I have been doing location support work for the film industry for almost a year now. We help out the work crew but our main function is to clear streets for filming sets and to watch over the equipment and prevent any theft. By being a reliable and dedicated worker, i became part of my bosses most trusted core group of location support personnel. She listens to me and relies on me. She often asks me to keep an eye on new workers. A new guy, younger than me, started working for her and i interacted with him during his first shift. Immediately, i sensed alarm bells about this guy.
I tend to be very personable and make it a point to establish some kind of contact with the people i work with, as we have to rely on each other to watch our backs, especially during the night shifts. Speaking of night shifts, i'll do a blog about our experiences in Hamilton, ontario and how creepy that shit hole of a city is....yikes...i will even share some videos.
But on to my story about this new LSP, i will call him M. I instantly disliked him. He wasn't very sociable, in fact, a bit anti social and just unfriendly. He wasn't a team player. I know when someone is just a shy person and when it is something deeper and worse than that. He was the worse than that type. After a night shift, i heard him talking on the phone to the female LSP that was supposed to relieve him. She was late and having difficulty finding the downtown location. On the phone, he was saying to her "Well i don't know how to help you, you should be able to find it using your GPS, YOU HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO DRIVE." This was a red flag because, firstly, it was flat out rude. Secondly, he said this with total disregard to who she might be or her status and standing in the company. Thirdly, he didn't show any regard to who might have been listening to him talking to her in that manner, and that who was me. Seeing as he was irate, i told him, "M, i will watch over your spot until she gets here, i can stay late and wait for her, you can go if you need to be somewhere." I was doing him a favor. All he did was look at me, still irate, said nothing, not even a thanks, and walked off without me knowing if he was leaving or not.
These were huge red flags to me. As time passed i would see him on other productions when he had the same shift and location. He was always aloof and non engaging, often not even responding to a simple "hello M." I really started to dislike this guy. It was after a few months that my boss called me to complain about him. She said he was demanding from her how many shifts he was to have and where he was to work. He had a plum of a shift ( which i now have ) at a location where there were only 3 trucks to watch, free wifi, excess to indoor facilities with snacks and coffee, etc. A t this location, he didn't have to do anything but put in his time and go home in the morning. A very slack shift. My boss was complaining to me about him because he was caught leaving an hour early, maybe even more, on a regular basis from that shift. I used this opportunity to tell her that he was not a team player, who did nothing to ingratiate himself to me or others, was unfriendly and rude to other LSPS and clearly, was ungrateful to her as he was trying to strong arm her and also was slacking on the job.
I ended up getting that sweet location whenever it was available, as my boss took him off it. He kept calling her asking why he wasn't being given that location. Long story short, he was at another location in hamilton, but the other LSPS there were texting my boss, asking where he was. She called him, confronted him, and he lied, telling her he was at the location. So she asked him to get out of his car and walk around the block to where the other LSP was so that the other LSP could tell him something. He tried to stall things and asked, "what does he want to say to me?" M was caught not even being at his location, being derelick of duty when he was supposed to be watching over hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment. And thus, he was fired, my boss being so pissed off at his attitude that she called the other LSP companies and had him black listed, probably never to work in the film industry again.
Thus another enemy floats by me in the river. The red flags went up for me right from our first meeting because...
1) his first night on the job and he didn't seem to show any concern about the first impression he made
2) he was very unfriendly and anti social
3) he didn't show any awareness of even self preservation as he he behaved rudely with a total disregard to who might be observing him or the status of whoever was observing him. Anyone with any sense at all would have a "feeling out" process when they start a new job with other people to gain knowledge of who the people who have influence ( close to and trusted by the boss ) are. This is a critical red flag, when someone does not do this.
4) he did nothing to ingratiate himself to others he was working with. Had he been polite and friendly with me and others, maybe he would have had someone to put in a good word for him or plead on his behalf. But he had no one, and i dropped the hammer on him at the first opportunity. We could have lost the entire production because of him. I was right about him.
Later on today, i will head out to my shift at the sweet location my boss keeps giving me as a reward, and i will relax and enjoy the free wifi and free snacks....and M can drop dead for all i care.....bye bye "buddy."
