[SML] job ethics

[Dale Farmer]

My default is it's just another gig.  I rarely bother to check what the 
event or speaker was before I take it.  Once I take the gig, my 
professional ethics say I show up and do the job.   I'm in Boston, 
bluest of blue states, so don't get much in the way of these difficult 
events.  During presidential primary season I find myself driving up to 
New Hampshire more often.
The biggest hassle I've personally encountered is when the advance 
people from the various candidates indulge in shenanigans and tantrums 
to place their candidate in a better showing position than their 
competitors. Fortunately this is mostly filtered out by the people 
booking the event, and me being careful to not accept changes to plans 
except from the authorized person on the client side.   Since most of 
these gigs I'm just one of the hands, it's easy for me to pass these off 
to the team leads or TD.
   If one of the people involved is under secret service protection 
already, then I know to expect a certain amount of additional hassle for 
the security stuff.  If I get some direction from security to vary from 
the plan, again, I refer them to the TD or whomever, and this rarely 
presents a problem.
   Keep it professional, polite, and neutral.  I'm there to do a job, 
not to pass judgement (at least during the gig) and I owe them a decent 
professional job.  No matter how odious I might find their opinions.
   One caveat, If it is a political event, I work for an agency, and 
they are the ones responsible for sending me my paycheck.  If I were to 
be contracted to work direct for a candidate or political activist 
group, then I would insist on at least partial advance pay.  I have 
heard the stories about political groups putting on events that they 
don't have the money to support, leaving the workers and contractors 
unpaid after the fact.

Dale



On 1/14/2021 2:35 PM, Mick Alderson via Stagecraft wrote:
> Hobbit queried:
> 
>> Without trying to lean left or right here, I have to wonder ... do the folks
>> working tech at political events wind up with really mixed feelings about
>> effectively contributing to people/efforts/causes that they're not personally
>> in favor of?  Is it in their best ethical interests to decline such gigs,
>> or is it "just a job" and everybody there is able to remain 100% mentally
>> detached from whatever's going on, even if it is sometimes patently awful?
>>
>> _H*
> 
> Speaking for myself, I’ve always regarded such jobs as “just another gig”. I am a stagehand. My job is to provide a service to facilitate events, not pass judgment on them. I take that back; stagehands _always_ pass judgement! :-) Besides, I am usually an employee of the venue or perhaps a contractor for such calls. It’s not my place to tell my employer who to accept as a client. Of course, with Covid19 wiping out most events of any sort since March, the question did not come up this year.
> 
> It helps that I firmly believe, for example, in the right to speak your mind as loudly as you want SO LONG AS you extend the same privilege to everyone else, AND so long as nobody else gets hurt. (You can hurt yourself if you want.) Threats and intimidation cross the line, as that inhibits the free speech of other people. Encouraging or doing actual violence to others is simply beyond the pale.
> 
> On the other hand, while I may support your right to say what you want, no private person or entity should be FORCED to support  or enable an opinion they don’t agree with. My ethics tells me to support the rights of those I disagree with right up until they cross my personal line, i.e. when someone else is harmed, according to my definition of harm. It is your right to draw YOUR line in a different place, to follow your conscience and act accordingly. Your definition of “harm” may be different than mine. I respect that.
> 
> Yet words and actions are not without consequences. If you cannot do a gig because of your personal ethics, you must accept that there will undoubtedly be a cost. Withy luck, the cost will only be monetary.
> 
> Mick Alderson
> IATSE 470
> USITT Midwest Section
> 
> 
> 
> 
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