Anybody else with helpful co-workers?

I'm still trying to figure out what state has its high school playoffs on a Wednesday night . . . or has its elections on Thursday.

 

I can think of one that starts its playoffs on a Wednesday.

 

Schieza's a great co-worker.
He needed to use the sports camera over the weekend and since he's not a douche like the other new people, I let him. Then it turned out he didn't need it. We were trying to figure out how to get me the camera because I need it for an event Monday morning and he dropped it off at my house at 7:30 a.m. - just left it in my car for me.

 

The helpful co-worker might not be trying to be an ass.

Some people are just anal about deadline.

Some people aren't anal enough about deadline.

 

I think he's referring to the news editor being late on Election Night, with nothing being said because "It's Election Night. They're not used to working on deadline!". The next night, sports was late, and the news editor started bitching him out.

 

Ah yeah. It's always funny to watch a newsroom that gets out by 7 battling the deadline like the sports guys do. Sports guys who are at high stress levels four hours after they've left the office then bitch the next morning why they never see sports guys before noon.

 

Yup. And while I've worked in situations like Starman and others have described, I'm happy to say the teamwork at my current shop is really good.

If sports is running late, the three of us on the "news" desk can chip in with late pages (or even late phoners), since all three of us have worked as sports writers or sports deskers at some point. And sports has returned the favor on election night or when there's breaking news.

Not sure if this is because we're all cool guys/gals (hello to any coworkers reading this ) or if it's just because we've had so many layoffs/open positions unfilled, there's no time for anyone to bitch at each other. It's a scramble to put out the paper every night.

 

It happens without fail every election night. The reporters are told to turn in stories by 10:30. At 10:25 returns are incomplete and suddenly it's like all the reporters are channeling Chicken Little ("Incomplete returns for Podunk Dog Catcher? The sky is falling down!").

I turn to the other person in sports (who had called the meltdown a couple of hours earlier), then tell them to report what they know, deadline is deadline. Or as I always say, every team is on the clock until the last game in MLB or final NBA game is done, and if Podunk High can't get us those JV swimming results by deadline, they're just not going to get their results in the Podunk Shopping News.

 

a) Whether he's trying or not, he is succeeding spectacularly.

b) It's not his job (in any way) to keep tabs on whether the sports department makes deadline or not. In fact, in the overall newsroom hierarchy, most of US rank HIM. As noted, he is not allowed to produce pages on actual deadline.

c) The page is already out. In fact, it was sent at 11:01:30, and I was returning to the sports desk after confirming it had indeed been received in composing. Him shouting out to the whole newsroom at 11:03, "Hey, guess you missed deadline, eh?" is simple grandstanding.

Next time I hear it, my response is gonna be something like, "You got any motherfuckin' work to do, or are you just surfing porn on your computer as usual?"

If I'm gonna be wrist-slapped for "hostile statements," might as well get my money's worth.

 

Some Kansas classes have first-round games on Tuesday. This means the last game of the regular season is played on Thursday. Then the second-round playoff game is on Saturday. Three games in 10 days.

This also means that every other year, election night and the first round of the playoffs are the same night.

 

Yeahhhh ... don't do that.

 

Someone actually got fired for that. But I wouldn't be a snitch, even if I had evidence.