1. People Were Made To Fear Random Termination
No one was safe working at L!ve TV. When I first started there a person was once introduced to me as "temporary Avid editor" which in my naivety simply meant they were contractors and would leave when their job was done. In truth the reality is much more heinous - it was MacKenzie's (and his cronies) method for ensuring that full-time employees never felt comfortable in their jobs and were always scared they would be terminated for no reason. A power trip and one that did not impress. "Don't get too friendly with him, he won't be here tomorrow" was a snide comment I would hear from time to time. These weren't idle threats just for the amusement of the suits. People genuinely would be randomly gone - no goodbye party, no farewell drink, more a case of "Where's Claire?" - "Gone". One day MacKenzie came up to me to ask where we were on the Boyband project. I said we were pretty much on schedule but he was clearly in a bit of strop and demanded to see some finished footage right then. Boyband was going to be a cartoon series around the lives of real-life boy band OTT and we were making a ten minute fully animated pilot in Toy Story styled 3D and were in the midst of pre-production. Anyone who has worked in this sort of field knows there's lots of virtual rigging, modeling and set building before anything can be actually made and I had planned it out accordingly. And therefore I had nothing to show that would make sense to him. "I guess I'm looking for a new Technical Director then!" he smirked, looking around for congratulations from his entourage. That 'motivational' methodology may work on some people but not me - I'd been through enough nonsense with Hewland. I launched into a loud, long rant about problems with hiring staff, budgets, computer hardware, Bill Ridley (which is a story unto itself) and so much more. I went on for five minutes solid not letting the man speak - all in the open office in front of everyone. He listened, barely saying anything, and when I shut up he shook my hand and walked away. I stared at Lee the director of Boyband who had been present for this and I stated that I may have gone a little over board. He smiled and added that he thought I did well... Ultimately I wasn't fired and MacKenzie never said anything derogatory to me again - and, at least in my presence, never did I hear their asinine put downs. I guess I'd made my mark and my job at least was safe. I quit two months later to work for Bob Geldof at Planet 24.