The absolutely worst day ever at work

Mehrocco_Mole posted a pic said
16

Sorry this is so long but you can blame either @Pavlov or @stardate820926.

@MrGlass started a topic "First day on the job?" and I mentioned this story as an aside. As it was off topic I decided to expand this into its own topic.

What was your worst day at work?


(This is not me!)

It was Saturday night and things were going along smoothly. I was directing a newscast for the local TV station. I had no TD so I was punching the show too. Anyone who has ever been in the director’s seat knows this job is like reading a novel, leading 4 different conversations, playing chess, playing a piano, watching the clock and the timers, listening for cues, and assembling a puzzle. All at the same time. I would be so focused I couldn't tell you what was in the news after the show. One of the things we have to deal with is dropping stories for time. Producers aren’t the best at timing shows.

We had to drop a story in the 4th segment which meant the producer had to edit the tease at the end of the 3rd (weather segment). Our prompter was a bit obsolete (at least it wasn’t pages on a conveyer belt) so to update any changes the operator had to back up to the previous story and roll back to the current story. The operator failed to back up far enough for the producer's changes to take. This was where the fun began.
At the end of the weather the anchor and wx person are on a two shot while the camera that was on the chroma key wall moves into position for the anchor’s mcu/tease to break. The anchor self pitched to a moving camera. The anchor, who BTW couldn’t adlib her way out of a wet paper bag, is looking off camera expecting to read the tease but the prompter is nothing but garbage so she’s stumbling all over herself looking the fool. She finally got it together enough to say, “We’ll be right back.”
During all this I have a producer freaking out behind me obviously pissed off at the anchor. Adding fuel to the fire the weather person is sitting on camera (still on the 2 shot, remember?) grinning and giggling.

So I make the calls, “Standby VR, fade it, Rover.” Which means Master control standby to take control and roll the commercials (VR). Fade music, kill mics, fade to black. And mastercontrol Roll VR (rover). Everything went well except; 1) the mics were not cut and 2) master control was slow to take control.
At this point the anchor did what every professional would do (NOT!) and say, “What the fuck was that?” in a studio, with an open mic, on the air.
At this station Production was a part of the News Department so I answered to the News Director. This particular ND was more interested in the contents of the fish tank on set than what was in the news. We didn’t see eye to eye on much. So come Monday he calls me into his office and says, “While it’s not your fault it is your responsibility so I’m suspending you for three days without pay.” The anchor got 5 days (should have been fired) and the producer got nothing.

BTW: the air tape backed me up. The proper calls were made.
Church was fun the next morning too. “Did I hear right?” “Did she really say that?”
For the next couple months, it became a joke around the station where if anything went wrong it was my fault whether I was there or not. I know how a ScapeGoat works.

TL:DR News anchor says, "What the Fuck" on air and I get fucked for it.