“Don’t burn bridges,” my TV production professor wrote on one of my papers where at the end he asked what we thought of the class. At the time, I thought he was a pretty bad instructor but in hindsight I really learned a lot. He was able to quickly see whose skills worked best for the different studio equipment – I was often assigned to run the character generator (to produce words under telecasts like the news scroll) because my spelling was gud good.
“Don’t burn bridges.” Three words I never forgot.
I have tried to apply those three words to life every single day. If I get irritated at someone, I try to remain calm and see their side of any given situation. If I still don’t agree, I know it’s not me and walk away. There’s no sense in letting the little stuff drag you down.
However when it’s your JOB that’s affected, my view changes somewhat. I was once unjustly attacked about my job. I didn’t burn bridges, but given the chance (and if the right words came to me) I would still love me a good ol’ put-them-in-their-place moment. Like Conan did in his resignation letter made public.
“… It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule,” he wrote.
“But sadly,” he added, “we were never given that chance.”
Then again, maybe Conan’s move wasn’t so smart when he burned some bridges. One professional management recruiter suggested people NOT do what Conan did,
“That’s a dangerous game,” he said. “If I were NBC, I would call Conan’s bluff.”
Even if O’Brien gets what he wants, it may not bode well for his future relationship with his employer.
Sometimes it’s good to be one of the little people and not have that kind of problem! At least when I have to take it on the chin, it’s not blasted out for the whole world to see.
Leave a Reply