Off-limit conversations?

This was a newspaper, right?

So left and far left?

 

I guess you never did get to bang his sister.

 

About the only taboo thing here is using the N word, and I don't mean nerd.

 

My old newsroom, we could talk about anything we wanted...

...that said, I was the only one IN the newsroom 95% of the time.

Ah...budget cuts and layoffs.

 

I don't think there are any taboo subjects, at least on our copy desk. We have a mix of Americans, Brits, Aussies and Kiwis who will savage just about anyone if given the chance, but most everything is done in good humor.

The most vociferous debate I can remember was when one Aussie brought up Ayn Rand and called "Atlas Shrugged" "one of those books everyone needs to read." That didn't go over very well.

 

In my last shop, there was a lengthy list of shit we couldn't talk about when the copy desk chief or sports editor was around. They were rarely in Sundays (it wasn't an NFL city), so Sundays became the day of the week when all grievances with coworkers (particularly the sports editor and online editor) were aired and we otherwise shot the shit about everything.

In my current shop, the desk is a bit more subdued, but nothing is off the table if you know who you want to talk with about the topic. Politics get very sticky, though, and we usually just wait till after work if something needs to be said on the matter. The desk is actually split pretty evenly down the middle in terms of liberals and conservatives.

 

At my current shop, so far as I can tell, nothing is off-limits. No body takes anything personally and we trade barbs all day. My last shop they didn't say anything was off limits, but you learned there were certain subjects that you didn't talk about with the majority of the room, religion was the big one.

 

Vestivus?

 

What newsroom is this we speak of? I don't know about your news room, but even amongst friends it is impossible to have an argument without ridicule and insults. I mean, it's sports, and the sports desk is the last "men's locker room" like atmosphere in the world. Cherish it.

 

There is a difference between a debate and an argument. A debate can be had without ridicule and insults. Once those two come into play, it stops being a debate and becomes nan argument.

 

I tend to agree, and if all I had to worry about was the people on my desk, it would be one big no-holds-barred free-for-all every night.

Unfortunately, I have to take the news side into account (as well as the ME and EE, whose offices are very nearby).

 

This. If you're not insulting one another, you probably don't like each other very much, in my experiences.