Does your shop force you to take breaks?

Yes but saying you couldn't take a break because you spent the entire day covering a golf tournament leaves one agape at how intensely focused one could be for 8 hours straight.

 

You said superior, not me. Fact is that somebody wants to do their job, their way, and they're taking crap for it. There's something wrong there somewhere.

 

You implied superior.

 

If you say so.

 

I guess it just comes down to a desire to not be micromanaged. I didn't realize we had so many people on this board that were pro management.

 

I think it's more that they think we believe ourselves to be too important to take a break.

 

You are management, unless editor is a courtesy title designed to make you a salaried employee instead of hourly. You have serious problems with your company, as I can tell from other posts. This isn't the first time you've been micromanaged and not the last.

 

Your implication is that because you are working without a break, you have a work ethic. That means that those who take a break do not have a work ethic.

Unless they also have a work ethic, which means that your work ethic is the same as someone who takes a break.

 

In California you have to take 30 minutes unpaid after a 6 hour shift. Our shop, it's a full hour if you work a 6 hour shift. If we don't, we can be fired. Here, the HR person is more worried about us getting audited and getting in trouble through either state labor or our corporate office.
We also have the added bonus of having an electronic punch clock, so we can't fudge the numbers. But it doesn't matter when we take our break. If you work seven hours straight, then take an hour off, and work the final hour of an 8-hour shift, you're fine. If you work an hour, take an hour off then work seven hours, you're fine. I used to do this when covering football when I had to travel out of town.
I know it's a pain in the ass to have to take breaks sometimes, but honestly, if you plan out your day, you'll be fine.

 

Best hed writer I ever knew would read the copy three times and go walk around the building to smoke for 10 minutes, even if it was 30 minutes to deadline. He'd come back with terrific hed ideas. Slogging straight through in front of a terminal for 6-8 hours can sap your creativity and work against both you and the product. It's all about getting a look at the same thing from a different perspective.

 

With all due respect, I've always thought that's a bunch of crap.

If I'm working on some ideas, I DON'T get rejuvenated or motivating by walking away from the subject. I stay with the subject and keep my mind on it.

If you haven't noticed, this is a real sticking point with me, and that's because of the way I work. I get into the office, put my head down and get everything done I can get done right away. Then, if I feel like it, I might take a little break because there's nothing else to do at the moment. I'll do Sporcle with the gang or shoot the shit after the pages are in.

My previous boss used to come by my desk, look at my eyes and say, "He's in his tunnel now." And it wasn't cautionary. It was that he liked how I dedicated myself to a task.

 

Or he was being condescending.