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Marriage and Hiring,

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by dkphxf, Feb 24, 2011.

  1. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    You cut the brake line on the car of your girlfriend's ex-boyfriend because he's still hitting on her and you love her so and can't take it anymore.

    He ends up crashing and dying, but your girlfriend was crossing the street to bring you lunch and he kills her too.
     
  2. ADodgen

    ADodgen Member

    Ironic and disturbing. Well done.
     
  3. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Let's go to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

    1: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony

    2 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning
    b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony
    c : an ironic expression or utterance

    3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result
    (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity
    b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

    Clearly, not one of these fits ericwbolin's situation.
     
  4. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    I just want to point out that I haven't called anything ironic in three years because of this board.

    I'm too scared to misuse the word. (Seriously) :)
     
  5. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    We had this exact scenario last summer...I spent six months searching out jobs and nothing was worth moving my family for...good options for a single person, but with a wife and two kids it didn't make much sense. Fact of the matter is this job is hard on families anyway, and the pay works best for a single person. Most of us marrieds have spouses that work.

    Also, I've found a shop where I can pretty much set my hours and having that flexible schedule is the most valuable thing to me at this point.
     
  6. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    Posted this on the other thread, but this is a better place for it.

    That single > married mindset is disgusting at best and illegal at worst.

    I broke stories while out with my wife. Reported on a fire that happened while we were out and about one day. Basically took it away from our GA news writer because I was there and he wasn't. Broke another story of a hostage standoff in my housing tract. None of our reporters could get into the neighborhood. I was already there.

    A story about an SE who buys into that tiresome and frankly offensive stereotype. I got a call from the SE at the old Anchorage Times while I was on my honeymoon in Canada. In those pre-cell days, I didn't get it until I got back home. I had applied for a gig covering Alaska-Anchorage hockey and he was calling me back about it.

    When I told him why it took me a week-plus to get back to him, he suddenly became very cool to me on the phone. Then, he finally said "Well, this answered one question I had. I was wondering if you were single. We're kind of looking for someone single for this position."

    Never heard from him again. Six months later, the Times was no more.
     
  7. podunk press

    podunk press Active Member

    It shouldn't matter. The reporters who lead our team in stories filed and blogs posted this year are all married.

    In a lot of cases, the married folks are more motivated because some of us have mortgages and desperately need the jobs to stay afloat. The younger, single folks come in and often move on quickly realizing that ...

    a. The pay sucks.
    b. They want to go to grad school.
    c. They get a promotion and quickly move.
    d. They go and work for <cringes> Patch.
     
  8. Turtle Wexler

    Turtle Wexler Member

    It's illegal to hire based on family status -- single, married, divorced, widowed, parenting, etc.

    In most places it's illegal to determine salary based on family status as well.

    Are some jobs better cut out for a person living the single life? Sure. Do some employers want the perceived maturity of a married person with kids? Sure.

    As long as the person can do the job, does any of it matter? Not a lick.
     
  9. Shaggy

    Shaggy Guest

    My current job (not newspapers), I volunteered that I was settled down with a family during the interview. I thought it might give off the vibe that I have my shit together if nothing else (I was 26, and about half of the 26-year olds out there do not have their shit together). Not that I believe that marriage and maturity are necessarily linked, but you know, that perception exists.

    Got the job. Staff of 6. I am the only married one among us.
     
  10. ericwbolin

    ericwbolin New Member

    I don't know who the hell this Meriam Webster guy is, but I note definition three here http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ironic

    Christ, people, no wonder this profession is dying worse than...something dead.
     
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Congrats, eric. Your response was ironic.
     
  12. ericwbolin

    ericwbolin New Member

    Hey! Someone got it. Faith restored!
     
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