Doing non-journalism piddling while working

You haven't been "on the clock" all these years?

Pull a 30-hour week sometime, and see what your execs say about that.

This is something we tell ourselves to make us feel like we're on some "more noble" quest.

SF ... I know you're not with me here. It's cool.

Look, I know I'm coming off as rather rigid and non-fun here, and I really don't do that. This is more about the outrage expressed over Rockbottom even commenting on it. So part of this is just good debate, although I do stand behind what I've said.

 

I've always felt exactly exactly the same way, for 30 years: If the work I'm expecting to get done gets done, then I don't care how it happens, and I'm not counting hours.

And Shottie, you KNOW this is true: If that work is getting done to everybody's satisfaction, then in 99,999 case out of 100,000, it involves well more than 40 hours a week, not less.

 

I don't have to pull a "xx-hour" week. Luckily, I don't work in a place where we have "execs" and not "editors." I don't work for fucking Allstate. I work in a business that once was proud of its renegade, raffish side, and that accepted a reasonable amount of sitting around and procrastination as the price you paid. (What's Royko doing down in that bar when he could be here, on the clock, staring at his monitor screen). But that has handed itself over to talentless drones who think they're making widgets.
And SF is right, too. The 'net has blown press-box smartassery all to hell.

 

Both of you are guilty of what we do with a lot of things -- over-romanticizing the good ol' days.

 

Geez, I dunno man. I thought Royko did a pretty good job, however he was doing it -- and it wasn't sitting around the office looking busy.

 

Off topic, but I was covering a major college football game several weeks ago, engaging in a conversation with a colleague a few chairs down, and we were scolded by a member of the SID staff. This was during the game, not on deadline. Granted, they had a pre-game announcement about keeping "excessive conversation" to a minimum, but we were talking in a normal tone of voice. I have never experienced anything remotely like that in my entire career.

 

I'm trying to figure out what happened to my T-square.

 

I'm not touching that holy cow with a 40-foot pole, brother. I value my life.

 

The same thing that happened to my pica pole and proportion wheel.

 

The proportion wheel ... now, there's a remnant from the "good old days."

 

Man, that just seems wrong.