Annual Christmas Party/ Bonus Thread: 2018 Edition

It's amazing how ignorant some of the dumbasses are that work at a newspaper. Either that, or they just don't give a rat's fuck about anyone that works at night.

 

The last couple of years at the old OCR office in Santa Ana, the sports department was moved out of the newsroom to a different floor. We were in the middle of an area that was surrounded by glassed-in offices with windows and everything. We were there in the midst of advertising directors, circulation managers, promotions workers -- none of them editorial employees. So we chatted and got acquainted. If was unbelievable that these folks had no idea of the newspaper process. "Why don't you guys come in until 3 or 4 p.m.?" "You work on the weekend? I didn't know anybody here worked on the weekend." Believe me, those offices were locked up and lights out by 5 p.m. every weekday.

 

Same goes with weekends. We moved into a new building at one of my career stops, and it was close to 100 degrees in there when we came in Saturday (this was Florida in early September). The building manager (who worked for the new building's developer) assumed nobody worked weekends, so he ordered the A/C turned off to save on the electric bill. Someone on our management team (most of whom broke out in hives at the thought of working weekends) should have passed the word that we'd there.

 

The way our deadlines have been going, day and night people are seeing more and more of each other.

A quarter-century ago, I commonly worked a 6:30 p.m.-2:30 a.m. shift.

Some of our live (as opposed to advance) shifts now start at noon or 1 p.m.

 

There's an ad director at my shop like that. Every time I mention that I'm working until 1 or 2 a.m. on a Friday night during football season -- usually after she says something like, "Must be nice not to come in until 2" -- she gets this quizzical look on her face like she was just told the sky is red instead of blue.
Even some of the newsies over the years haven't seemed to grasp that most games during the week aren't played at 9 a.m. and that sports schedules -- hell, reporters' schedules in general -- are often fluid. Had one dipshit ME light into me once for working from 9 a.m. until midnight on a Saturday where I covered a high school football photo day, wrote three stories off of it, and then flowed right into a desk shift with a midnight deadline. He didn't understand why I worked 15 hours without clocking out for lunch, when I'd grabbed something on the way back to the office and ate at my desk.

 

Work at newspaper in design hub:
Holiday "party" was moved on-site and was delivered at about 4 p.m. on a day I'd eaten maybe an hour before. Still catered, though, and in the past, it would be on a Friday night I was working and we'd just get that or some other dinner brought back for us. Office also gave everyone a $50 Target gift card.
Guild party in usual location, hotel conference room, at usual time (Sunday afternoon so no one would have to miss it for work). Drew a low number in the annual gift raffle, so I only got one crack at the table (opted for a collection of hot sauces that will go great with the pickled eggs I'm making). Food was good and it prevented me from watching most of the Packers' worst game of the year. Better luck next year.
Design hub bosses (both past and present) sent kind Christmas cards, including one with a modest gift card for regional coffee shop.

Nothing extravagant, but I did OK.

 

All I have to show for the holidays is four heftier-than-usual paychecks.

Thanksgiving pay
Prorated raise
Xmas-New Year's (much heftier than usual)
Upcoming MLK holiday pay

 

So .. y’all were hitting on each other at the Christmas party?

 

A mix of gift cards...probably added up to about $100 if I were to use all of them. It's the best bonus I've seen in my years at the newspaper. Felt appreciated, which is the goal I suppose and got to create a date afternoon with my wife.

Also one catered party at our large office and a smaller potluck party at our local office. Didn't make either. Working one day, and on vacation the other.

 

I guess my holiday schedule was a non-financial "bonus" of sorts because it created some quality time. Thanks to the way my regular off days broke and a co-worker who was willing to work Christmas and New Year's, I had Sunday-Monday-Tuesday "weekends" that covered the eves and the days. Enabled us to visit out-of-town family Christmas Eve/Day and spend time with friends who stayed with us New Year's Eve/Day. Was the first time in years I'd had that sort of schedule, and probably the last time until I'm able to retire.

 

I love confusing the "downstairs dipshits."

I'll come in around 4:30 on HS football Fridays (usually come in a bit late cause I wind up working until 2 a.m.), and I'll grab a cup of coffee in the breakroom as they're all huddled up conversing about what they're gonna do when they leave in 20 minutes.

Multiple times I've been asked, "So, you almost done?" "Nope, just got here!" They are stunned. Just stunned. Then I'll say, like, "Yep, busy HS football Friday."

I've often then got the reply, "Oh, you have to go to those games? We cover that?" I usually just say, "Yep," and walk away, but I want to say, "I see you read the paper you work at, you fucking idiots!"

It isn't all of them, granted, some of the people downstairs know what we do. There were a couple ads guys I really enjoyed talking to, one was a HS referee, too. Of course, both of them got let go because they sold lots of ads and thus commanded lots of commission.

 

A few years ago we received like a $15 gift card to a grocery store. This year we had a dinner with the skeleton crew that remains at local restaurant. It was pretty fun actually. They probably can afford with only about 11 reporters to cover 4 markets now lol.