In my many years within the industry I have developed a thick skin but have encountered terrible treatment. As a senior, I now have a voice to call this out and stand up for myself. In one case, this led to dismissal by a well-known production company. The show had a reputation for the poor treatment of its casting teams – and many worked unnecessarily long working hours. Unfair treatment and bullying were so rampant that people developed mental health issues and didn’t want to come into work.
I was told to enforce all of the above "as that’s what we’ve done on previous series". It didn’t sit right with me, I could see people were not happy and struggling. I will not have myself and younger members of my team bullied by execs, so I put together a very productive plan which would offer an efficient and safe working environment but would also give great results in terms of casting. This was met with resistance from senior colleagues for no other reason than "it won’t work and it’s not how we normally do things".
Nevertheless, it was agreed my plan would be trialed. All the team were happy and vocal about how much they enjoyed working now they had the support I was giving them. Despite this after two days I was taken into an office by the exec and let go because “it wasn’t working out”.
The show is a returning series for a major broadcaster. Still to this day I hear similar stories about the bullying that goes on there. It’s a shame as they employ such talented and hardworking individuals, but after a stint on that I was left broken, down-trodden and questioning my career in this industry. They offer no support network so despite the line manager witnessing everything going on, they refused to address it and offer any counsel.
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