Who here has been suspended?

You're right. I'd much rather do my time in prison.

 

I've had women brush their fupa against me in Wal Mart but I never pressed charges.

Back on topic, Xan, you could have got that guy fired, even at the Record.

 

Yes... for a week without pay, while the HR drones figured out if they could fire me. When they came to their totally bullshite conclusion, my journalism career came to its conclusion.

No plagiarism, no sexual misconduct, no downloading porn, none of the usual things that get you fired. But I would totally out myself to those who don't know who I am already if I got into details. Let's just say it should have been a suspension at the most.

Turned out to be a blessing in disguise, but the 10 months of unemployment and near wreckage of my marriage wasn't pleasant in the near-term.

 

Never fired. Close call though. Told a close friend about some important news that was going to come out the next day. He proceeded to post in on a message board. Word spread quickly. I felt like an idiot. And then went home and punched my friend in the neck.

 

The neck?

 

Not happened to me but it did happen to one of the worst editors I ever had because of me.

I worked nights with this guy at my last paper and, unfortunately, he was the only editor. Dude always, always re-wrote my stories. I went to the news editor and he told the guy to stop. Sucker keeps re-writing. Went to the managing editor with examples and he tells the guy that Write-brained's originals are better than your re-writes, so cut it out.

Then one morning I'm preparing to go on vacation out of town. I look in the paper and, again, the dude had re-written my lead that night behind my back. I postponed my vacation and went to the m.e. with my version and the editor's version. Mine was sooo much better.

M.E. hemmed and hawed because he didn't want to do it but he finally suspended the guy. The guy ups and quits but then was re-hired a few days later as a reporter.

 

I also had an editor threaten to kick my ass. The higher-ups laughed when I told them and asked me, "What are you worried about? You could easily kick his ass."

The offending editor got a "stern" talking to and I got an insincere apology.

 

Never been suspended. I was ejected from the newsroom one afternoon for tossing gently -- not throwing, simply tossing -- a piece of paper in disgust. I was told I had an attitude problem. The editor said, "You're going to leave and you're not coming back until you've solved your attitude problem."

"So I have the rest of the day off?" I respond.

They were taking bets in the newsroom whether I'd come back. I went to dinner, got a burger and came back an hour later. The editor avoided for a week.

 

Everything is so random in this business.

I know of writers who were caught plagiarizing, who didn't serve a day suspension. I know writers who have gotten in fist fights with other writers and not been disciplined.

I know others who have been fired for posting on this site.

There's no consistency whatsoever.

 

Never been suspended or even close to it. I've blown up a few times (believe it or not ;D ) but amazingly enough, each time I was 100% right.

The only case I was ever involved in which involved suspension was a deal where another writer, when he was on the desk, would go into the work queues, read columns and stories I was working on, and if he didn't like them, simply kill them out.

It happened two or three times and I figured, "I must have fucked up, must be my fault, filed the story under the wrong slug, in the wrong queue, etc etc."

Then it happened four and five times, and I said "wait a second." After a while I was talking to our IT guy, and he said "Oh yeah. It's easy to find out what's going on." He did a system-wide file history search, and all of a sudden the stories popped up. All marked "deleted," from this dude's terminal.

(This dude did not outrank me or anybody else; he didn't have authority to spike anything just on a whim.)

I talked to the SE about it, who then talked to the ME. The ME wanted to can the dude on the spot. I would have been happy with an apology and a promise not to do it again. The ME called in the cops, who did an investigation with sworn statements, affadavits, the whole schmack. In the end, the dude got 30 days. No criminal charges -- this was in the early 1990s and it wasn't really clear if it could be defined as a crime, but he was sent home for 30 days.

When he came back, I was waiting for him to say something, anything, but he never did. ??? :

 

That doesn't surprise me. But congrats on getting off.