Work smarter, not harder

I find ways to streamline every process or function I can. Everything you can make more efficient saves time on deadline.

But I gotta say: When someone tells me -- yet again -- that we're gonna have to work even smarter from now on, it's them that's pissing in the cornflakes.

My cornflakes.

 

I think the biggest thing is to stop thinking of yourself as having only one job responsibility. If the desk needs help with a graphic, a headline, there's a blog that needs to go up quickly, whatever... it doesn't matter if you're a designer, rim, slot, wire, whatever. It's not an ideal scenario, but if you keep saying "fuck it" you're basically a few months from being the PD guy talking shit about your bosses on the interwebs.

 

This is why I don't eat cornflakes.

 

Exactly.

 

OK. but what if your paginator can't edit nor write headlines but is "protected" and a writer doesn't or can't paginate and the head of the department is left stretched on both ends and the paper has declined over a year in terms of quality because of the fact they're working twice as hard to cover the same required area? And what if the best qualified of the three can't find shit out there to run to?

 

this will not end well.

 

Work harder, then smarter, then even harder.

Then they'll cut back your staff, so you get to work even harder.

 

VJ is dealing in Candide-style theory.

Fourth and 8, alas, is dealing with reality.

 

Also, when you drop by the grocery store for your can of pork 'n' beans, ask the manager if he might consider running an ad. Then get up really, really early, head to the loading dock and pitch in with the pitching of the newspapers, door to door. Your publisher will be right there by your side.

 

Sorry, I'll stick to "the ship be sinkin'" posts, those seem to be popular.

Run, bitches, run!

 

Well, that is a defense: work hard, produce fewer results, and give the powers that be a dose of reality.

 

In a better, less-cynical world, one could afford true belief.

It sucks -- but this ain't it.