On my morning drive today I heard the radio disc jockeys slagging Christian Bale for his apparent freakout on a movie set. I searched the web later but could not make the audio track work. While searching I also found video files for two Lily Tomlin freakouts. You’ve got to watch them, its totally off-the-wall and so inappropriate. In the one clip where Tomlin argues with her producer the producer actually looks like he’s going to hit her. Warning clip is Rated R.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Qls1rAfYs

My first reaction was that this kind of thing would never happen in a business other than show business. In large public or private business or government do they tolerate employee abuse like this? Surely if you are a government manager and you freakout on your staff you are escorted out the door the same day? Maybe not. My mother in law is a 35 year federal employee and she always says it would take rape or arson to get fired.

I think this kind of workplace misbehavior happens more often than we know. I’ve personally worked for two companies that had entrepreneurial leaders that often – and inappropriately – freaked out on subordinates. And these were major Canadian brands – household names that people would naturally assume are run by total professionals.

So what about Bale, Tomlin and the freakouts in the movie industry? I’ve been blessed to work closely with customers in the television and movie industry since 1999 so I’ve had brief glimpses of what goes on behind the scenes. Its not at all glamorous but it is a tremendous amount of work. Imagine launching, running, then closing a business with a budget of $50M to 200M all in the span of four to six months – that must be quite a pressure cooker. Not to excuse the behavior, which is outrageous, but I can see why it happens.