New Help with Schedule Change

K

Kramer

Member
Hey guys I'm chief in a smaller market, (100's) and I'm about to hire in a new person. Now I'm tinkering with the idea of having the new person leap frog my 3 other photogs b/c the new person has more experince than the others. Is this a bad thing? Is this a bad choice? Is senority that big of a deal everywhere?

The new kid has more experience, better shooter, and can come in and be a big help right off the bat. The other 3 have a combined 5 months experience, made serval mistakes, and 1 in general hasn't seen eye to eye with just about anything we try and do here. The 1 also would be the one next in line to work the elusive day-side shift.

Do I do it solely on senority, or is it so bad that I want the best shooters to have the biggest exposure to our biggest newscast? Before anyone jumps on me, I'm not saying the other newscast don't matter, but our bigger audience, and more attention is on the shift I want to put the new person.

The other photogs expect to move up, but haven't shown the heart, desire, or want to actually learn....just move up to a 9-5 shift & have weekends off.

Please any and all thoughts are welcome....

Thanks,
The K-Man
 
If the 3 other photogs have 5 months combined experience...you have no choice but to leap frog them.

Your job as chief is to run your staff in a manner that best serves the station. Don't worry about what you're "supposed" to do...Don't worry about "senority"...Worry about making decisions that will benefit the station. The most talented/experience personnel SHOULD be on the most high priority shows.

Don't feel guilty about it...Just do it. If the other guys pop attitude about it...tough. Maybe it'll inspire them to work hard.
Good luck.
 
You go with what you need.

I'm going to sound a little mean, but if the other shooters don't like-TOO BAD. It's your job to think of the whole picture.

Plus your only talking about 5 months experience. If it was a couple years, then it would be a different story.
 
Three guys with a total of 5 months experience? Seniority?

You have to be kidding. Really. It is more like juniority. First in the door doesn't matter in this case. Skills matter.

I wouldn't hesitate to take someone with more experience and put them in a impact position ahead of these guys. They may sulk for a while, but will get over it.
 
Been there, done that.

You have to. That is the only responsible choice you have. And maybe the addition of a new person that leaps the others will be just the thing to kick them into gear.

I vote for moving the new person into position #2.

Good luck.
 
Thanks guys for the great info. I posted this topic over in the general discussion as well, and well to say the least it was met with different opinions. I just think making the best decision for the newsroom is the right one.

Thanks
 
People respect those who produce a quality product in a professional manner. At least they'll have another person to learn from. I learned more from a senior photographer than my chief in my first market.
 
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