BUMPY DAYS
You know the feeling. It might be a few shows into a leg and things get a little bumpy. Crew are cranky and some are seeming to not get along. Someone whom you have never had an issue with now decides they want to spit the dummy.
Get into the helicopter and head on up for a view of the whole thing. There are times to be inserting yourself into situations and usually more times when you should just observe. These bumpy days come along and if things are happening in an unusual way, then logic would suggest that it will soon calm down again. BUT you won’t know if you are in there trying to solve every issue and arbitrate on every argument.
Crew have a need to vent. Let’s face it, we are asking them to live with the people they work alongside every day, and the personality required to survive the road is not normally a shy or retiring type so people with little personal space and less free time will have to vent from time to time. Your skill here is to discern the unusual from what we might call traits. You want the usual situation to be a calm one. If it is not, then it is up to you to fix it. You are not a trained psychologist I am guessing, but you are employed to manage, and that means managing people as well as production. I would suggest that one of the most important skills of the production manager is knowing how to build and manage a team. Let’s look at that word team. Simply defined as a group of people who work together to achieve something. That “work” then, by definition (“together”), has to include members supporting other members in pursuit of the goal. Riggers running trusses up and down for lighting, carps helping wardrobe get the hallway packed and out…crew supporting each other…you know
Let’s now put one thing aside here. Incompetence. If a crew member is screwing up because they are either not trained correctly or are incompetent, then this is dealt with in a different way entirely. This essay is about competent crew who like all of us need to get along with fellow workers.
With all the definitions and exclusions out of the way, we can drill into this topic of bumpy days. I would suggest that being personable and accommodating with others will get a crew member as far as being above average technically. What we do is not rocket science and I will employ a solid tech who can do the work BUT who can get along with others over a brilliant tech who has a difficult or intolerant nature. Understanding who your crew are and not just what they do may not seem like it is part of what we know to be a ‘job’ but on the road it is. Then the recognition of a ‘bumpy day’ becomes easier.
So…let’s wrap this up. We have built a team who all can do the work and who all get along when the days are smooth. Don’t overreact when a bumpy day comes along. Things will calm down and get back on track again of you have done your work. What did the Queen of England used to say…? Sometimes the best thing to do is …nothing