My Boss Screamed at Me Tonight

I had one of my twice-a-years when we had such a serious production problem that we couldn't basically put anything on the website right at the start of a new partnership deal. This is 10 years ago ago.

I called for a status update and was told that nobody could figure it out, so pretty much everybody had headed home. Seriously.

The poor guy who told me heard the words: "Are you fucking insane?!!!!!!!!"

And it went a long way from there.

I'm proud to say that everybody was back involved in seeking a solution about 20 minutes later. Good moment.

 

That's a great story. And Otis was a bridge to the era we still wish we were in and the one we're in now.

 

Being a desker for the past few years, I'm in the middle of all the shit each and every night. But even on football Friday nights and college football Saturday nights, when the shit really hits the fan, no one in my department has ever started yelling or screaming. Not once. It's counter-productive. It does nothing but distract. We understand that.

I get frustrated like anyone else, but I'm proud to work in a shop that does things the right way when it comes to this issue.

 

I worked with a columnist who made a rare appearance in the office and a high school coach called his extension to give a score and without saying a word about it, the columnist took down the box, typed it in and messaged (this was pre e-mail) it to the slot. The preps editor was standing there with a mortified look on his face looking like he was awaiting his demise.

Since said columnist was in the office so rarely, his extension was one of the ones they gave the HS coaches to call in scores. Nobody thought for a second the columnist would ever be in there and find out. He stopped by about three times a year and never during the late shift.

It was pretty cool lesson for everyone.

 

A drawbridge, then, that's been pulled up.

 

I work at a much smaller paper (like 8K) as the ME, and I do what the first night editor in Moddy's example does. I have to put together the front pages and jumps (only one edition) and in between, I try to get into the sports department once or twice to see how they are doing with their section and to see if they need any help or anything. If they say everything's good, I back off. If they need help, I'm getting in and proofing pages or something.

 

I've got to think the exodus of "old-timers" who show they way things are done has hurt the following generations. You praise in public, scold in private. That an editor doesn't know this and has reached that far up the ladder says bad things about this industry.

 

What a great movie. I watched it a couple days ago. It was playing on Encore.

That is one of my favorite scenes. Of course her being shot by George Costanza was pretty damn good too!

 

I must be the only one on here who thought "The Paper" was a complete cliche.

 

Yep. This guy doesn't even like hover over against the wall. He stands IN THE CUBICLE of the person working on the last page, looking over their shoulder.

 

I didn't say I thought it should win an Oscar, but I enjoyed it greatly.

 

I've never had a "boss" scream at me at deadline, mainly because a) we make deadline, b) the boss is me at midnight since news side has ghosted long since; and c) my EE is an old sports guy and understands.

I've told an overzealous circulation director one or twice how the cow ate the cabbage, however. He'd pop into news an hour before deadline saying "We need to be on time tonight, folks. It's summer solstice and a lot of our carriers are pagan worshippers" or somesuch.