Vacation (at least for everyone else)

Weel, it's been a couple weeks and I've gotten my first paycheck (woo hoo!). I've pretty much settled in, and for the most part the job is pretty easy. It gets really quiet at night, and I feel like I should be doing more sometimes, but there really isn't much I can do.

One of the things that kind of bothers me right now is that a whole bunch of people are taking vacations, making us short-staffed for the next few weeks. This arises because no one can take vacations during ratings months, which are May and I think July as well, so everyone takes their vacation during June. That means we have less reporters and less producers, and some reporters have to cover for producers.

Adding to the problem is that one producer is taking another job in Utah, and they don't have a replacement yet for her. It's not really her fault for leaving, because she's getting better pay and will be in a bigger market, but it kind of leaves us in a pickle that no one seems willing to fix, except by taking a reporter and having them fill in as producer. I can already tell that this doesn't sit too well with some of the reporters, because they'd obviously like to get out and report and get their face on TV.

I know they're waiting to make hires for our new newscasts in the fall, but it would behoove them to find someone in the meantime so that we have more people available to do good stories.

I'd be willing to fill in some duties as producer, especially since that's what I want to work towards, but I know they'll be a little dodgy about that because I don't have experience. I think I might approach it slowly and ask the producers to write a few stories if possible and maybe learn from them, because there are some points in my night where I don't have anything to do. We'll see what happens.