starts with exposing dirty tricks. The best place to start is befriending the IT person in the newsroom. You know, the person who knows all the ins and outs of the computer system you use each day. This person can save you. News programs like AP Newscenter, ENPS and iNews have ways to call up past scripts and show who wrote each and every version. This will give you a chance to document and show proof if an anchor or associate producer is rewriting copy and putting in fact errors which they blame on you. In some systems you even can lock a script so no one else can rewrite and put in fact errors or change the context of the story once your executive producer copy edits it. Ask for this ability and you may receive. Chances are your executive producer will play ball because you will then have documentation the EP can use to get some staffers to shape up.

You can also often find instant messages from all the computers every day. Yep, all those annoying, petty and smarmy comments binging and dinging around you can be a click or two away. Print them and hand them over to management. This can get tricky because management won’t like you digging through the system. But if it is in a forum where everyone could potentially have access they can yell at you and send a fiery memo saying don’t go there, but you won’t be fired. Once the nasty top lines are exposed many newsroom bullies shut up or at least save it for the parking lot after work. How’s that for investigative journalism? Even more fun: dump copies of the nasty top lines under the news director’s door anonymously so even he/she has to wonder who’s watching.

Also remember, many staffers who bully love to dish in the studio. They think it’s a secret hideout. Newsflash: Mics are everywhere. It’s easy to “accidentally” turn one on, hear and record the petty comments. The studio is the one place where there truly should never be any expectation of privacy. That’s not what the room is for. The picked on should wander through the studio to “plot out a section of the rundown” right when a gossip session is underway. Then, smile as if you are going to dish it all. Another move is to “accidentally” have the mics kept live during a commercial break when there’s an anchor who loves to trash everyone in those breaks. Normally, when the nasty hazers get caught once or twice, they’ll back off.

What if the hazer likes to get in your face and yell at you in the middle of the newsroom? This one is easy. Just ignore the person. Sit back in your chair, with your hands behind your head, gaze up at the lunatic putting on the show and wait until they either explode into pieces before your eyes or finally shut up. Then as the hazer stares at you indignantly, simply ask: “Are you done?” Then just go back to work like nothing happened. This will drive the bully nuts. If that hazer really pushes it, follow up with, “You can say what you want about me because bottom line, I’m not the one who just had an unholy hissy fit in the middle of the newsroom. You can’t expect your actions to prove you have anything worthy to say to anyone.” Then get back to your work.

Lastly, sometimes you just have to fight fire with fire and stand up to the hazer. I once told an anchor who said I was “too young to write for her” that it’s not my fault she couldn’t handle that someone so much younger was just as capable of working in the same city and on the same shift as her. She told me she’d have me fired. I told her I had proof that she was purposely rewriting copy with errors and printing them to try and prove me incompetent. I asked her if she would like to come with me to turn those documents into the news director so she could try and explain it, or would she prefer the news director to mull the evidence over before calling her in for a chat. She backed off. Hopefully, these tips and tricks will help you stand up to a hazer as well.

Stop the screaming! What to do when your boss is deafening and demeaning.

If you haven’t already, you will eventually work for a “screamer” in television news. It’s just a simple fact of life in the biz. But that simplicity of fact does not mean reacting to it is simple. Screamers are alarming, and not just for the ear. It means the person loses control in key situations; very troublesome when this is the person who decides your fate. The good news is that the screamer’s boss probably is aware of the temper tantrums and hopefully takes them and any tirades about staffers with a grain. The bad news: The screamer is usually not forced to calm it. So the verbal abuse keeps on coming.

There is an effective way to protect your ears and your ego. The more the screamer lets loose, the calmer you need to be. You need to consistently do this, during public and private tirades. Screamers expect to unnerve you. It is a control technique for bullies. If you want the person off your back, don’t indulge it. Sit down, look slightly above the screamers head and watch him or her pitch a fit. Whatever you do, do not speak. The screamer is not interested in anything you have to say. The screamer needs to get rid of pent up stress. Once the screamer is done, say “okay I will keep that in mind.” Then go back to work.

Sometimes the screamer will follow you and start up again with insults or questions like “did you hear anything I said.” Say “yes” to the question and ignore the insults. Later, once the screamer is calmer, you might be called into that person’s office. Hopefully this is when you can get some constructive criticism and explain any extenuating circumstances. But if the screamer has a particularly insecure ego, you will not hear about the incident again.

This does make it harder to learn what “old yeller” wants. You can still listen to the rants and try and decipher the point. Just do not lower yourself to the standard of the screamer. You need to keep your cool. That can help you if things get really out of hand and you end up in human resources. You also would prefer the tantrums happen in public even if it is humiliating at the time. Witnesses can say it was the manager who lost control, not you.

Finally, no matter how tired you are at the end of the day, document the inappropriate conversation with the screamer as well as any follow ups. Include the time of day and a witness list in your notes. Remember human resources must have patterns and documentation. If you end up in trouble, you can use these tantrums to buy time and demand a formal critique of your work in writing. Your case: How could you be expected to know what to do with the manager screaming at you incessantly? There is a case to be made and, again, you have to be able to show a pattern of verbal abuse.

Now the caveat for your efforts: The screamer will become disarmed at your calm response. The screamer will end up noticing how out of line he or she is getting. This will throw the person off and you will take control of the relationship. After a few attempts at rattling you, the screamer will usually learn that you are tough skinned and probably not someone to mess with. You will probably be left alone. In some cases you will even become the screamer’s confidant. We have seen news managers develop a strange need to then constantly impress and please the employee that cannot be unnerved. You might even end up with better assignments. There is always another sucker on staff that will scream back or cry. The screamer will usually become focused on that person.