Constructive criticism---in every business, every workplace, every job, it's always going to be there. The decision on how you deal with it can affect the outcome of your performance. Some people (mainly a co-worker that I will refer to as Harry that I've compared to as the Dwight of the station) just don't really understand the concept completely. I think the major reason for his "confusion" is that unless you're his age or older, he's going to have everything go in one ear and out the other.
An example of this idea was put into play today, when after being told over and over...and over again, Harry continues to give us news for the morning show that is either too late, contains way too much information, or is too much of a profile, fluff piece. Some of this stuff works perfectly for TV, and even for Newspaper, but when you have 4 minutes or less to deliver World, National, and New England News in one clump sum, you can't take 2 minutes of the time reading a local story that really just belongs in written form. After doing this constantly, the co-host plus another DJ, J, decided that it was time once again to sit down and have a chat with Harry. J was concerned though that Harry wouldn't be able to take the conversation too well, even though the co-host and I tried to reassure him that the talk wouldn't be a type of ganging-up on Harry, it's just all constructive criticism--things to make him do better at his job. Even as this was discussed, J came to the conclusion that Harry may not take any of the meeting lightly and constructively mainly because the co-host is younger than Harry. I have to say, this has to be one of the most prideful mistakes that people, in ANY job, can make. I understand that with age, comes experience and knowledge, but if you don't want to learn anything new, then you're never going to grow in those departments, and younger people will catch up, and even pass you. That's exactly the position Harry has put himself in--he never wants to learn anything new in radio, so therefore, everyone younger than him are going to pass him up. Because of this, he has to realize that he may have to get pointers from these same people, but because his pride gets in the way, he closes everything out and acts like a stubborn 5 year old.
Now, I don't know how the meeting turned out between the 3, but I do know that Harry was not his usual "Dwight" self the rest of the day--a lot of silence came from the closed door of his office today, which is not something that happens too frequently. I have to say, a day without ridiculous quotes or "jokes" that make me want to punch something was a breath of fresh air, but if he comprehended anything from the meeting is a whole other story. Oh well, we'll see if some stuff may have sunk in when I get my local news in the morning. Until then, I hope you all can take something from this--catch up, take the constructive stuff, or suck it up when junior passes you by.
P.S. If you want to check out any of my previous blog posts, you can check out my Xanga site--the link for it is on the side right over there on the right :)
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