Rookie Mistakes: Do You Want to Be Here?

January 11, 2025

It’s all about engagement - to appear disengaged, absent, or uninterested, can be indicative of a bad attitude and poor leadership.

I’ll start this video with a question: do you want to be here? I mean at work, with your job. Do you make it clear that you are happy to be at work and have the job that you have? You’d be surprised how often I wonder about this for some of my crew.

Now, as I film this, the animation industry is in the midst of another concerning downturn. Most of us are just grateful to have jobs doing what we do best, whether it be Production, Creative, or Technical. I’m not saying that you have to be especially demonstrative in your gratitude for a job, not at all. It’s more about engagement - to appear disengaged, absent, or uninterested, can be indicative of a bad attitude and poor leadership.

A couple years ago we were buzzing about “quiet quitting,” and there are ongoing discussions about generational attitudes towards work and entitlement to having a job in the first place. I’ve mentioned in other videos that the vast majority of those in management or leadership positions would rather work with crew who have good attitudes, even if technical skills are lacking.

I’ve also mentioned previously that even at the Production Coordinator level, a Coordinator position is one of leadership. Being engaged in your work and making it clear you want to be here is important in helping to guide your team and set an example of leadership on a show.

Renowned basketball coach Coach K says in Leading with the Heart,

“If you’re a leader, you’d better understand that if you want people on your team who are fully committed, then you’d better be fully committed to a course of action that allows proper use of that commitment. If not, you should change your course of action. In other words, your goal must be worthy of your team’s commitment.”
- from Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life by Mike Krzyzewski with Donald T. Phillips

So what are some things I’m looking for in my own team, and my own performance that indicates if you want to be here? Personally, I’m looking for three main things: first, do you attend work regularly?

While we are absolutely entitled to sick days, whether for physical or mental health reasons, if you can’t bring yourself to log on on a regular basis (barring chronic health issues of course) it's probably a sign you don’t want to be at your job.

Second, how engaged and present are you? Do you talk to your teammates, and I mean more than just offering an emoji reaction? Do you turn your camera on for meetings? You don’t need to be friends with people at work, and while that may be an important boundary for some, it's still important to at least talk and engage with your colleagues on some level.

Lastly, are you learning and growing in your role? I offer a final piece of insight from Coach K here. Now, Coach K is speaking of assistant coaches in basketball, not coordinators or PMs in Animation, but you can see how the logic transfers to Production as he says, “I prefer that all our assistant coaches have the vision of being head coaches. That way, they’ll want to learn and grow.”