Got a Problem? Tell Us!

I am amazed at the number of people who have issues at work and seem to tell everyone BUT the person involved. It is your responsibility to talk to that person directly. It gives them a chance to take action and correct it. They may not know there is even an issue.

It doesn't have to be a big deal. And it should NOT be an emotional conversation. Just go up and talk.

Some examples...

"Hey Bob, I was looking at that tape and it looks like the colors are a little off. Can we look at it together?"

"Hey Suzie McWeatherLady, can I talk you to? Are you getting enough time for your segments, because it seems like you're going over. If you need extra time, we can talk about it, but during the show, we really need to stay within the time that's given."

The sooner you address issues, the better.

If you're a producer, everything in the show is your responsiblity. So if you see something wrong in your show, you have the authority to go ask- what happened? It's best to ask just like that, "What happened?" Don't pre-judge. Come with an open-mind and be ready to offer suggestions on how you can change your routine to help. There may be a good reason why something happened, but if you don't ask, you can't avoid future pitfalls.

In fact, even if you're not a producer, whatever your area of responsiblity, if there's something wrong, go ask about it. If you're a writer and the script was edited incorrectly or poorly, you can ask what happened. Ask if they needed a better timecode or help finding the video- whatever. During the course of the show, if there's a mistake you could have caught, even if it's not under your official job description, take care of it. Commit to looking for the error and catching it the next time.

One final note, it's fine to problem solve and you should, but do not let people dump their problems in your lap. As show producers, this happens a lot. Someone walks up and says, "So and so did this and I just think... blah-blah-blah." You can say, "Well, you should go talk to so-and-so about it." If you see a problem yourself, fine- fix it. But continuing to solve problems people should be taking care of themselves encourages them to keep dumping on you. And let's face it. You have enough on your plate.