My Dad, who is now in his 70's, told me a story about how two old Chinese guys in the kitchen he works in would bicker. To the extent that one would take a cleaver to the other and scream and carry on. These are men WAY past their 50's. Being the peacemaker, my pop simply told them that the view of two old ass Asian dudes fighting in the eyes of the Mexican workers must be some good comedy for them to relay back to their families. What exactly is the purpose of arguing at that age? What do you accomplish? I'm sure they're still bickering now. To which my Dad just shakes his head in disgust. What could possibly be that important that one has to be right over the other?
A similar thing occurred at my office. As I was away on vacation, a 50 year old guy across the street covered my shift. The guy is making around a six figure salary...but as an hourly employee. These are the rumors you hear around offices. The who-makes-what scenario. He does the same as me, but I hold no bitterness towards him. You get what you negotiate, not what you deserve. Anyway, I have a tendency to be salty to the people in my department. They're not interested in this side of the business, the film side, so I embrace it as my own. However, when the technical comes up, they defer to this complete moron, who is a senior engineer. I learned not to gripe anymore and let the guy justify his position at this company. I openly show my displeasure with their attitude towards the work. I love film. Will always love film. And so forth. I think they prefer it just die. Dummies don't realize it is roughly 40% of their work, so...logically they'd be tossed with it. And "producers" generally have no trade skill to fall back on.
When I returned from my vacation, back to the old ways it went. I'm still sickened by the apathy they show towards this craft that is fading. Whatever. I shared this with my co-worker who'd covered my shift. To which he replied "I have no idea why you have an issue with them, I got along with them fine." This burned me, because a) I know how complicit he is b) he's a spineless turd.
Later that day, the producer came over to me and shared a story about how this guy was a wishy-washy bitch and he should just do what we tell him to. Afterall, earning a six figure salary and still complaining about overtime...not sure what words to say here.
The easiest thing would be to throw this comment from this manager back into the face of this co-worker. "So you got along, huh? They ever mention they consider you a spineless bitch and you should just crawl on your hands and knees thankful you aren't shit-canned?" But I wouldn't do that. It goes back to my father's words to those two old guys who bickered...what good would it do to pit people against each other?
This business is very much like a "you know who said what about you?" That's awful. It really causes more problems than helps. As I younger guy, I would've LOVED to have stuck this co-worker with that, but as my Dad said, it's not me who gets the last laugh. I'd have to live with the sickness of gossip and pot stirring. I don't bottle it up though. I showed my cards early to the office. I think they respect, in a small sense, that I don't have that duplicitous nature. You will get what I tell you. Again, as a younger guy, this has often gotten me into trouble. As an older man, I don't feel that much evil in my gut. I am glad I took the words of a man I greatly respect to heart.
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