To the annals of short tenures at a job ...

... add the recent college grad who came in to our office on Tuesday to start training for a copy desk job. After four hours of working with our best news-side page designer, he takes a break, buttonholes the copy desk chief and tells him "this really isn't my thing," and splits, apparently headed to a writing job at an alt-weekly in, as he put it, "a major market."

 

Wow.

Long before I arrived at my first shop, a new copy editor came in at 9 to learn the ropes from one of the vets. Three hours later, he suggest they take a lunch break and offers to show the newbie one of the better greasy diners in town. They decline, leave on their own and are never heard from again.

 

Journalism isn't all you thought, son? Be glad you didn't get to cover cross-country.

 

Copy editor/designer comes in two hours late his first day, does the HR paper push, trains the rest of the night, trains the second night, e-mails the HR office with the subject line "To whoever reads this" that he's just not into the job...because we don't watch enough TV in the office.

 

I'm just aggravated that I was off and didn't get to see it.

 

New business reporter comes in, takes lunch and doesn't come back -- after moving more than 500 miles to take the dang job. He calls later to inform us he quit.

The best pat of it was the e-mail announcing this to the newsroom by the then-ME, who's a witty guy. It perfectly captured the "WTF?" nature of the scenario.

 

And I give mad props to all of them for getting out before they ever got in.

 

Back at the college paper, new reporter plans on returning to the newsroom to write his story after a few early-evening interviews with players. But after four hours pass, he never shows up.

"Hey, Jake, are you going to work on that story from home, or were you still planning on coming in?"

"Oh, my fault. I forgot that one of my friends turns 21 tonight! I'm out at the bars."

"Right, well, what about the story?"

"Ah, it wasn't that interesting anyway."

That was one of his first -- and last -- days at the paper.

 

If I recall, the Ann Arbor News once had an SE that moved to town, then went back to his town for Christmas where his wife and kids still lived -- and decided not to come back.

 

I almost did that with my family a couple times at my last job.

 

In my younger days, I quit a job midway through the second day.

 

Can't fault 'em these days.