Cowboys reporter out here spiking footballs of her own.

I’m a little amused by the notion that, even during what the reporter touts as a momentous achievement in her career, the guidance counselor is still peeking out of the sizable foxhole the reporter dug for the counselor in her own brain.

 

I knew people in the biz who didn’t take vacations and wore it as a badge of honor. Ridiculous.

 

Of course, the other side of that coin is did it help him in the future?
Not necessarily with the ungrateful editors, but did it help him get the reps he needed to improve his skills? Did it help him advance beyond where he would have been had he not exerted himself as much? Did it ingrain a strong work ethic in him that will serve him well throughout life? Did it build a good reputation that can help him down the line?
I think we've all been where this guy was at one point. I've had a couple of points in my life where I spent a lot of time — to the point where things in my personal life were sacrificed — living the job. It's not something I'd want to do for the rest of my life, but to get where I wanted to go I have no doubt it had to be done. I've definitely been better off in the long run for having done it.
Just because you're grinding away and making sacrifices doesn't mean it isn't worth it.

 

Or when they did, they still worked and filed stories and never really took a vacation.

You're not off work, or enjoying the holidays with family or on vacation if you're still checking in, filing, making calls and doing other work.

 

lmftfy

 

It depends on what's "worth it" to you. This guy had a good work ethic long before he was on the beat, I reckon, and his writing was pretty good. He didn't need reps. He's what we here used to call a "fucking young stud." This was right at the beginning of the bloodletting. Had he started 10 years earlier he would never have worked with us. Somewhere bigger would've snapped him up out of school. Anyway ...

This is what a 22-or 23-year-old gets now if they join the racket:

• long hours
• low pay
• having to look over your shoulder every five seconds, especially around the time the quarterly earnings report comes out

If you object to any of those, there are three others in line who will gladly take the job.

You used to get two of the three but there was generally stability if you wanted it, even at a mid-sized paper. Then the third one became commonplace, and the risk/reward equation changed.

 

Now picturing the guidance counselor as Homer Simpson: "That's what I've been TRYING to tell you."

 

Maybe he was a Phillies fan and just wanted to help make her "better."

 

My HS guidance counselor also told me I wouldn't amount to much. He was right.

(Actually he guided me to an excellent university I never had even thought of attending, and helped me get into a place I had no business attending, based on my grades. Otherwise I'd probably be a proud alum of SUNY Brockport, Oswego or Geneseo.)

 

... or at least a good retirement plan. And ALL of summer off. And the winter holiday, too. And essentially all of November. Probably a week in March, too.

 

Hey now! My friend played hockey at Brockport and he's got a thriving career going in executive recruting.

 

I grew up in Wilmington, Del. because my father, like most fathers at that time, worked for DuPont. The company's policy was that vacation time was mandatory for all employees including senior management. In fact, you left your ID badge and/or keys at office security when you left for time off. You were locked out, and of course, there was no smartphones nor Internet. Somehow, DuPont managed to be an industrial superpower despite this slack attitude. At the Herald, sure there were times you worked ludicrous hours for many days in succession, if the Pats, Sox, Celts or Bruins went deep into the playoffs or at an Olympics. But both management and the union made sure you got comp days off and that you took them. These are sane policies. Anybody working for a company that expects employees to hold to a constant insane work schedule is no place to work, and incidentally probably not a good business, either.