Are you always "on the job?"

Addiction's a better word.

Personally, I call it "a drug." I'm a journalism junkie, and I need my fix.

Whatever it is, I think we all know the feeling. Even when you leave the business, you can't get away from it. You either have the bug or you don't.

 

I put in 75-80 hour weeks when I was single. 60-65 hour weeks when I started seeing my wife seriously, and now I'm down to about 45 now that I have a kid with another on the way.

But am I always on? Yes. My work number is posted in the newspaper each day, and my cell phone number is on my work voicemail.

The trick is prioritizing.

If I get a call on my cell phone while playing at the park with my daughter on my day off, I take the call, find out what the problem is and determine if it needs to be done today, and if it does can someone else do it.

Usually it can wait or someone else can do it. If not, then I will come in.

But those are only the very big stories, the ones you get into this job to do. It also helps to explain to my wife why I'm working on my day off if half the town is on fire or some senator just got busted for DUI and then tried to use his contacts to get out of jail early.

 

Always on the job? Yes.

Not so much because it's an addiction, but because it's just what I (and we) do. If something is newsworthy, I'll call the office or send an email. If I see something that could be turned into a story, I'll make a note and follow up later.

I doubt if a stockbroker on vacation meets someone, learns about a hot tip and doesn't call or message his buddy at the office to check up on it.

But as has been noted, you must have priorities and set some limits.

 

Oh, but one exception to my last post. There was a time last year when, just a day or so after surgery to my abdomen, I strapped my camera to my back, slowly shuffled out to my car, drove about 1 mile to a car vs. pedestrian wreck and took pictures.

A mom had been hit by a car while riding bikes with her kid.

I had heard about the wreck and knew I was the only one close enough to get to it in time. I actually got a pat on my back from the higher ups. It made up for the pain I felt that entire time.

 

Agreed.

Not being a beat writer anymore has helped a little. So has not giving my cellphone number to anyone I work with -- and, with a previous sports editor, screening calls to my landline as well.

When it comes down to it, I'm pushing myself. I'm the one who can't turn on the TV instead of the laptop. :

I get to work from home a lot during the summer. Sometimes I think I'm doing even more than when I'm in the office five nights a week. But I can usually structure the workload around my life -- a movie, a long walk, the gym -- which at least makes it <i>feel</i> better.

 

Shit, I don't even HAVE a job at the moment, and I'm on the job. Went to two different churches for Mass the last couple of weeks, and both times had Indian priests. Got me wondering how many foreign priests there are in the diocese, and what the mechanism that brings them to freakin' Diocese of Covington, Ky. Got out of Mass, called a voicemail in to the diocesan PR guy. We talked Monday, and it's sorta interesting. I'm shopping a story around.

I do that kind of stuff all the time. Like Moddy, I'm an addict, need my fix. At my last shop, I never took vacation. When they closed the doors, they had to pay me for 95 days accrued vacation time. Yep, it's a sickness.

 

I'm on 24/7 and have been for years.

But I'm learning to walk away when I can.

 

Sorry for the threadjack, but Granny, can you talk in third person all the time? It struck me as REALLY funny for some reason.

 

I'm on vacation now. Went to a ballgame tonight and ran the scoreclock and talked local sports with our guy who was staffing the game.
Had been tapping around on the net and found an item where a former player/coach here resigned his coaching position and forwarded the item to the office to turn into a brief.
Going to a ballgame tomorrow night. Have the weekend off next weekend and volunteering at a local tournament to do announcing/scorekeeping.
And reading the paper daily and wondering why we haven't done about four stories that seem like no-brainers to me, but I'm trying to stay out of it.
Best way to enjoy vacation is to go somewhere -- out of the circulation area so you can't get your hands on your paper and you can't be reached. Went to Florida for a couple of weeks this winter and it was the best thing for my workaholic nature ever. Course, I went to a hockey game and read the Tampa paper every day...

 

Echoing some of the others, my willingness (and ability) to always be on the job has declined since this exact date two years ago, when Sophie Russo was born.

My cell phone is always on and always with me. If something important happens in college football, I will stop what I'm doing (within reason). But I don't have to be involved in every coaching move or player leaving for the NFL story. Nor does the AP want me to be putting in for OT unless it's really important.

What I do far less of these days is voluntarily give away my free time by scheduling interviews, making phone calls or working on stories when I'm off the clock. Mostly because I have so little free time.

That said, a few months back I did a phone interview with Paul Hoolahan, the exec director of the Sugar Bowl, while in the playground watching my daughter. That type of stuff happens far less often these days.

But I love my beat. Love talking college football. Love letting my mind wander to story ideas. Love reading up on what's going on around the country. So in that sense, yes I'm always "on."

 

The part of me that is coming up with ideas and planning and scheming is 24-7. The part of me that's calling sources, writing stories, going to meetings, going to pressers, that part of me only works on the clock.

 

I'm always on, but I'm not always obsessed. 21 nailed it.

As for answering the phone, I feel a responsibility to do so. Can't help it.