In the mass redundancies that hit New Zealand following the first wave of COVID-19, thousands of Kiwis lost their jobs. One of those people was Wendy Petrie, who had the double-edged sword of both losing her job publicly but then having to continue to do said job, on a national stage, every night.
In a very 2020 twist, on what was supposed to be her final day in the 1 News chair, after almost 15 years, Auckland went back into lockdown and her job was then extended another two weeks. It’s been a year of stop-starts, of unexpected interruptions, of being unable to plan more than three days in advance. Maintaining a dark sense of humour about the entire thing is really the best way to make it through. Luckily, Wendy, 49, has that sense of humour – and a good dose of pragmatism that comes from working in an industry that was already famously volatile.
“I’ve always been very philosophical about this role,” Wendy laughs drily. “It’s quite a brutal way to look at it, but I’ve always felt like my days were numbered from the minute I got the job. It’s a cut-throat industry and that’s what I’ve come to accept. I’ve seen it overseas. I’ve seen it in New Zealand. I’ve always been quite honest in my outlook that I’m lucky to have this job, but one day it was going to end.
“The whole time I was in that job – and it’s been almost 15 years – I’ve always been dealing with that in the back of my mind. It’s a strange way to look at your job, but it’s the reality of the television industry. Every year I thought it was a bonus that I was still on television.”
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