Worked 375hrs in a month and fired for not performing!!!
Longer then normal story but hey... I was just fired a week ago and it's still FRESH on my mind so bare with me. Would love to know your thoughts.
I worked as Head of Promotions in the Creative Services department at a mid-market TV news station. I was a one man band there. I came up with the promotional campaign for the News Department, wrote the scipts, storyboarded the spots, shot the spots, made the graphics, made the animations, edited it all together, and scheduled the commercial spot's air times. I did it all with no help. I held this job for over five years and am pretty darn good at it. I should have left about 6 months ago but my loyalty to the 3rd ranked station in a 3 station market ultimately caused my demise. I stayed around because I thought anyday now the station would turn around and I wanted to be there for it. It never did and probably never will... here's the story of how I got fired from the lowest rated News station in my market.
My General Manager and News Director wanted me to make 24 spots in a month!!! On top of that they wanted all 24 to be finished at the same time and hit air the same day so we would have a clean break into our new image. By spots I mean commercials that promote our news image. They ranged in length from 30 seconds to 5 seconds and everything inbetween. For the most part however they were 30 and 20 second spots. During the past month when I was suppose to be working 160hrs I ended up working 375hrs in 4 weeks and 3 days! That is about 2 months and 1 week's worth of work. I worked weekends obviously AND I even skipped Valentines Day, to my pregnant wife's dislike, and Mardi Gras even though the News Director was calling me from the parade on our station float asking me to come out there... of course I couldn't because I was at work all that night. I even pulled some all nighters because I needed to shoot the Morning News team who came in at 3am. I told the GM and News Director through out the process that it was unrealistic to make so many commercial spots in such a short period of time... but no one listened and I was stuckI trying my best to make it happen. Since I had to do it all myself to even attempt to make it happen I had to have a serious game plan. I had to write ALL the scripts and draw all the storyboards at once, shoot all the footage at once, and then create all the graphics and animation at once. In the end I had to put them all together at once. There was no way I could tackle them one at a time and even think of getting them done in such a short period of time. During this time period our Weatherman went on a cruise for a week during my shooting week so that screwed things up real nicely. Still I was given no slack. I got fired on a Thursday... but the Sunday before I got fired was the deadline for the spots. They needed to be on air by that Monday. I had all my materials together by Saturday for the most part... the audio, video, graphics, and animation... but realized Sunday around 10pm it was impossible to pull off and I was going to have to release them in groups through out the week. There was no way I could release them all together. It just was not humanly possible. I had 352hrs up to that point documented on my time sheet to prove it. I had not had a day off all month so Monday I took a comp day to pull myself frazzled self together and by Wednesday I had completed five spots that started airing on Thursday morning. I was feeling pretty good too. The one day off I had all month really vitalized me and I was looking forward to seeing all my work paying off. Thursday morning I came into work feeling great and enjoying my work. Around 11am I had five more spots lined up to be finished and on air the next day and the spots were looking really good.
At 11:15am my GM called me into his office. I was looking forward to the conversation. Thought I would walk him back to my office to see the work and that he would be pleased. About 20 minutes into the conversation I realized what we were really talking about. He was about to fire me. He said i was "not performing"! 375hrs isn't performing?!! When I realized this and also realized nothing I could say would change it I brought up the fact my pregnant wife is due in April and asked if he would let me stay on until early May otherwise the insurance would not cover the delivery since I would lose my insurance. Heck I would even train my replacement for the favor since I did the job of four people and any new person just thrown into the position would be lost.
No go.
I asked him what am I going to do? This is the single worst time in the past 5yrs I have been here to fire me. I have a baby on the way and bills to pay. What if he is born and, God forbid, unhealthy?
He gave me these final words of wisdom... "Life will never give you more then you can handle." - I thought... LIFE isn't giving me anything... YOU ARE! Show some humanity here!
So I got fired and the spots are still not complete over a week later. Had they cept me they would have been done by the next Monday at the latest. 24 spots in 5 weeks! An incredible feat for a single person if I do say so myself.
So here I sit. Unemployed with a baby on the way. To top it all off my poor wife is having MAD mood swings and worries about 100 times more then she normally would because of it. So now I have to look into the whole COBRA insurance thing... which of course I can not afford but I can't afford paying the doctor's bills more then I can not afford to pay for COBRA insurance. Of course my GM KNEW I had a baby on the way and yet he still fired me. Even though all he had to do was look at my time sheet to see I was doing everything humanly possible to meet his unrealistic goals.
The guy went on vacation the next week to top it off. What a GREAT man.... a leader to look up to for all mankind.
Funny how things work out though. All the jobs I have looked into are better and pay better. Not to mention there is a job for my exact position open at the #2 station in town and man do they need a good Creative Services person. I'll be applying tomorrow. :D
I'm not a vicious person in any sense of the word but man I hope Karma pays my GM a visit real soon.
Do you guys think people like him ever pay for the things they do and how they treat people? ...Or do they just go on living as my GM's password to his email states... "Livin XL"?
Submissino ID: 459
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Comments
I work in TV, too and understand your situation. Perhaps it is just a personality thing. Or maybe the GM had to give his bosses a scapegoat for the station's low ratings? Any way you slice it, this sucks for you. Hang in there and good luck.
my initial major in college was for tv broadcasting, and your story makes me SO glad i changed my major. good luck on the new baby.
karma will meet the GM eventually, although not as soon as you'd like, i'd guess
Wow! Reading your story really helped me. I was just fired yesterday by another cold hearted SOB like the one you describe after working an entire year as the manager of an under staffed front desk at a major hotel in downtown Cincinnati. In the past year I probably averaged 60 hours a week and did not use a single sick day. The other commentor was right -- they were looking for a scapegoat which is exactly what happened to me. How did this turn out for you? Were you able to find another job before the baby came? Anyway, good luck! I believe in Karma too and both our GMs will get theirs...