Career or Family? What would you choose?

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For those outside of the entertainment industry who might not be aware, IATSE, the union that represents many below-the-line industry workers is preparing to strike over dismal working conditions that have been placed on those who work in production for years (if not decades). On set, excessively long hours, over exhaustion, lack-of-days-off are not uncommon. It’s been known to ruin relationships, mental health and an overall sense-of-self. Young and aspiring producers have also been subject to these conditions… however, unlike, our brothers and sisters in production, at least we have the luxury of pre-production or post-production to offset the excruciating hours of working “on-set.” Many of the workers who are preparing to strike do not get that luxury, they just go directly to film another on-site 12+ hour, no-days-off, lack-of-breaks.

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That said, I’ve been sitting on this story for 11 years…

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I was working my second tour on a well-known network show. I was a story editor, equivalent to a worker-bee in the hierarchy of producers. About a week before production began, I negotiated 3 days off the following month so I could attend a family event out of town. (One of the downsides of being in a freelance industry is that you can never quite fit your schedule around family functions.) However, this one happened to overlap with two dark days already scheduled on the show’s calendar. The catch was, however, that would I still would need to fly-out on the last shoot day that week in order to make the event. So I was requesting one-afternoon off. I was told that “wouldn’t be a problem.”

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Fast forward a month later and, to no surprise, it was another 18-hour-day production week and my team was far behind on the last day-- ?which just happened to be, the day I had to fly. Earlier that week, I had planned on what time I wanted to leave set so I could go home, do laundry, drop my car off & get a taxi, and relax at the airport.

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I was working with a team of 6 incredible producers under the helm of a recently promoted Supervising Producer. But as the clock ticked on, the “crisis” worsened -and by “crisis” the network wanted to make some last minute changes to the episode and the team needed to be on standby. This meant that all of us would need to stay later for any possible last minute episode needs. Understanding the situation, I began to sacrifice my personal time for the good of the show. “I’ll just do laundry when I land” bought me two extra hours to stay at the production office… but those two hours came and went. The other members of my team encouraged me to leave and told me “we got this”, but I still felt an obligation to stay -a gut-wrenching feeling many in the entertainment industry can relate to. The irony of the whole situation was that I wasn’t doing much of anything outside of waiting. The Supervising Producer wanted the entire team to stay because he had to stay.

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As the clock ticked into the red, I started worrying about letting my parents down. The actual probability of missing my family was becoming a real scenario. As an east-coaster living in LA, my annual time with my folks was already stretched thin and it pained me to think of missing them, especially since I requested this time off well in advance.

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I went to the SP and reminded him of my situation, “I’m going to miss my flight if I don’t leave in the next thirty minutes.” He was clearly pissed and intentionally gave me a task to do to occupy my time. I was devastated, stressed and incredibly anxious at this point. One of my teammates saw my distress and took the job off my plate. “You sure? but…” I said. “I’m not doing anything right now,” she told me, “I got this, go see your family.” ?

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It was the 11th hour and I had a choice to make, my family or the production. I went back to the SP and told him I was leaving to catch my flight. “Fine!” he shouted, visibly angry that I had not sacrificed my preplanned family trip for the television show.

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But despite visible anger, I left. I got on the plane. I saw family. Those 48 hours filled me with rejuvenation and love I was so desperately missing. Then I returned to set…

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I was the first one in the office that day, about an hour before the rest of the team arrived. I was trying to show that I would make up for the lost time. The Supervising Producer was also there and called me into his office. Apparently he was stewing in his resentment over the last 48 hours and was locked & loaded for a Monday beat down on his subordinate. He didn’t even speak in a reasonable tone, at 8:45am, his screams echoed beyond the door of the empty office. I never felt more embarrassed and ashamed in my life. “This is what is expected when working on THIS SHOW!” I was told how I wasn’t a “team player,” that I “left everyone hanging,” that I "didn't realize how lucky I was to be working on this show" and they "took a great risk hiring me." It was the feeling that everyone in production always fear: hearing that you failed. ??

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It didn’t matter how many hours I put in from that point on, how creative I was, how good my writing was; I had rebuked the system and now I would pay for my sins until we wrapped. I kept my head down, no longer enjoying the work that I was doing -I was made to feel like one more misstep could end of my career. The fear kept me in line. I quickly became depressed -as I sat on a couch outside the lead editor’s bay that wreaked of weed. (He was the son of a famous Hollywood actor and was allowed to waltz in and out with no obligations, not to mention smoke as much marijuana as he wanted because I was told that he “edited better when he was high” – the luxury of being on the executive team) however, I was the one wearing the scarlet letter “D” for “difficult to work with.” There was no coming back from that.

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I was never invited back to work on the show (which is still on the air). The following season after I wasn’t invited back, the network executive asked where I was, he was told by the show’s producers that I didn’t want to return and I wanted to move onto other things in my career. They didn't have the gall to tell the network they never wanted to work with me again because I once pushed back.

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I wanted to share this story because it still bothers me nearly a decade later. I’ve fortunately have progressed in my career and, as unpopular of an opinion as it’s been over the years, I still believe that we should “work to live” and not “live to work. There is no glory in being overworked, because in the end, its all about making money for someone else. To see IATSE fight for reasonable hours and to be treated like humans has my full support. I’ve been there, I’ve seen it, I’ve experienced it. No one should ever be left to feel the fear that their job is more important than anything else in life… especially a job in television.