A junior member of a production team walks into the production office every morning, and no one speaks to her all day. The director won’t even make eye contact. When she asks them a question, they look away as if she’d not spoken at all. She told me it felt like being shut down.
The production associate, a particularly pompous individual, tells a “funny” story about a runner whose complaint is dismissed “because they’re only the runner”. That should have been my member’s cue to leave the production. Another senior member of the production team had already left over potential health and safety issues, yet this junior member stayed with a team that clearly saw her as beneath their contempt.
We are a tribal species; isolation leaves you vulnerable. She describes walking into the bar at the unit hotel where the production team is staying, and no one speaks to her. So, for the sake of her sanity, she books out of the unit hotel and into a pub in an area where the rest of the crew are staying, and straight into the arms of the production predator. It’s television; there’s always one!
Do not allow yourself to be isolated. Think of it as predators, sexual or otherwise, looking for vulnerable prey separated from their pack.
I would have advised her to address the exclusion straight away, to prevent negative group dynamics. She should have demanded basic courtesy from that director. Accepting unacceptable treatment only increases vulnerability.
Duty of care toward junior staff was there; none. Sure, she’d been warned about predatory males, but no one warned her that a production team could make her feel so unwelcome that the predatory male seemed the better option! Are those leading production teams now told they have a duty of care toward junior members? I hope so.
The silent treatment at work is never just rudeness. Silence is sometimes a warning sign; don’t underestimate it. Let me teach you all the warning signs I’ve found that you are about to be bullied, so that you can address the issues before they escalate.
If work has gone quiet around you, don’t wait it out. Book your place: https://tinyurl.com/5yjnkjjp
