producer – Page 13 – Survive Your Job In Television News

“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.

The Station called. The job’s yours. Now what?

So you got the big call. The news director throws a few compliments, says he/she needed you there yesterday, then offers so-so money. How do you react? Be polite. Don’t sound excited. Say you have to think about it. In other words make the news director sweat just a little bit. Why? You want to eek out as much money as you can and this is your last chance to see if there is any wiggle room. Remember if you don’t get the money when you first walk in the door, the odds are about as good as playing the lottery that you will ever “see the money” in that shop. Eek out as much as you can immediately. The other reason to not jump for joy is to see how the news director acts towards you. Remember, be polite. Say you feel complimented. Just don’t say yes right away. Play a little hard to get. If the news director starts firing off that 10 other people are dying to be in your shoes right now and you better make up your mind fast, you know this person is will be hard to deal with and you should probably turn the job down. If the news director says take some time and think about it (usually that’s a day, maybe two) he/she knows this is a big decision, the odds are higher you really will be working for someone reasonable.

Then, before you decide to take the job, research two things: The management team and the cost of living where you might move.

Do Google searches and find out where this news director worked before. You want to find out as much as possible about the news director and assistant news director. Cold call old TV stations if you must and ask for people who worked under these managers. If you are told the person is amazing, demand to know the bad things. You need to figure out if you can handle this person’s quirks. News directors and A.N.D.’s can quickly make or break you. Don’t trust that they checked you out and know you will click. He/she is overworked, overstressed and mostly interested in getting through each day without being eaten alive. Your personality means little to nothing. Filling the job means one less headache for management.

Next, if you haven’t already, research the heck out of the cost of living in this particular city. Check out various cost of living calculators online, like the one at Monster.com (http://monster.salary.com/costoflivingwizard/layoutscripts/coll_start.asp). Better yet, get online and read the local newspaper. Find out the average cost of renting an apartment by looking at the classifieds and take a look at the grocery store flyers to try and gauge the cost of food. It can vary wildly and may make a huge difference to your bottom line. Also, call your car insurance company and find out what rates would be like in that city. You need to make sure that raise you think you are getting will really be there once you factor in these things. If you live in the south and are considering heading north, check out tax rates. One place we lived had state income taxes, county income taxes and city income taxes. A nearly 30 thousand dollar jump didn’t look so glamorous after that was factored in. You can use this information to try and eek out more money. Even if you end up getting only a little more, every bit helps.

Help! I’m in over my head.

This can be hard to admit, but it happens to everyone. Cold sweats, waking up dreaming of your live shot or newscast crashing are all part of the gig. Getting chewed because you cannot complete all of your work happens, especially with more stations lumping on extra packages or making people one man band.

Now let’s talk survival skills. First, understand there is little to no training in newsrooms anymore. It simply does not happen in the majority of cases. Every shop is understaffed and half the workers are also in over their heads. Many managers are drowning and lost too. By the way, this is supposed to make you feel better. That’s because these journalists are surviving and so will you.

Here’s what to do. Find the go to person who gets the work done every day with little trouble and become a buddy. Find out how the person does it and figure out how to do it yourself. If you don’t feel comfortable simply asking, then hook up with others in the know. For example, if it’s a reporter who you’re trying to figure out, request to work with that person’s favorite photographer. Then pick the photog’s brain. Look online at the reporter’s past stories and look for patterns. If a producer is your target, ask the newscast director what this person does to make script printing deadline or create killer teases. Let’s say your writing stinks. Don’t worry, this is common. Figure out who the best writer is in the shop. It’s easy to do. Just listen to the anchors dish with each other, you will learn who it is quickly. Once you do, start printing out this person’s scripts and look for common threads. Then you can mimic the style.

There also is usually a manager that stays very calm in crisis. That person will often give you advice if you just sit down and ask. Managers are not all out to get you. Replacing staff all the time is a pain and most would prefer not to deal with it. It’s easier for them to do some training. But you need to ask the right manager. The news director is next to never the smart choice. Often it is an executive producer or managing editor. They are still in the trenches so they can still relate to what you are struggling with. Once you identify the right person, ask for a critique of your work. The manager will probably be thrilled you actually want to improve and talk your ear off. They also tend to dish about their favorites in the shop. Now you have a new set of names to watch and mimic. Best of all, you will gain an advocate in management because you are not whining about how hard the job is, you are asking to grow.

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.