-
Will The Workplace Become Less Political …?
May 12, 2020
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
As a result of COVID-19, isolation and quarantining has limited inside station “office politics” issues. Personnel are either working from home or on rotating shifts. Air personalities are fine inside the studio behind a mic. But for many, things fall apart when they leave the booth and have human interactions outside the scope of their air work.
A Guy Can Dream …
I’m hoping when things return to whatever the new normal is, air talent can better cope with the revamped workplace, less non-essential foolishness. However not all air talent is created equal and some can’t resist the temptation of being sucked back into bad habits, namely gossiping.Excerpt from The Poem "My Name Is Gossip" …
The more I am quoted the more I am believed. My victims are helpless. They cannot protect themselves against me because I have no name and no face. To track me down is impossible. The harder you try, the more elusive I become. I am nobody's friend. Once I tarnish a reputation, it's never the same.I Didn’t Mean To …
I ran across the "My Name Is Gossip" poem while programming a station that shall remain nameless. At the time I thought it would squash rumors being spread among the air staff about one of the personalities. Having always been a night person, I was at the station after midnight wrapping up a few things and decided to run off some copies to hand out at the next day's air staff meeting. The copier I normally used was out of toner, so I unlocked the sales office, used the copier, locked up, and left.Whoops …
When I got to the station in the morning, the salespeople were having a meeting, kind of odd considering their usual meet took place the previous day. When the meeting ended, I asked the sales manager what was up. He told me his entire sale team was up in arms accusing each other of spreading gossip. My intelligent response was "Huh." His reply, "Yeah, someone left a gossip poem on a desk in sales; it's assumed it was an accusation and everyone has been at each other's throat all morning.Then I Remembered …
As he left to answer a page, it dawned on me what had happened, after making copies of the gossip piece during the night, I accidentally left a copy at the desk I used to make a call from. There was no way I could confess. However, something good did come out it, the sales folks became a lot closer after the incident.He said ... She said ... I heard...
Gossip is hearsay and it’s the sort of thing that can kill morale inside a station or any workplace. Unless you can read minds or overhear a complete conversation, you have no idea what is real or not. My advice is to only worry about you and your work performance; stay out of cliques. Don’t assimilate and let yourself become a “Stepford Wife” in the madness. -
-