A Little Respect

You okay?

If that question is the extent of the mental health concern your employer shows you, that's not enough. And mental health in the workplace is a topic that the media industries have not done enough to address.

I'm bringing this up for a couple of reasons. First, it came up on an NAB Show panel this week for the first time I can remember, at the first session on Sunday, on a panel addressing the theme "What Business Are You In?." TelevisaUnivision's Sabina Widmann took the opportunity to raise the issue of burnout and warn that companies need to do more to help employees cope, especially after over two years of pandemic-based disruption. She suggested a bunch of things managers can do to help their staff deal with the problem. However, later in the week, PR guy Ed Zitron posted a very strong piece at his Substack pointing out that companies can't just offer mental health resources and think they're solving the problem; instead, he wrote, it may just be a management problem that manifests as a mental health issue, that it's the work itself and the way staffers are managed that lead to mental health problems. You should read Ed's post; he's been a strong advocate for workers in general and remote work in particular, and this one particularly resonated with me.

Of course, all of it can be true: Companies can and should offer resources to deal with mental health issues, and it can be true that it's not enough, and it surely is true that they can and probably are causing the issues in the first place. If you've come to hate your job, the reasons for that may not be what you specifically do as much as it's how you're treated. You don't resent making widgets so much as you resent that the widget assembly line foreman treats you like an interchangeable and easily replaceable dirt clod. Wait, you don't make widgets. You work in radio or podcasting and you're a creative individual. Fine, no widgets, no foreman. Does your boss yell? Does your boss hotline you? Does your boss respect you? Does your employer talk a lot about "loyalty" and "family" and somehow you're still not paid what you should be making, and you're expected to put in long hours and put company over your real family?

Radio, in particular, has always been an industry that, while on the surface seems to be tolerant of individual personalities, has had its share of poor management and insensitivity towards workers' personal lives. It's how we get all of those "radio stories" from old-timers who still remember the GM who treated them like dirt, the PD who would hotline the jock at 3 am for a minor infraction, the jock who berated the producer and interns on a daily basis or made fun of an unwilling victim... er, staffer because it was entertaining, not cognizant or caring of how that would affect that person's life. It was always chalked up to "well, that's just the way it is." Besides, if someone didn't like being treated that way, there were many, many people who would happily take their job, probably for less money. You're paying your dues, you see. It's what radio people did before you, and it'll always be that way, right?

No, not right. Things have changed. There isn't a long line of radio aspirants patiently waiting their turn to take your job. Young people aren't clamoring for radio jobs. And here's something that should be sobering to radio management: Over the years, when a radio person lost their job, I'd get notes from them looking for radio work. Then, it was "how do I start a podcast and how much money can I make from that?" These days, when someone loses their job, I'm more likely to get a note about how they've moved into a completely different business and are happy there. I've had people tell me they're making more money in a month than they made in three months in radio, whether they're selling real estate or doing digital marketing or managing a retail operation. Plan B is now Plan A, and radio is fast becoming Not A Plan At All for a significant number of people in the business. They've had enough, they're burned out, they're unhappy.

Companies can treat this as "good riddance," they can offer the usual token "your company insurance covers 40 percent of group therapy sessions," or they can address the underlying problem. Everyone has their own prescription for helping workers cope; here are mine:

-Pay better. That's the first and most important point. If people feel like they're inadequately compensated for their work, it'll be a serious drag on their state of mind.
-Ease up on the "tough boss" stuff. You're not a football coach. Yelling and high pressure isn't motivation, it's just abuse. You can get people to work harder and better without cracking any whips.
-Stop penalizing workers for taking time off. That's not just vacation days, but even lunch breaks or going home early (if you're making them come to the office). Is the work being done? Then measuring the hours shouldn't be an issue unless there's a state law regulating work schedules. If your employees are afraid to take time off because they think it'll be held against them, they're not the problem -- you are.
-Show respect. You aren't a better person because you have a better title or make more money. Treat employees the way you want to be treated.
-Do not allow the words "loyalty" or "family" to pass your lips when discussing your business. Your workers are increasingly aware that they are not your family and that, historically, "loyalty" is a one-way street, unlikely to be rewarded and likely to lead to being taken for granted or being taken advantage of. (I am aware that the last phrase is grammatically problematic. I just spent a week at a convention. Cut me some slack.)
-Oh, this one is a radio specialty and is being added here by my wife, who left radio many years ago and has never regretted the move: Do not make employees do the jobs of three or four (or more) people. Radio management has always thought, hey, we can have one poor sap do ALL the jobs. One PD instead of five! One jock voicetracking dozens of stations! One manager for three markets! You save a couple of salaries and load too much work onto one person, who will suffer for it.

There are probably more elements to contributing to burnout, but those are a start in understanding that what this industry does to the people who work for it is something that can't be solved with discount therapy or a feel-good public relations campaign. It's not just something that a doctor can fix up with a prescription and a few couch sessions, and it's not something that just manifests itself with no root causes. Companies can go a long way towards helping their employees feel better by treating them better. And if they don't, and the industry doesn't, there are other businesses that will.

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It was nice to see many of you in Las Vegas, and I guess we're getting back to in-person events, so I suppose I'll see more of you soon enough at whatever the next gathering will be. In the meantime, the All Access Audio Summit 2022 is now available on-demand, and you can register now and watch all the sessions at your leisure, so do that by clicking here. Why, yes, I'm one of the many speakers and moderators you'll see in the videos, but don't let that dissuade you.

Perry Michael Simon
Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief and News-Talk-Sports-Podcasting Editor
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
Twitter @pmsimon