The Deciding Factor

Officiating is a people profession. Schedulers will assign officials who they feel will be able to best represent the organization on the field or court. Given a similar level of experience and expertise among officials, often the factor that makes a difference in who gets an assignment is personality, considered two ways.

1. Dealing with Coaches and Schools
Officials who have a history of personality conflicts with coaches and teams get labeled as risky to schedule. In other words, the scheduler will have to weigh the risk of a conflict and the subsequent time and energy that must be devoted to such a problem.

Obviously, conflicts happen during contests, even to the best officials. The officials who rise to the top of the scheduling depth chart, though, are those whose skill at communication and conflict resolution serve to defuse problems, rather than escalate them. Don’t underestimate the importance of those officiating — and life — skills.

2. Interacting with Partners
Some officials work better than others with other officials. Personality conflicts happen
within crews of officials, just as they do with teams. Hopefully, members of such a crew have a level of professionalism that prevents such a conflict from becoming a problem.

Riiff tries to be aware of chemistry among his officials. However, he expects nothing short of harmony, regardless of who is working with whom. Most assignors wish to have as few encumbrances as possible to their ability to schedule — and the official who just can’t seem to get along with anyone will certainly not be working long.

But assignors are aware of personality differences and, within reason, will schedule accordingly. Be flexible in your officiating philosophy, so as to enhance your ability to assimilate to varying styles of officiating that you might encounter in partners.
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