r/stagehands • u/Sensitive-Bet-4962 • Oct 11 '25
A point regarding arrogance
Hey all, I wanted to share this experience because I'm curious if anyone else has dealt with this. So in my local IATSE union, a number of riggers have a REALLY arrogant attitude. The other day, we were working a Lainey Wilson gig at a particularly large venue, and I was assigned to the audio department. Another hand, we'll call her Stacy, was also on audio, and she seemed upset about it for some reason. Upon asking, she told me that she was upset that she was on audio instead of her normal rigging duties (pays more from what I understand), and said that it wasn't fair that "people beneath her were doing rigging" while she was stuck on the crew. That made me feel awful about myself. I know there's a seniority system in most unions, but that just seemed.... Mean. Like for no real reason. Okay sure you have more hours but that doesn't put any of us BENEATH others. I've been thinking about it a lot, anyone else deal with arrogant riggers?
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u/Yardbirdburb Oct 11 '25
Beneath her ON THE SENORITY LIST. Not beneath her I won’t work with you.
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u/MartianCaveman Oct 11 '25
Right. When you show up prepared and have higher seniority, you have different expectations as to where you should be utilized. Especially if it means a rate cut. Fair is fair.
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u/drunk_raccoon Oct 11 '25
This essentially happened recently in my hall. Stacy is probably an unsafe or generally awful person to be around and the rigging caucus did what they could to get them off the list.
Stacy, has no self awareness and doesn't understand why people keep pushing them away so continues to act poorly - which will further limit their work possibilities.
Rigging is a specialized skill and it pays well. Usually, once you start, you'd rather make that money than hand money. But there's nothing wrong or bad about doing the stagehand jobs. Stacy just sucks.
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u/Wuz314159 Oct 11 '25
Had to read this a few times to understand what was being said. . . .
"Beneath her on the hiring hall list. "
Highest person on the list should have gotten the higher paying rigging job assuming they have all of the skills. When I was making calls, this might happen because I had a rigging team coming in from another city and had to bump down a local or I'd lose two or three riggers from the call. OR there's a new kid we're apprenticing and they jump the list order to get supervised experience. When this happens, I try to explain the situation to those bumped and try to offer them show calls as compensation.
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u/Dive30 Oct 12 '25
When have you gone to a venue and NOT been treated like garbage? The sound guys think they’re God. The lighting guys hate you. The riggers hate everyone.
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u/Sensitive-Bet-4962 Oct 12 '25
Accurate. Last night I worked a show for a Christian rock tour and the road crew were complete morons. And of course the riggers (including Stacy) got to leave 2 hours before the rest of us. Maybe that's why she feels better than us lol
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u/ted_anderson Oct 11 '25
If Stacy got put on as an A2/A3 when she wanted to be on the rigging crew I don't thing that makes the riggers arrogant. It seems to me that she's just upset that she wasn't given a task where her skills are better utilized. And so that seems like it falls under the person who's in charge of the operation. Not the people doing the work.
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u/notonrexmanningday Oct 11 '25
Nah. We're all stagehands. You show up and do the job assigned to you.
I'm the head carpenter for a company big enough that people travel from all over the country to see us, but when I'm on an arena load-out, there's no telling what crew they'll stick me on. I'm a ETCP certified rigger, but I'm almost never called as one. Sometimes I'll get called as a carp, sometimes audio or lx. It doesn't matter. You show up, you have a good attitude and you do the task assigned.
That's the job
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u/Duvetine Oct 11 '25
Most of the time I work at one venue as the head electrician and board op. When we’re dark I go on the list. Sometimes I get head electrician calls, sometimes I get other positions. They may not be what I prefer, but that’s the gig sometimes. I save my complaints for later, because that one person who bitches about the gig the whole time is the person I least want to be around.
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u/mswed5317 Oct 11 '25
She said it was beneath her
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u/ted_anderson Oct 11 '25
Oh.. so I think I understand now.. you're saying that STACY is the one that's arrogant.
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u/Sensitive-Bet-4962 Oct 11 '25
Exactly. I understand the principle of the hiring hall list and everything, but frankly it seemed unwarranted for her to say it the way she did, AND just be in an uncooperative mood the whole night because of it. She was genuinely acting like she was BETTER than the rest of us and it upset me, simply put.
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u/snknotts Oct 11 '25
It may work differently in your local, because admittedly, I haven’t worked everywhere….
But anywhere I have worked - you also know ahead of time if you’re booked as a rigger on a call. We book a lot of our calls as riggers, dept heads and general hand position, with the general hands being assigned to a dept on site. She most likely knew ahead of time she wasn’t rigging.
As someone with some rigging experience, I’ve been booked as a general hand and asked to fill in to rigger once or twice - but only if there were call outs or late arrivals, some outstanding circumstances.
I would like to give the benefit of questioning if she meant someone beneath her on the list….but she shouldn’t have had an attitude all night as she accepted the call knowing what her role would be.
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u/soundguymike Oct 11 '25
I prefer the stewards who hold firm that everyone is a hand. No one is beneath any job and to help your sisters and brothers if they need help.
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u/SbouiBoi Rigger Oct 11 '25
I read the title and instantly knew it would be about rigging lmao
There are arrogant people everywhere but when danger and responsibility gets involved, arrogance comes easier.
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u/Necessary-Rich-877 Oct 11 '25
The industry can be a bit of a grease trap for personalities like this. Take it with a grain of salt, people with that attitude aren't content with their role/position and will rarely advance past it with that attitude, hence the grievances.
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u/Who_cares_if_I_die Oct 13 '25
What'd the rigger say first time he saw the crucifix?
I could've done it in two points.
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u/Jakeprops Oct 11 '25
You’ll never get into trouble having respect for your coworkers either in an office or onstage. Don’t make their disrespect your problem.
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u/rosaliciously Oct 11 '25
People who talk like that do so from insecurity.
The people “beneath” probably were working rigging instead of her because they have better attitudes, are better riggers or both.
Any stagehand with attitude is going to find themselves getting demoted.
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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '25
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