Overtime pay

I worked six days last week, including July 3-4. Yes, I worked overtime. No, I did not get paid for it.

 

Commutes don't count. Why do you live an hour away?
Regardless of your answer, it's still your own decision.

 

Unless you're a manager, why?

Why work for free?

 

The 70-hour weeks that I had put in during the time I was a one-man shop usually were around high school playoff time.

The big killer was driving to and from the events, because I was in a remote area. 2-4 hours round trip, and I had been told by the bosses, which I later found out was erroneous, that drive time didn't count as time worked because I got mileage. But I didn't find out that was false until my next gig. So I would get paid for 58 hours instead of 70.

 

Sometimes I feel like it comes down to management doing a poor job of managing a staff's hours, whoever that person is at your shop. Just because there are three people on staff to cover games does not mean three games have to be covered every night. Rotate, give one person a feature idea one week rather than covering games. Not only can that help with managing hours, but it also can mean one less thing that has to be crammed into the paper right at deadline.

 

Wouldn't it takes as long -- or longer -- to write a feature story as it would to cover a game?

 

It's expected when things break with the teams I cover, NHL and NBA.

 

You should expect pay for that.

 

Because I married a woman who lived an hour from where I worked and she had a house that's close to her work that's cheaper than living in my work town would be.
And I wasn't complaining about the commute. I've been able to work from home some, and I use it to my advantage by covering games over here when our local teams play here. It was my choice, and I don't regret it.
I also know it doesn't count toward the work week. Just saying, there's a lot of hidden hours that don't go on the time card but add to the exhaustion. Besides the commute, I'd often get an hour or two break and then have to start taking call-ins at home around 9 p.m. and writing them up before bed. Maybe I get a dinner break from 7 to 9, but it's hardly a restful time.

 

Yeah, I know. And you have enough in your argument to leave the commute unmentioned.

 

Wasn't meaning it as a 1-for-1 swap

 

I was in charge of a two-man staff, but we had to let the guy go — he was just lacking in ability. By doing so, I wound up getting the JailHouse shaft.
It was up to me to handle all the sports, while the news side had two full-time reporters (2 x 40 hrs.) and a P-T news clerk (30 hrs.) , plus the ME's salaried spot - so about 150 man-hours to get the news side covered/with pagination.
Wound up covering everything in 50-55 hrs. per week (pagination included, of course), then told by our ME to "zero out" OT. JailHouse, as is typical, had written the sports writer's desk off the books when we couldn't find anyone after a while. Therefore, my argument of doing two people's jobs by using up one man's work week and roughly 15-20 hours of the second fell on deaf ears.
Fuck GateHouse, I say.