Looking for the right way to say it…

[Grinner Hester]

The bare knuckles truth is managers simply cannot afford to do this today. It is not cost effective for them to hire an editor and then spend their time sitting over his shoulder as he edits all day. I am not talking about producers here, but the situation you described. The staffer sitting over you needs to learn what the buttons do or go do work as you do yours. They can come check it out at lunch and again at the end of the day with suggestions but any company paying two people to do one job… that is now getting slowed down, is waisting revenue.
As an artist, I this bugged me a little bit. As a business owner, this now bothers me a lot. These are the places that cannot afford to stay in business next year. Looking at it that way, it can take food off of my table. part of our job today is to not help companies waist money. Helping them do that is part of why the industry (and economy) is in the shape it is today. People just go along with the shuffle even though they know it is not a good idea in the long run.
Common sense is going to have to come back in style at some point.

[Matthew Radcliff]

Steve’s got the best idea here. This is the same technique that a classic Hollywood director used with the studio producers. (I can’t remember his name, though he’s well-known and respected). Whenever the producer would show up on set the director would shut down production and talk with the producer, so he could “devote himself to the producer’s questions and comfort” exclusively. The chat would be pleasant and the director was 100% engaged and attentive. It wouldn’t take long before the producer would realize that nothing was happening, and that nothing would happen until he left.

The key, obviously, is to do this in a calm and positive manner, and not in a petulant passive-aggressive manner. Because then the producer (or supervisor) will think you’re the problem, not himself.

Best of luck,
Matt