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Do more work for the same pay

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Riddick, Mar 10, 2007.

  1. Oh. I actually was referring to writing, attending games and calling for a lot more than a quote or two. I would work M-F, attend a game on Saturday and make at least a half-dozen calls on Sundays.
     
  2. OK. Then not counting the four days I took off for my grandma's funeral one July, I likely worked about 500 consecutive days. In almost eight years in the newspaper business, I think I've only missed three days due to sickness. My first job I couldn't take time off because there was so much to do and my second job I didn't get any vacation because of their fucked up policy (Fuck you, Hagadone!). Luckily, my current shop allows you to take the vacation you're owed as long as you give two weeks or so heads up. I'm also allowed to take a day here and there as long as I let my SE know by Fridays (when he does the following week's schedule).
     
  3. SoSueMe

    SoSueMe Active Member

    Speaking of sick days, I've called in twice Since May 1, 2002.
     
  4. rpmmutant

    rpmmutant Member

    Get this.
    We're already understaffed in every department of the newspaper. Don't have a sports editor or a business editor. We're a 100,000+ circulation daily in a major metropolitan market. And we are being forced to take vacation. Looks bad on the books is what I have been told. Some people have like 800 hours of vacation because in the past, no one was able to take vacation because we were so understaffed. Now, still incredibly understaffed, we are being forced to take vacation days. Never mind that none of us really have any vacation plans. Makes no sense to me.
     
  5. Wow, people, these are some horror stories.
    First, when I feel like my job sucks, I'll remember that some schmuck worked 120 days straight (and I thought my about 25 straight was bad!).
    Also, I think several of you really need to give your bosses some ultimatums. I mean, I have a family to support like many of us, but I wouldn't put up with some of the stuff I'm hearing. I'd quit even before I found the next job if that's what it came down to. I'll go work the night shift at the local burger joint and look for new employment before I work four months straight.
     
  6. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Mine was just "do-what-needed-to-be-done." Our SE had quit for a better job, and it took the company nearly four months to find a replacement. So I stepped in as acting SE and we just didn't have enough people for me to take days off. Probably helped me get the better job I have now, too.
     
  7. Cadet

    Cadet Guest

    I had no choice in the matter, but I knew what the schedule was like before I signed on for the job.

    If I would have given my boss an ultimatum he would have laughed at me. He was working just as much.

    I did quit one (non-sports) job before I had another lined up, but that's because the company was engaged in illegal practices. I did put my foot down there.
     
  8. Dan Rydell

    Dan Rydell Guest

    I had a project dumped on me once that needed three people on it. I told them that and they said I had to do it myself -- "It will be good for you," they said.

    I was working two, two-and-a-half shifts per day for six weeks, crawling home to sleep six hours and then coming back for another 16 or 20 hours. True story. Work all first shift, then second, then maybe four more hours, crawl home and sleep, back the next day in the middle of first shift, work till third shift was over, and the cycle continued like that.

    I was a fucking zombie from the third day on, but I wasn't about to fail, so of course I got it all done, and done well, and this was my reward: After the project closed and I had a weekend to drink it off, I come back to work on Monday and there's a fucking balloon bouquet on my desk.

    A fucking bouquet of balloons. And then they questioned me about all the overtime they had to pay, and I had to prove it, and of course I did. I actually had to have people in composing (remember composing?) and camera and press step forward and say: Why, yes, he was working around the clock, didn't you notice?

    They made a million dollars on the ads sold for the project I was on, so you can imagine how eternally grateful I am for that $29.95 bouquet of balloons. The managers I had then would barely look at me or speak to me during the project because they knew they were killing me, so of course that just made it worse. This is what management can do to people, and I've never forgotten that. It helps me be a good manager.

    And I don't work at that place anymore.
     
  9. Dan Rydell

    Dan Rydell Guest

    One more thing: It wasn't a small paper. It was one of the big ones. So don't be in any hurry to play with the big boys. A nice, 100,000-circ paper is a better way to go. Maybe even 75,000 or so. Less hectic. Better traffic. Better town if you're lucky. And not all this desperate rush to do so much more with so much less.

    I'm surprised at how much the big boys cut everything to the bone, then dig a little deeper. I guess they figure everyone wants to work there, so they can be as nasty as it gets.

    And then that's how they play it. It's pretty ugly.
     
  10. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Can't tell you how many stories I've heard of someone get to what they thought was the top, and then say, "Is that it?"

    Money's not everything, and neither is circulation.
     
  11. Dan Rydell

    Dan Rydell Guest

    Exactly, Buck. The top is not the top. The middle is a better top.

    There's a lot to be said about quality of life.
     
  12. I agree. I went from a 100,000 with a bare-bones staff, working my ass off just to keep up, to a 100,000 fully-staffed that doesn't criticize me when I call in sick and gives me time to produce better stuff ... some friends criticized it as a lateral move but as far as I'm concerned I'm not leaving anytime soon.
     
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