Pregunte al representante de negocios, despide uno*

*ask the biz rep, part one

While I'm on vacation, let me regale you with answers to dandy questions that have cropped up over the years ...

Q: What's the point of you going to studios all the time, talking to people? What's up with that?

A: While it looks like I'm just stumbling around being annoying, I'm actually there in the work place for a bunch of reasons.

1) The studios are aware that I'm there talking to people and checking for contract violations, and it causes them to watch their Ps and Qs, if only a little.

2) It's the single best way I have of finding out what's going on throughout the biz. People tell me the problems and issues at the company, tell me how the latest projects are going, tell me which supervisors are good and which are difficult. I take it all in and keep most of it to myself. When I blog about it, nobody is every cited by name, and material is toned down. (I need more problems with studios like a I need a drill bit gnawing into my frontal lobes. So I stick with the good news for the most part, and no specific info about projects. I leave that to the fan sites.)

3) Sitting in the office taking phone calls and answering e-mails is bor-ing.

My opinion? Studio visits are the single most important thing a union representative can do with his time.