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Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "LA Agent to Producer: "I Don't Do Women Directors"...":

Bravo to Charles Gillibert (who didn't actually SAY THIS people!) for putting the anonymous agent on blast. This article completely lost all credibility however, with its last paragraph. "Just another piece of the sexism puzzle for women directors to keep in mind." Really? That isn't something for the directors themselves to "keep in mind", many of whom aren't making enough money to BEGIN to turn down a project on the basis of its artistic integrity or whatever bullshit this agent is using to justify his misogyny.
Sexism isn't some mystical puzzle made up of magic and unicorns and gender roles. It's pretty simple. Society believes that men are worth more than women by virtue of the fact that they are men. That is sexism. That is real. In what way are the artists whom society already feels are second class citizens equipped to fight statements like this by "keeping it in mind?" I guarantee it is already very much on the mind of any female professional in this industry who wants to write, direct or produce. This isn't some unicorn opinion that has just been discovered...
The novelty isn't that some people feel this way. it's that the movers and the shakers in the industry feel comfortable enough to SAY IT OUT LOUD, and then, a liberal-leaning magazine trying to celebrate its gender-equality stance has, consciously or no, played along with the trope by placing responsibility for change on the victims. If this is what our supporters look like, we have very far to go indeed in the journey to equality.

Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "The Show Must Go On: Working When Sick":

Isn't this what under-studies are for? At what point are you sick enough to bring in the under-study? I know we don't work with them here at school, but I think it's pretty standard to have an under-study for major roles in the professional world. The worst possible scenario when an actor gets sick is that they should continue to come to work and risk infecting the rest of the cast. One actor going down to the flu is one thing, the whole cast quite another. If I were a producer investing a lot of money in a show, I think I would have a "No Work When You're Sick" clause in all the contracts. In general I'd much rather an employee miss a few days of work than have the flu disrupting the capacity of the show, or office, or shop... So please, if you're feeling sick, don't come to school. You can miss a class or two.

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "(Almost) Everything We Think About Managing Millen...":

I feel a little strange writing about this and also being a millennial, but I do agree with what this article has to say, and that we need different managing styles. My dad often hires people at his office and their ages vary greatly and sometimes they are 40+ years old and sometimes they have just graduated from college, or are still taking classes nearby at night. I remember him coming to me and asking what it was that I wanted out of an employer when I was in college because he was having a hard time with the younger employees he hired and the first thing I said is, are you including them? Are you telling them what you need out of them and what your expectations are? He hadn't thought about it that way at all. To him, he had worked with his grandfather his whole life as a young adult and he had used his knowledge of how his grandfather had treated him (he was a quiet guy and you just sort of knew that he expected what you did to be done right the first time) as an example for how he managed others. But the younger millennial generation doesn't want that. We want feedback. We didn't always work for our families and learn how to be an employee and we are spending more time in school and less time out in the workforce so we sometimes need an explanation of expectations for being an employee and we want them right away so that we don't spend too long thinking we know what we're doing only to be told we've been doing it wrong the whole time. It's hard to find a way to bridge that gap and I'm not saying it's always the best way to do it, but in my experience a lot of us need that sort thing and I, personally, think it's a great way to show your employees that you care about the work they're doing and you want them to know how to improve.

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Inside Rent The Runway's Secret Dry-Cleaning Empir...":

It is pretty crazy to find such an interesting article about stain removal, although it is something I have been known to get excited about. To begin with, the entire concept behind Rent The Runway is really awesome. Considering that these are the types of dresses a woman is likely to wear once or only a few times for special occasions, this seems like a great way to go about finding a dress. I looked at the website, and the prices are pretty reasonable considering what you might normally spend on a dress for a special occasion. It makes sense that the spotters would be so vital to this business, as the profit of each dress is dependent on how many times the company can rent it out. But I really never considered that there was this specialized industry of masters that exists within the dry cleaning world. The fact that there is an almost two-year training program offered by the company really accentuates what a serious trade stain removal can be. I wonder if there are fees for returning stained garments.

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "Why Germany is so much better at training its work...":

I genuinely agree, however it’s apparent to me that we’re completely choosing to ignore the number of companies that employ interns in the U.S., and at the very least attempt to encourage something that resembles even a mediocre apprenticeship program, especially in the entertainment industry. While I both understand and agree that an internship is entirely different than the structure that the European-apprenticeship model promotes and executes efficiently. It is still a strong and reliable training and recruiting tool for a number of companies. But it’s totally different, because then there’s a different stigma to be overcome, the dreaded “intern” label. When you’re an intern it’s hard to escape that label, you’re seen more as menial labor, and often get stuck with shit jobs that don’t teach you as much as you would like to be learning. That’s not always the case, and I’ve certainly been in situations where I’ve been treated exactly the opposite, it depends on the company, it depends on the people you’re working with, it depends on the company, and most importantly it depends on how much you’re willing to put in. I’ve worked for more than one company as intern now that is known for a) hiring their own, and b) teaching up and recruiting thru their learning programs. PRG, Cirque, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, TAIT Towers, Hudson Scenic, Disney…these are just a handful of companies that promote this idea and this culture in the entertainment industry. Now their programs aren’t perfect, and most of the internships are limited to the summers in between semesters, so they can’t provide the dual-training model that the European model does, but they do the best with what they can within the structure of American education. I agree that there is a way to better implement an apprenticeship program like that of Germany’s and that the U.S. should strongly consider doing so, but it’s going to be quite some time before that happens…