Some time ago, I was repeatedly judged and mocked by my assistant producer for no reason. He used my junior position as a researcher and his close friendship with our producer to his advantage, rather than relying on his ability.
He was verbally aggressive at times, and always short-tempered. He took advantage of the fact that he had become friends with some people in the office who would believe his judgments. He even told me that he enjoyed picking on people and making them uncomfortable. I am not sure how many people realised how unethical his behaviour was, but I did speak to a couple of colleagues who were made to feel uncomfortable
A couple of months before he had begun to bully me, he told me I was doing so well and that he admired me and so did other colleagues and producers. As soon as he got promoted to assistant producer level he began to question and undermine everything I did. He used meaningless inaccuracies to pick on me and make them look like actual mistakes or lack of competence, when in reality I was doing very well.
He even shouted at me once because he would have liked me to go faster in preparing some production notes and paperwork. We had both been working long hours that day and he took advantage of the fact that nobody was in the office in that moment. I calmly and politely (but firmly) replied that I did not wish to have any argument and that he was exaggerating. He did not accept my reaction and the fact that I was being the bigger person. He got nervous again and went home. Fortunately, a few weeks later I started working with a different producer and AP for technical reasons and I never worked closely with him again.
Overall, this experience taught me that I wasn’t at fault, and the problem was with the AP’s mentality, and that I can always be free to focus on my job by becoming stronger and developing self-awareness. The unethical behaviour of people like him does not define my work or my abilities. Nonetheless, that is the kind of attitude that should never be tolerated. It acts as a barrier to both the wellbeing of the crew and the quality of the content that we all wish to create in the TV industry.