Newsroom chatter distracting?

Keep it quiet unless nobody is working or deadline is passed. Cheering for a team and watching a football game is unquestionably distracting for others trying to work. Good grief. You really have to ask if you're being rude about this?

My newsroom gets all kinds of chatter going for different reasons, sometimes to the point that I tell them to shut the hell up, or I just go home and write from my personal computer. Most of them are just too damn lazy to work period, so they stand around and talk about anything all day.

Still, people who cannot respect others and their work really annoy the shit out of me. Be respectful of your co-workers. I'm sure you would prefer if they weren't hooting and hollering in your ear while you were working on a story on deadline.

Is that really that hard to understand?

 

Put me in the camp that likes chatter, to a point.
I want to be able to throw out a quick question to someone halfway across the room without recrimination. I also want them to be able to hear that question. I don't want people hovering around me talking about idle bullshit when I have 20 minutes to pound out a football gamer on Friday night, just like they don't want me hovering over them when they're writing a wreck story on deadline.

The closer you get to deadline, the more chatter should be kept to essential business. Our sports deadline is earlier than news during the week (we're a p.m. paper), so there's about a 30-minute overlap between the two and we work in the same area of the newsroom. Unless it's something urgent, I typically shut up, do some busy work, avoid phone interviews and generally lay low until the newsies are finished. It's common courtesy.

 

Know what else is annoying? Someone clipping his fingernails at his desk.

That sound will piss you off real fast. And it's so inconsiderate.

 

Never go to the office to watch a game. Ever.
If you are there for anything work related, that goes with what your shop accepts. But to go on your day off could leave you open disciplinary action. I worked somewhere where it said right in the handbook not to come on work property unless it was work related. They would enforce it, too. They got burned by someone dropping by to get a free paper and use the facilities, and the moron fell down a flight of stairs.
There's enough beans being counted today that a lot of places are weary of liability issues.
Go have a beer down the road and watch the game. Don't go to the office for it.

 

We had a guy who used to clip his toenails at his desk.

Fingernails? Harummph.

 

Times 2 in our office, but not in a long long long time. And not on my watch at all.

 

I also saw a reporter clip his fingernails in the newspaper's cafeteria. I wanted to strangle him.

 

On the general issue of newsroom chatter, I've been on both sides. I've been asked to tone it down both verbally and television volume. And I can understand that. My hearing is not real good, so what seems adequate to me probably seems loud to some others.

On the other hand, I have all but given up trying to write anything more than a roundup in the newsroom, unless it is early in the afternoon or late at night when few people are around. Just the constant noise, phones ringing, etc. break my concentration and it takes an hour to write what I can do in 20 minutes at home, in a press box or just about anywhere else.

So, I see both sides of the argument. I agree it's weird to just be watching a game as a fan and cheering, though. I could see how that can get on others' nerves.

 

We had a thread that was somewhat similar to this earlier this year, about the use of "we" when referring to sports teams in the newsroom: http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/89067/

The OP was less loquacious.

That said, the newsroom is a place of work. If you're not working, don't bother those who are.

 

What Diego said. But if you have to watch the game in the newsroom, know that it's a working area. If you start watching in the middle of the third quarter, don't pester me with a bunch of questions, such as "How's Podunk's new QB looking?" or "What did you think of that pass interference call?" because, most nights, I have the game on for only a couple of reasons. 1) Background noise while I'm taking prep calls and building pages; and 2) To see if the damn thing is going to be over by deadline.

At one stop, someone was asking so many questions during a World Series game that I was tempted to give him a couple of dollars, point him toward the bar across the street and recommend he nurse his beer for the last few innings ... until someone else told him to get lost!

 

Yup.

Many newsrooms have become too quiet in the past 10, 15 years.

Bring back the smoking and the flasks.

 

I don't mind some noise or chatter, I personally prefer a bit, it's like white noise to me and actually helps me focus in at times. It's the inane personal phone calls about really personal shit that I don't need to hear. Same sales lady every single day on the otherside of my cubical (Small office, sales is right next to the desk). I want to pop up over the cubical and tell her to STFU. Don't need to hear about your, ahem, medical issues, your slackass loser son, or your conversations with the guys you're trying to woo off of a dating website.

Also, reporters who feel they have to be loud, aggressive assholes on the phone, constantlany berrating sources at the top of their lungs so that I can hear them across the newsroom. I want to punch those guys. Yes there is a time and place where you need to stand your ground and push for an answer, but you don't have to pick a fight with everyone you interview. Be considerate to those around you who are also trying to work.

And there is no reason you should be in the office on a day off watching the game. Find a friend's house, a bar, the interwebs, or a radio. Or go read a book or go for a walk. Never go into the office on an off day unless you absolutely have to. Your lack of cable is not a reason. And when watching while working, again, be considerate of those in the office. If you're cheering, keep it quiet. And if you're at work, you should be, you know, working. I never actually sit and watch a game at work. If I have a game on, to echo HanSanSE, nine times out of 10 it's in the background and I'm checking in to see if it is going to finish early enough where I can expect a story before deadline as I finish up other pages.