Dear dimwit on the phone

And that is a good thing - as long as you're right.

 

Not really a "Dear Dimwit on the Phone," but this is kind of the venting thread so my tale of intraoffice woe ends up here.

Got called into the ME's office for a budget meeting. It's me, the ME, and two AMEs (AME-1 is a new guy who is doing a little of everything right now; AME-2 covers sports when I'm gone).
After I brief them on what's coming up, AME-1 lights into me for today's section front. State U. is in the College World Series and, since we didn't have any hyperlocal stuff for the front and it was a slow news day nationally, I blew them up. One-story front with a huge picture. I'd done it a couple of other times in the last two weeks on their march to the CWS and no one said a word about it. Maybe not the best layout ever, but given what I had to work with I'm OK with it. The CWS is the biggest state story going right now. Never hurts to play that up, right?

According to AME-1, yes. Yes it does hurt.
To AME-1, this was the dumbest, worst idea ever, because, "They haven't even won anything yet!"
Other than their game, of course. That didn't register at all.
His suggestion was to put the Brazil-Mexico gamer and a throwaway syndicated regional column on the front, just for the sake of having more than one story out there. News judgment be damned. He went as far as to reconjigure my front page to show me how it could've been done, and happily pointed out that he did it "in 20 minutes."
Well, yeah, I could do it in 20 minutes too if I was just throwing crap into a template, not having to edit it or rewrite parts of it, and didn't have to find and tone a couple of the wire photos.
And the templates! The ME "worked hard to provide those templates." You know, the ones that lock you into a choice of white or off-white layouts. Nothing wrong with those, either. I've used variations on them in the HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of pages I've laid out in my career. Including one the day before.
That didn't matter, because this front was an abomination before God.

So, at this point, things get really weird.
AME-1 takes my failure to use the templates as a personal affront to the ME, mom, apple pie and the Baby Jesus himself. He starts going on a rant about how "anyone is expendable."and essentially making it sound like he's threatening my job with the "my way or the highway" speech.
He's also getting more and more agitated. I ask him to calm down, and point out he's on the edge of his seat. A few moments later, as the debate continues, he's hopping out of his chair asking if I want to take it outside.
The ME finally intercedes at this point and talks him down, but the debate/argument raged for another 45 minutes with AME-1 more or less ranting the whole time about how "things need to be done HIS (the ME's) way" and if I don't like it I can quit.

All of this over a stupid section front. One of 300 or so I'll design this year. For an issue that could've been corrected with a simple, "Hey, you've run that one-story front layout a lot lately. Mix it up some. Don't overdo it."
For that, AME-1 decided it was worth coming to blows. I half-expected to be waiting for me on the playground after school.
I think I've made an enemy in the office.

 

Oh my, Batman, I'm sorry you had to deal with that. I suppose many of us have at some point along the way.

While it certainly does NOT excuse his inappropriate behavior, on the subject of section fronts, there are some valid points in there. On the handful of time a year I might go with a single-story front, it's usually a (1) prep state championship/college national championships winner from the area, (2) a big national event like the Super Bowl or Olympics, (3) a HUGE story that transcends sports like the Boston Marathon bombing or (4) a special package, like best of the year stuff with multiple photos and elements.

I wouldn't rule out doing it for a College World Series CHAMPIONSHIP for State U. But a wise old editor once asked me about a headline/photo size "What are you going to do when a really big game comes along?" That really got me thinking. Have you boxed yourself into a corner for future games or future days?

It's like in the national wire roundups. Just because it's a slow news day and you have space, don't run 15 inches on some routine Major League Baseball game that would have warranted three inches some other day. Monday Night Football was one of my big pet peeves. No reason a Colts-Jaguars game merits 20 inches simply because it's the only game that day. Get creative. Find some features or enterprise. (I try to always scour the wires and stash good features that I can pull out on slow days.) Or run a larger than normal (though not obsurdly large) photo.

Anyway, that's one man's take on it. Hopefully your AME was just having a really rotten day. Doesn't excuse taking it out on you, but I sure hope he/she is not that way all the time. That would be tough to deal with. Hang in there, mate.

 

I think this would be worth a visit with the publisher, ME and HR director in a private meeting. Play it up, like you don't know if you should be fearing for your safety in the workplace. Those kinds of word choices get peoples' attention real quick.

What were the ME And AME-2 doing during all this?

 

AME-2 was trying to blend into the furniture, and I don't blame him. Unless it actually got physical, it wasn't his place to step in. I'm just glad he was there as a witness to this foolishness.
The ME was not only backing up AME-1, he was taking the opportunity to air a couple of petty grievances and saying I wasn't a team player because I didn't want to write news stories on top of my duties as a one-man sports department. Funny, I thought my contributions to the "team" was filling four pages a day with local content.

Our publisher situation is in flux, but the closest thing we have was eventually called in to settle things down. Poor bastard. He walked into the back end of what by that time was an increasingly stupid argument with other obvious underlying issues seeping through. Me, the publisher and the ME are supposed to sit down in a couple of weeks and hopefully hash some of that out.
And, yesterday, after everything simmered down, the ME called everyone into his office one by one to talk. I went last and we got interrupted pretty quickly, but his tone was like that of an abusive boyfriend. Lots of calm, reassuring talk after the screaming and the smack across the chops.

 

I sorry, Kevin Nealon.

 

Very true, and some valid points there, Mark.
I don't use those often, either. I did it a few times in the fall when we had a big feature story with a great photo (the photographer loved that), once or twice in the spring for similar reasons, and once or twice for gamers when one of our basketball teams made a run to the state finals. And then three times with State U. and the CWS -- them getting there (a HUGE deal for the program) and their first two gamers. Maybe 10 times total since November and, like I said, at least half of those were for big Sunday features. The others were what I felt were big events.
I mixed up the layout in between days, and I've been at this long enough to know better than to do it every day or with mundane stories, or when space is at a premium, or any number of other reasons. Hell, I even critiqued a section that AME-2 did once when he used a 6-column picture with a story that didn't call for it, and told him to watch out for that.

AME-1, for whatever reason, just launched into attack mode from the outset over this and I have no idea why. He's been here less than a month and already questioned my news judgment in a separate long-winded incident; essentially told me I don't know how to plan or design a page; accused me of deliberate insubordination over my decision to work freehand instead of using the templates every single day; and challenged me to a fight.
Maybe there's some areas I can improve on, but I'm thinking I'm not the problem here.

 

Tiny local independent Division III school is starting football (in 2015) after taking six years to get the program off the ground and thus, getting serious about athletic communications. By serious, I mean they're sending me four emails a week about kids who have 'committed' to play various sports there.

Got my first nastygram from an angry girls' basketball grandparent this week, though I have to admire the fact that he actually followed through with cancelling his subscription out of spite (reason given to clerk: "Ask (my last name) and (my boss's last name). They know.")

The boss is a former sports editor and appears to have my back, but wants to know what to tell angry grandparent (who used his name when he wrote to him). I think we'd both like to just tell him "Because it isn't news" but that increases the odds he'll go to the publisher, who will almost certainly tell us it is.

 

Batman,

I don't know how much you want to push back on this, or how confrontational you want to get, and what your situation is, but I'd seriously consider at least talking to a lawyer before this meeting between you, the publisher and ME. If not having a lawyer with you at that meeting.

I'm sure you know this, but the AME-1 asking if you want to settle this outside should have been fired on the spot. The fact that the ME didn't do that says to me he should be gone, and if the quasi-publisher saw any of this, he should be gone.

At the very least, while this is all fresh in your mind, I'd put together as complete a transcript and description of that all now down on paper, who was there and said what, witnesses, etc.

Not asking for an outing, but I'm wondering if this is family owned or a chain, and if there's an HR person on site or at least regionally you could talk to. If there's one available, you should definitely be in their office ASAP to make sure they are aware of what happened. That would protect you and almost assuredly give you a great deal of protection - both from physical harm and keeping your job (as it looks like the AME-1 is looking to get a pelt on his wall to show everyone what a badass he is, getting someone fired to assert his authority. Very Chris Schulte-ish).

Good luck.

 

Wow Batman, I'm sorry you had to put up with that. No one should have to deal with a boss that acts like AM1 did. I'll echo what others have suggested -- get HR involved.

I get why you ran just the one story. I'm sure there's little or nothing else in your region going on. I don't know where you're located at -- maybe its a soccer-crazy area in south Texas -- but the idea of putting a Brazil-Mexico gamer on page 1 is laughable to me. I don't care how slow the news day is, that isn't news 95+ percent of sports fans in America would care to read. I would think a newer guy would trust your experience in the area and therefore your news judgement.

 

Excellent points.

 

Batman, the very first thing you need to do is get your resume and your clips in order and start looking for another position. Do it NOW. These people have all but told you that your days at your current job are numbered, and when (not if) you show up with a lawyer for the meeting with ME, etc., that will be seen as a declaration of war.

Sure, the one-story front was probably not the way to go, but from what you've described, that really isn't the issue here. This new AME has decided to throw his weight around (I'm assuming it's a he since a female wouldn't have challenged you to take it outside), and you're in the crosshairs.

Good luck, and keep us posted.