The Painful Cost of Anger and Fighting a 'Star' at Work
Rob Marciano may have ended his high-profile television career
People with anger as a weakness in the workplace can long get away with boorish, destructive behavior. It’s not a reliable way to express oneself though and survive and thrive in one’s career. So, goodbye Rob Marciano.
ABC News terminated their weatherman for reportedly not controlling his anger and being reported for it by fellow meteorologist Ginger Zee, a network star with a large fan base.
Marciano being known for fighting angrily and overly rough and then having a powerful person in Zee who is beloved by consumers and the media and a moneymaker for an employer speak out against you is not going to go well. Not getting along with that person and not abiding by the pecking order is a fool’s errand.
Marciano joined “Good Morning America” in 2014 to take Zee’s weekend gig.
“From the outset, Zee and Marciano’s working relationship was as turbulent as a Category 5 hurricane — and stayed that way for years, sources with knowledge told The New York Post,” reported Alexandra Steigrad.
It wasn’t entirely Marciano who was aggressive and acting inappropriately as Zee was said to be “nasty” as well, Steigrad wrote.
An important point and hiring and management lesson was made by an unnamed source. “It’s sad because they are two people who are really into the science of the weather, unfortunately their personalities didn’t work,” the person said.
Conflict management professionals may well have been able to help the parties to where the personalities would work successfully together yet it is unknown whether that was tried and committed to as a potential remedy.
The truth is sometimes certain personalities will not get along or one party is so over the top that the other person cannot reasonably endure the misbehavior.
Zee may not be the angel however that her fans see, says one person who knows her, at least when it came to Marciano.
“She treated him as a beta and she was the alpha,” the media executive said.
There will be people who say that she had every right to act that way due to her status, profitability and likability and that she is only being criticized because she is a woman. Zee was certainly a queen within the organization and Marciano absolutely has to own his reactions at work, in general and towards her and others.
That’s entirely on him. Yet it’s also fair to say, palatable or not, that Zee contributed to the conflict and its intensity.
Reportedly, she “pulled rank” over assignments, whatever that entailed, according to Steigrad. “Ginger is a know-it-all. If you say something she disagrees with, she references her Twitter followers, saying, ‘You are wrong, my followers on Twitter loved it,'” the media executive said.
Marciano was unprofessional too.
When he didn’t agree with a management decision, his “body language and tone would change. If Marciano was unhappy about something, you’d know it,” the exec said. “He lost his cool in meetings when he got news he didn’t like.”
In summary, both were acting immaturely. Marciano crashed his trust on the job though because you don’t mess with a company asset the magnitude of Zee and you don’t act so out of bounds with your anger that you gain the reputation as a hothead, and unstable, which it appears by reports that he clearly showed himself to be.
“His personality wasn’t caused by his divorce or being treated like a beta,” said a source who has worked with Marciano. “He’s got a temper. He’s got a short fuse.”
Marciano could have sought executive coaching, counseling, stress management and addressed his anger in a way that helped him process, react and respond in a healthy, respected, helpful manner. It doesn’t seem he did so and now, not only was he fired, his reputation might prevent him from ever having an on-camera presence again.
His name is mud. That may not be a tombstone for his name, reputation and career but it would take a response that the overwhelming majority of people will reject.
Marciano now has a question to ask himself: “What now?”
The intelligence of his analysis, answer and response will determine the level of resiliency possible.
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Michael Toebe is a reputation consultant, advisor and communications specialist at Reputation Intelligence: Reputation Quality, assisting individuals and organizations with further building reputation as an asset or ethically protecting, restoring or reconstructing it.
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