No desk, help me

[North61]

OK.

I need some advice on how to tackle this one:

I've been at this smaller paper for almost a year now and I do not have a desk. I am full-time, a beat writer for a team with a 9 month season (and plenty of off season coverage) and I write prep sports as well.

The ME knows of the situation, but is a yes man for the publisher who, like most pubs, don't really care about sports. So, here I am, hovering from desk to desk every day with the endless cycle never ending. Sometimes I have to work in the ad department. It's f'n sad.

Is it common for a full-timer not to have a desk? How the hell do I approach this when the answer has repeatedly been 'well we just don't have room right now, you have to wait and be patient.'

Finding a new job is an option, but not until at the earliest, next spring.

Oh, and we don't have company cars- so it's never above 30 cents a mile when I have to travel. Weak.

Argh!

 

[Ace]

If I were you, I would work from home. I would not come in the office but maybe once a week to get mail.

If the editor complains, say you have a desk at home but not at the office so you can get more work done there.

 

[leo1]

buy a cheap desk and expense it to the company.

better yet, go down to the local lumberyard and pick up a long board and a couple sawhorses and set up your makeshift desk in the middle of the newsroom. that'll send a message.

 

[Armchair_QB]

buy a cheap desk and expense it to the company.

better yet, go down to the local lumberyard and pick up a long board and a couple sawhorses and set up your makeshift desk in the middle of the newsroom. that'll send a message.

Cinderblocks. Not sawhorses. Much more effective. Heavy as **** though.

 

[leo1]

buy a cheap desk and expense it to the company.

better yet, go down to the local lumberyard and pick up a long board and a couple sawhorses and set up your makeshift desk in the middle of the newsroom. that'll send a message.

Cinderblocks. Not sawhorses. Much more effective. Heavy as **** though.

heavy, but worth it--you'll get a nice workout (cardio and muscle building) if you keep the cinderblocks and board in your car and make multiple trips up to the newsroom to set up and break down the desk each day.

 

[SCEditor]

Why do you need a desk? Would your copy improve if you had a desk? Would it make you a better writer? Would it make you a better journalist?

If you're unhappy with pay, fine. If you're unhappy with your beat, fine. If you're unhappy with your current boss, fine. It's a desk. Is it lame that you don't have a desk, sure. But if you're considering leaving this newspaper just because you don't have a desk, that would be pretty stupid.

 

[DyePack]

Why do you need a desk? Would your copy improve if you had a desk? Would it make you a better writer? Would it make you a better journalist?

If you're unhappy with pay, fine. If you're unhappy with your beat, fine. If you're unhappy with your current boss, fine. It's a desk. Is it lame that you don't have a desk, sure. But if you're considering leaving this newspaper just because you don't have a desk, that would be pretty stupid.

SCEditor, I'm surprised you're not an ME at some CNHI paper. Are you?

You don't think people need desks, but you do think they should obsess about design.

How you're not an ME, cowering in your office only to emerge once a day with critiques, is beyond me.

 

[OTD]

"This represents where the walls would be, if I had walls."

I once worked the desk at a paper where the desk guys didn't have desks. You grabbed what you could from whatever reporter wasn't in the office that day. You make do.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I'm a full-timer with more than a year experience at this daily and, although I work desk, I actually have none. I just use whatever sports computer happens to be open when I'm there, and if the owner of said desk happens to come in while I'm there (which is rare), I get up and use a different computer. Never really been a problem, although now that I think about it, it is a bit odd.

 

[North61]

buy a cheap desk and expense it to the company.

better yet, go down to the local lumberyard and pick up a long board and a couple sawhorses and set up your makeshift desk in the middle of the newsroom. that'll send a message.

I seriously might do this.

Why do you need a desk? Would your copy improve if you had a desk? Would it make you a better writer? Would it make you a better journalist?

If you're unhappy with pay, fine. If you're unhappy with your beat, fine. If you're unhappy with your current boss, fine. It's a desk. Is it lame that you don't have a desk, sure. But if you're considering leaving this newspaper just because you don't have a desk, that would be pretty stupid.

Seriously. If you are a beat writer for a team that requires year round coverage - how the hell do you keep organized without a file cabinet or a desk drawer? The reason why I'm leaving this newspaper is because I am being paid ****ty, the SE is no talent ****stick (trust me), it's a small town and I have to move up sometime. I can't spend even 3 years at the podunk press. The beat is great, but life has to move on sometime. I've got bigger dreams.

I shouldn't say I don't have a desk- I share one with the SE. How would you SE's like it out there if you had to share one with your reporters?

I guess I don't really need a desk, but to me it is more of an equality issue. I'm the only one in the company (multiple locations) that does not have a desk. At the place I work, the news clerk has a desk despite only being there for two weeks. In fact, I'm the No. 3 senior writer there (says alot about turnover) and I'm the only one in the newsroom without one. Hell, the part-timer who works in classifieds has a desk.

 

[SCEditor]

North,

The reasons you listed are all great reasons to leave a newspaper. I wasn't trying to be prick. I was under the impression from your original post that everything was good except the fact that you didn't have a desk. If there are other problems, sure I'd leave. But the lack of a desk isn't one of them. Nothing personal about that.

Dyepack,

Seriously dude, you gonna follow me around from thread to thread? I love this guy. I'm a writer. I'm an editor. I'm a designer. I'm also a manager. But if I had to list what I do most, it's probably writing. But you've got me pegged for a guy who designs all the time, because I can offer coherent thoughts on something other than writing. Dyepack, you actually remind me of a guy I worked with once before. He was a jealous, no-talent hack, too.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

The work from home suggestion really has merit. What's more important to them -- that you be in the office or that your work be in the paper?

 

[SEWnSO]

Have you EVER asked for a desk?
Is there a desk you could steal?
Admittedly, it is very peculiar.
Is "this" a first on SportsJournalists.com?

 

[Norman Stansfield]

I am a beat guy at a major daily. I do not have a desk, nor do I care to have one.

That's all the more reason for me to never set foot in the office, unless I'm picking up supplies or my mail.

 

[North61]

Have you EVER asked for a desk?
Is there a desk you could steal?
Admittedly, it is very peculiar.
Is "this" a first on SportsJournalists.com?

1. Yes. Three times. The answers 1. "ME: Be patient, it's not a high p'riority on my list, which means it's not even on the radar of our pbulsiher. 2: We're working on it. 3. Be patient, we're working on it.
2. No.
3. Yes it is.
4. I'm new, not sure.

I am a beat guy at a major daily. I do not have a desk, nor do I care to have one.

That's all the more reason for me to never set foot in the office, unless I'm picking up supplies or my mail.

The nice thing is if I was at a major daily, working at home wouldn't be so much of a problem, but being we have a 10:30 p.m. deadline (also retarded), I'm expected to do layout most nights (on the lifestyle desk). If I could work strictly from home, I would.

 

[Crimson Tide]

I faced a similar problem.

I made the mistake of taking a news copy desk job when I started two years ago. I was the seventh on a six-person desk. Naturally, as an editor and designer, a desk with a computer is fairly essential. But I bounced around from desk to desk for about six months. There was no management in place as the ME and publisher had both ... moved on.

Then a day came when all seven of us had a shift on the same day (a few special sections added to the daily mix).

Me: "I don't have anywhere to work."
Desk boss: "Uh. I don't know what to tell you."
Me: "I'm taking a sick day. See ya tomorrow."

Didn't get fired, but I considered working at my father-in-law's grocery store.

A few weeks later I was given my own desk and moved to sports.

 

[Starman]

I faced a similar problem.

I made the mistake of taking a news copy desk job when I started two years ago. I was the seventh on a six-person desk. Naturally, as an editor and designer, a desk with a computer is fairly essential. But I bounced around from desk to desk for about six months. There was no management in place as the ME and publisher had both ... moved on.

Then a day came when all seven of us had a shift on the same day (a few special sections added to the daily mix).

Me: "I don't have anywhere to work."
Desk boss: "Uh. I don't know what to tell you."
Me: "I'm taking a sick day. See ya tomorrow."

Didn't get fired, but I considered working at my father-in-law's grocery store.

A few weeks later I was given my own desk and moved to sports.

What the ****?!! You took a sick day?

Me: "I don't have anywhere to work."
Desk boss: "Uh. I don't know what to tell you."
Me: "OK, I'm here and ready to work. If you don't have anything for me to do or anyplace to do it, I think I'll just lie down on the couch in the lobby, eat some Fritos and watch TV. Call me if you have anything for me to do. If you want me to go home, fine, but be sure to write me out after eight hours."

THAT's how that should have played out.

 

[Norman Stansfield]

Have you EVER asked for a desk?
Is there a desk you could steal?
Admittedly, it is very peculiar.
Is "this" a first on SportsJournalists.com?

1. Yes. Three times. The answers 1. "ME: Be patient, it's not a high p'riority on my list, which means it's not even on the radar of our pbulsiher. 2: We're working on it. 3. Be patient, we're working on it.
2. No.
3. Yes it is.
4. I'm new, not sure.

I am a beat guy at a major daily. I do not have a desk, nor do I care to have one.

That's all the more reason for me to never set foot in the office, unless I'm picking up supplies or my mail.

The nice thing is if I was at a major daily, working at home wouldn't be so much of a problem, but being we have a 10:30 p.m. deadline (also retarded), I'm expected to do layout most nights (on the lifestyle desk).  If I could work strictly from home, I would.

Well, yes, doing layout would change things. You didn't mention you did that also originally.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

When I saw the title of this thread I thought it was a writer crying out for editing help. Boy am I gullible.

 

[Oscar Madison]

I was once in a similar situation. The friggin' ME, who had no respect for the sports department, basically told me I should be lucky to even have a job. Then they hire a news reporter a couple of months later and re-arrange the entire news room to fit his desk in. When I asked the ME where my desk was, she hastily arranged for a small desk and crammed me in the corner of the newsroom.

Then when other people left, she won't let me use their desks, saying it was a "news desk." Keep in mind this was at a 20K paper where everyone was spread out, so there was no set space for the sports department.

This is the same ME that never gave me a new phonebook when they came out every year because "Sports guys don't use the phonebook." She even gave a new phonebook to one of those empty desks that I couldn't have because she wanted the new reporter, whenever he started, to have a new phonebook.