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The art of late night comedy seems to be imitating life, huh?

We sure have been hearing a lot about how 2010 may be a year marked by massive talent turnover caused by a disconnect between workers and their employers.

Which leads me to the many eloquent points made by Conan in his letter to the network in an attempt to connect his passion for his job to broken promises and ultimately his decision to not participate in a 12:05 broadcast of The Tonight Show:

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future … But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

From Conan’s perspective, could NBC be more disconnected to him? What about the disconnect to his fans? Is Leno the only one happy with this decision? (My guess, considering his recent stand-up routine, is that he isn’t entirely either.)

I also felt the sting when Conan went on to say he and his crew just want to do a great show “for a company that values our work.” When the latest stats point to a staggering 79% of workers likely to seek jobs elsewhere this year, and the high profile nature of the Conan debable over at NBC, what can we learn from all this? (Besides a great example of how to respectfully disagree with the boss.)

I don’t think any organization wants to be known as the company that cries wolf – lots of promises/no delivery. Hard business decisions that negatively impact top talent can have far reaching impact, but it is always a balancing act.

It’s your turn now: Can you relate to what happened with Conan? How do you best perform a balancing act when making tough decisions?

Author Bio:  Annette DeHaven, Alstin's Vice President, Operations, serves as right hand woman for an impressive roster of clients. Known for addressing problems head-on, Annette, who's led by example for more than 15 years, remembers crazy statistics, regularly spouts off mind-bending metrics, and recalls just about every field description for birds you've never heard of.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 11:22 am and is filed under The Daily Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.