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Anybody working tonight? Ugh. (Warning-- whiny rant)

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Lugnuts, Dec 24, 2007.

  1. JD Canon

    JD Canon Guest

    here's where you're wrong: i don't "work desk." i report. i'm covering for someone who work's desk because i am multi-talented.

    i have no problem dealing with the challenges of my job. i understand i work a lot of nights, weekends and holidays. that's what i bargained for. it's a fair tradeoff for doing something i love. getting screwed out of a holiday i had already been approved to have off — i did not bargain for that.

    what if you were me, pallister? what if you were making that 1,200-mile trek to FINALLY spend time with your family? and it got yanked away.

    from now on, if anything like this happens ever again, i will lie and say i bought non-refundable plane tickets. that's what i've learned from this, how to cannive. what a christmas moral that is for all the boys and girls.

    maybe you want to be pissed on. sorry, i don't. and it's not "a reality of our industry" and "if i don't like it, i can get the hell out of the business." someone at my place should have had a heart and helped me out of a tough spot.

    though, to be fair, i'll never help anyone out again.
     
  2. JD Canon

    JD Canon Guest

    so that's what you'd do, huh? you'd have screwed me, too?

    you'd choose to seriously jade a hard-working employee just so one sports section — out of the bajillion cajillion sports sections that have been printed througout history — might not have an avid sports FAN laying out one chargers game and a bunch of year-end reviews?

    i guess that's why the powers that be make the big bucks. they have to make the tough decisions.
     
  3. JD Canon

    JD Canon Guest

    haha. nah, but we treat super bowl sunday like a holiday because everyone tries to ask for it off.

    it's actually a pretty fair policy. and i was more than happy to work in exchange for something i wanted.
     
  4. ondeadline

    ondeadline Well-Known Member

    This business can be very unfair, but working holidays is part of the deal.

    If the quality of the section would take a significant hit if that other person was filling in for you, I can understand your editor's dilemma. It seems like the editor who promised you the days off and knew that you put in that time on Thanksgiving week would have been able to work something out and even work the shift for you.

    But life isn't always fair. I once worked New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and the thanks I got was being laid off days later. Those are the breaks.
     
  5. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Got get some McDonald's and swap the food on one platter for the McDonalds... leave a note -- "Those of us who had to work Christmas Eve deserve a little love too..."
     
  6. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    If all other options were exhausted ... yes ... that's EXACTLY what I would have done. And frankly, if I felt comfortable knowing I had exhausted all other options, I wouldn't think twice about it.

    I'd be very apologetic about putting you in that position, but someone needs to get out the paper out. If you're one of those people, that's the bargain you bought when you got in the business.

    And your alternative? It's totally self-serving. As I said, there's no way anyone puts someone incompetent on a job.

    You mock it, but people who are in positions you claim I'm in get paid to NEVER put out a shoddy product AT ALL. Yes, despite your mocking tone above, it matters A GREAT DEAL if you basically say, "fuck it" and decide to put out a shit section for one day. You know why? It matters to the people buying your product and who help pay your salary ... your customers.

    I'm going to chalk it up to a pissed-off Christmas rant, but to accept one shitty day of product? That's a pretty poor attitude you're exposing.

    Since we work in a 365-day-a-year business, someone's going to putting out that product on Christmas Eve, and no one in my position worth their salt is going to let the section slide just because someone girlfriend's family is miffed.

    If that's a reality of this business you can't buy into, you're in the wrong business. Only ... I don't know what business you'd run to, because damn near every business works this way.

    Screwed over? C'mon. If anything, life screwed you over. Someone left your paper. This kind of thing happens to people all the time. Like I said, it sucks balls, but if you were the only one to do the section, that's the way it goes.

    Here's another bit of advice: don't put yourself in a spot like this again. Just request the time off you wanted and leave it at that.
     
  7. mike311gd

    mike311gd Active Member

    When I got into this business, an editor asked me, "What's your favorite holiday?" I said, "I don't know. Probably Christmas." He said, "Good. You'll probably have to work it. Welcome to the media."
     
  8. JD Canon

    JD Canon Guest

    the person who would have done my shift is a national award-winning designer who lays out A1 and features fronts every day. this person is not an avid sports fan, but laid out the sports front and edited inside pages for more than a year. she's also the only person who understood the sacrifice my girlfriend made by agreeing to go with my family and cementing the days off at her own job.

    this business can be unfair? any business can be unfair. i know that. but it doesn't always have to be and this time, there will be negative effects beyond, "that's life."

    and i can see the "at least you have your job" cracks coming. whatever. i needed to get this off my chest and i did. now as soon as a chargers gamer crosses, i can get on with my life.
     
  9. JD Canon

    JD Canon Guest

    you want to knock my attitude and my standards of performance?

    how bout this for a solution: YOU come in for ME! YOU, yes, you. if you are my manager and you see i'm in a personal bind and it's ultimately YOUR repsonsibility to put out a good section, why don't YOU do what you gotta do.

    i'm not the sports editor. i'm just a cog. it's not my job to put out a quality sports section. it's my job to put out quality sports reporting. but if i WAS sports editor, I would take repsonsibility for my own section.

    how this for an "attitude"? if i was a manager, i would have let the underling off and taken his place. that's the kind of manager i would be. i'm making the big bucks. i'm the one being held accountable. i wouldn't shirk off responsibility onto a guy who'd be hurt and demoralized by it.

    i would sacrifice myself for the team.

    but i'm not the sports editor. and everyone at my office was of YOUR attitude. "let the lower-level employees play musical chairs until one ends up pissed off and stuck in a bind! we'll tell him he's the ONLY ONE who won't put out.... shoddy product, yeah!"
     
  10. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    This has been a thread with a whiny rant...and a rant by Lugnuts.
     
  11. mike311gd

    mike311gd Active Member

    And she's not even hungry anymore.
     
  12. JackS

    JackS Member

    Actually, the cruel joke of the journalism business is that we think we're so important that we need to put out product on Christmas.

    As if people couldn't live a day without us.
     
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