Most on-air members of the news media, whether in front of the camera or behind the microphone, have sacrificed quite a bit to earn the role.
Maybe it was years waiting in the wings. Or years working up from small markets to big ones. Or filling in for a long time before the big break.
For many, those sacrifices make the job more meaningful, leading to what I would call an insecure protective instinct. You don’t want to lose the job, so you do what you can to keep it. Part of that is to simply do a good job. Part of it is to freeze our competition. And part of it is never going on long vacations — can’t have the fill-in do so well, they take the job.
It might be irrational. But it’s still real.
Does this ever happen? Well, maybe it has, but it’s a black squirrel or white deer moment. Not often.
But the fear. That irrational, insecure fear.
In response, think about it. How many anchors or hosts take very little time off? A lot.
Why is that? Workaholics? Maybe. Job protection obsessed? Most likely.
It’s human nature.
I’ve never felt this way, and I’m not sure why — probably out of naïveté for most of my career — but I’ve been warned about it many times … from both sides.
I remember getting several undeserved anchoring opportunities when I first arrived at CNBC. Afterward, I remember a few on-air folks being particularly rude to me. I didn’t understand why.
One person took me aside and simply said, “They’re threatened. Don’t worry about it.”
The first half was true, but perhaps, not the second. The jobs I was subbing for were awesome jobs and those who held them wanted to hold on to them. I kind of shrugged it off, but I should have paid more attention to it because I didn’t understand the totality of the protection obsession.
In one sense, it is completely logical and a simple matter of human nature:
The anchor/hosting gigs are great jobs, and no one who’s worked for years wants to do anything to jeopardize them, including taking time off.
That extreme risk aversion takes other forms, too. I remember anchoring a 4 AM show at one point in my career. What compounded the early wake-up trauma was a nearly one-hour commute. In the office at 3. In the car at 2. Up at 1:30. In my mind, it was unsustainable.
So, I had it written into my contract that I could rotate out of the job after 12 months.
The show did well, but my life was kind of a mess. I had young kids and simply wasn’t present for anyone. I got home earlier in the day, but I was a zombie most of the time. So it wasn’t quality time.
I figured that I had established myself enough to earn another on-the-desk role, so after 12 months, I asked off the early morning desk as soon as I was contractually allowed.
A main anchor on the CNBC morning show (one of the same ones who was a little nasty when I first got there) took me aside and asked if I was “f—ing crazy.” I said politely that I didn’t think so. He said, “Never turn your back on your own show. Never!” Turns out, he was right.
In the same way that it’s always easier to get a job when you have a job, it’s easier to get other anchoring gigs when you’re in one.
I never got another full-time anchor role at the network and eventually left because of it.
Do I regret getting off the 4 AM show? No. The regret is not securing something else in the media space or at least knowing what was at stake when I did it.
Coming full circle with the whole time-off thing, my take now is: Take the time off… and don’t look back.
Someone may fill in and do great. If you’re good, it shouldn’t matter. And if it does matter and does actually impact your job, then management never believed in you enough in the first place. If so, go get that other gig … but just make sure you stay on the mic long enough to secure it — and don’t leave before you get it.
Next week: Using vacation time to find new talent.
If you get it, enjoy the time off!
Brian Shactman is a weekly columnist for Barrett News Radio. In addition to writing for BNM, Brian can be heard weekday mornings in Hartford, CT on 1080 WTIC hosting the popular morning program ‘Brian & Company’. During his career, Brian has worked for ESPN, CNBC, MSNBC, and local TV channels in Connecticut and Massachusetts. You can find him on Twitter @bshactman.
