His Relationship Started A Problem At Work

A continuous issue in our industry is how to work with people you don't like. Stations are small communities and interactions go beyond ratings and revenue. The villains "Envy and Mistrust" always seem to enter the picture. Here's a personal issue brought to my attention that happened within a cluster.

Air Talent: I can’t believe the midday guy would do this to me. I can’t work with him anymore.

Coach: What’s going on?

Air Talent: Are you sure you want to hear this?

Coach: It’s fine, nothing surprises me anymore.

Air Talent: I was dating this woman and I thought I knew her. One of our staffers here got appendicitis and he wound up in the hospital. That’s how I met Claudia. She was one of the nurses that took care of him. She didn’t know anything about our station. She was separated from her husband and was in the process of getting a divorce. I thought things were going great with us, we even moved in together. We’d been together for 6 months, and I came home two weeks ago, and she broke up with me. Sam, we’d done everything together. I took her to station parties and events. She’d met my parents. I thought we had something. There were no warning signs that there was a problem.

Coach: That’s too bad.

Air Talent: Yeah, we broke up on a Saturday. That coming Monday afternoon I was heading into the station and coming out of building was Claudia and the midday guy. I could not believe it. You should have seen the look on their faces. The first thing out of his mouth, “I can explain.” I just walked past them and went inside the building. As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, the production director pulled me into the production room. He could see I was mad. He told me that he knew the midday guy had been seeing Claudia before she broke up with me. He told me to be cool and don’t let it f**k up my job.

Sam, I was so upset. Even if he was attracted, how could he do this to someone he works with? Every time I see him, I want to kick his ass.

Coach: Do you like working there?

Air Talent: Until this happened, yes.

Coach: Your Production Director gave you good advice, don’t let this mess up your job. You don’t have to like someone to work with them. I can relate to how you feel. I once had a PD who constantly tried to set me up to get me fired.

Air Talent: What did you do?

Coach: Ironically, I didn’t know he was out to get me. It took one of the other air personalities to make me to realize there was a problem. This was one of my early lessons with “office politics.” To answer your question, I did my job, faked a smile, went about my business, and looked for another job.

Air Talent: And that’s why I got in touch with you. Based on some of the things you’ve written about, you know about stuff like this.

Coach: Thanks for the compliment. Dealing with office politics is a game within a game. At work you must keep your emotions under control and concentrate on your job.

Air Talent: This whole thing has made it hard to come to work. I’m so embarrassed. I keep wondering what the people I work with are thinking. Because of Covid, part of our staff is split shifting and working from home. So at least I don’t have to deal with as many co-workers as I did before the pandemic.

Coach: There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, stuff happens. When those that know what’s going on see you acting as if nothing has happened, they’ll respect you even more. I suggest from now on you keep your personal life outside the station to yourself. That will decrease the possibilities that a situation like that will happen again.

Conclusion …
In this business we are paid to perform. Treat everyone you work with the same regardless of your feelings towards them. Sometimes it takes strategy and patience to work with some co-workers. In the end, “You control you.”