This is why our line of work is a piece of S***

Whatever. I'm not saying to do it out of spite. I'm saying to do it because you don't have an answer to this reader's question. Forward it to someone who can help. They can choose or not choose to return the call.

I don't know if you work for Darth Vader or what, but I've never had my job threatened for forwarding a call or email to a supervisor.

 

Dude.... get real... of course you never HEAR about your job being threatened

 

Ok, now I'm starting to think this whole thing is just a put on. You wouldn't forward a complaint call to a supervisor, if the supervisor were better equipped to handle it? Really? That's just .... strange.

 

If more publishers or executive-level people did your job, they'd change their attitudes, or at least be more understanding. Shit, most of them haven't ever done your job. Which begs the question - aside from corporate kiss@ss, how did most of them get to where they were? I know someone who said his executive level boss, a former ESE, couldn't assemble roundups on deadline when they were very, very shorthanded. That kind of pissant is not worth his salary if he cuts, then can't step down to help. It's been said that the best kind of leadership is servant leadership. That makes sense to everyone except the ones at the top who hang these signs up around the building.

 

Newspapers aren't like normal workplaces. There's nothing normal about them.

 

Everyone says that about their profession. Everyone. Doctors. Attorneys. Teachers. Plumbers.
It's not exclusive to newsrooms.

 

simon - for the life of me i don't get why this person doesn't understand that shit flows downhill, either.

 

Because he doesn't have the sense God gave a plumber?

 

Of this I am positive: If an irate reader/coach gets to the publisher, it will only be bad for you. Keep the publisher and editor out of this.
If the fucking soccer coach gets to the publisher, the publisher is going to tell him anything to calm him down, including: "I'll personally look into the matter." What that means is, the publisher will come down on your ass and make you cover soccer guy. Now, your resources will be further reduced because you gotta give extra time and space to that one soccer guy at the expense of everybody else.

 

that, and publishers seem to interpret forwarding these types of calls as saying "bitch, take care of my problem." from my experiences, publishers don't like being turned into someone's bitch.

 

The first reaction from a boss re: an angry caller is, "Why is that damn writer screwing up so much that people are calling me?"

 

i bet someguy still thinks simon's wrong.