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

Wow, JD, if your in-laws are that pissed off at you for missing the festivities because of something that apparently was out of your control, you're marrying the wrong woman/man.

Somehow, I get the feeling that they're really not that pissed, that you're projecting your anger and venom onto this thread. Few people in this world are that unreasonable, I've found, where they'd disown a potential in-law because a work schedule changed and an innocent bystander (you, in this case) got screwed.

I have worked a number of Christmas eves and days, and one of my more memorable ones was two years ago. I was the dayside news reporter since I was lowest on the totem pole. My bosses put it in my ear that they wanted me to dig up something to cover, and I didn't wanna do the typical truck stop story -- so I found a group of church volunteers who were leaving that afternoon for a 20-hour drive to Mississippi and were helping rebuild on the Gulf Coast. Wonderful story idea, I thought, and something different. Go to the service, interview participants, get a photo, file and leave that afternoon to visit my parents.

Guess what? The story didn't run Dec. 26 (they held it for Dec. 27), and they stuck with the truck stop story instead from our reporter who was covering the night shift. A boilerplate story if I ever saw one. I was pissed, and I felt I had wasted a morning on (what I thought was) a great story when instead I could've been with family seven hours away.

I got over it.

Merry Christmas, JD, but realize you're not the only person who has been screwed in this business. Appreciate the fact that you'll see the family tomorrow.

And, yeah, polish off the resume. After meeting with the paper's top editor to bitch about what happened.

 

Go check the "newspapers on Christmas" thread. A LOT of people find Christmas to be the one day they actually have time to sit down and read the entire paper, front to back.

Has nothing to do with self-importance -- it's our job to put out a daily paper. Not to put out a paper on days we feel like it, or days we think you should read it.

 

Since it's Christmas, I'm fighting every fiber of my being not to totally rip into with some profanity-laced rant. I know you're pissed, I know it's Christmas, but your attitude is total, self-serving BS.

First off, for your information, I DID work Christmas Eve today and the rest of the staff was off. In fact, I laid out MY section today, which in the framework of the way by job is defined, is not specifically one of my job duties either.

Do I care for doing layout? No, not one bit, I'm a beat writer first and foremost. Did I do it to the best of my ability? Hell yes I did, because I care about what my name goes on. I actually did a freaking cutout for our package, which given my limited layout skills and an early deadline, was above and beyond the call, if I may permit myself a brief pat on the back.

In fact, the reason I'm just responding to this just now is I went to Midnight Mass, by myself, several hours removed from the rest of my family because I had been working.

You know what? Big freaking deal. I accepted this bargain when I got in the business. I know it could just as well be someone else in my place next year. It's part of the territory.

My point is, I was the option this time. Had this been last year, I would not have been an option based on the situation on the ground. How do I know what your situation is on the ground since I'm hearing one side of it?

And to your point, an award-winning designer doesn't mean squat to laying out sports pages. If you have a four-page section to fill and the person filling doesn't know what they're doing as far as placing copy correctly, choice of wire stories, etc., I don't care how good of a designer they are, chances are, they're going to put out a section that does not serve the readers' interest.

I've had "award-winning" designers who didn't know squat about sports churn out pages too in a universal desk scenario, more often than not, they're making mistakes someone with a simple knowledge of sports would never make.

You say, "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."

He or she IS taking responsibility. You know the product, there were apparently no other viable options, you were the best person under the circumstances to do the job. Deal with it or get another job.

And that notion of its not my job to put out a quality sports section? Good luck with that in the future.

 

Merry Christmas, Bubbs.

Well done.

 

Thanks. Same to you Spnited.

Chances are, JDC thinks the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future are coming for my Scroogian ass.

 

Well, JDC is right about two things...it's sucks and he did kinda get scrwwed.

Other than that, we've all been there; we've all sucked it up and lived (unhappily) with it without going off on a whiny rant.

As I tell our young guys, if you want to be assured of having weekends and holidays off, you're in the wrong business.

 

That's my thing. He turned a totally sympathetic problem into something less-than-sympathetic because of his whining.

Methinks his boss made him work so he'd get a one-day break from the bitching.

 

Luggie you rule.

 

My story of the night.

As I'm sure some of you know, we are a tabloid, at least for sports. That means if I want to do a centerspread as a single page double-truck, I have to let the people know in prepress, because the pages have to be sent another way. Which I did, around 4 p.m. (Deadline at 8.)

Around 7:50, after the double truck had been sent, I got a call from our press site, and the on-site editor was telling me that the page was coming out at a 90-degree angle. We have moved one of our tech guy to prepress in the past month to fill a vacancy, and he'd never dealt with a double-truck before.

Well, between 7:50 and 8:20, he dealt with it. Twelve times. On the 12th try, I told him I was going upstairs and sending the pages as two single tab pages. I called my wife and told her I'd be about an hour late.

Now, this entailed tearing down the entire spread and reconfiguring it so that, of course, no copy or art was going over the page gutter. I did it in 18 minutes. I timed it. A stunning effort, if I say so myself.

Those pages were sent, and as they were about to come out at the press site, the on-site editor called me up and said, "Hey, you'll never believe this, but one of those 12 times Bill tried to send the double-truck ... it came out right."

I didn't kick anything as I left. I'm almost 50, you know; can't pull a muscle.

 

Worked yesterday, and am working today and tomorrow. It is nice and peaceful around here. And people left me with a crap load of trays and candies....so I am feasting while working.

 

Fuckin' outstanding.

 

This morning I spent two hours feeding the hungry (and, I'm sure, some homeless) at the local food kitchen. It was uplifting but sad. Folks got a hot meal, and they also got a ticket for a hot meal to go. Got to meet some cool people who volunteered.

If you ever get a chance to do something like this, I encourage it. Makes you appreciate what the hard life is all about.

And right now I'm in an uber-quiet newsroom.