No desk, help me

Have you EVER asked for a desk?
Is there a desk you could steal?
Admittedly, it is very peculiar.
Is "this" a first on SportsJournalists.com?

 

I am a beat guy at a major daily. I do not have a desk, nor do I care to have one.

That's all the more reason for me to never set foot in the office, unless I'm picking up supplies or my mail.

 

1. Yes. Three times. The answers 1. "ME: Be patient, it's not a high p'riority on my list, which means it's not even on the radar of our pbulsiher. 2: We're working on it. 3. Be patient, we're working on it.
2. No.
3. Yes it is.
4. I'm new, not sure.

The nice thing is if I was at a major daily, working at home wouldn't be so much of a problem, but being we have a 10:30 p.m. deadline (also retarded), I'm expected to do layout most nights (on the lifestyle desk). If I could work strictly from home, I would.

 

I faced a similar problem.

I made the mistake of taking a news copy desk job when I started two years ago. I was the seventh on a six-person desk. Naturally, as an editor and designer, a desk with a computer is fairly essential. But I bounced around from desk to desk for about six months. There was no management in place as the ME and publisher had both ... moved on.

Then a day came when all seven of us had a shift on the same day (a few special sections added to the daily mix).

Me: "I don't have anywhere to work."
Desk boss: "Uh. I don't know what to tell you."
Me: "I'm taking a sick day. See ya tomorrow."

Didn't get fired, but I considered working at my father-in-law's grocery store.

A few weeks later I was given my own desk and moved to sports.

 

What the fuck?!! You took a sick day?

THAT's how that should have played out.

 

Well, yes, doing layout would change things. You didn't mention you did that also originally.

 

When I saw the title of this thread I thought it was a writer crying out for editing help. Boy am I gullible.

 

I was once in a similar situation. The friggin' ME, who had no respect for the sports department, basically told me I should be lucky to even have a job. Then they hire a news reporter a couple of months later and re-arrange the entire news room to fit his desk in. When I asked the ME where my desk was, she hastily arranged for a small desk and crammed me in the corner of the newsroom.

Then when other people left, she won't let me use their desks, saying it was a "news desk." Keep in mind this was at a 20K paper where everyone was spread out, so there was no set space for the sports department.

This is the same ME that never gave me a new phonebook when they came out every year because "Sports guys don't use the phonebook." She even gave a new phonebook to one of those empty desks that I couldn't have because she wanted the new reporter, whenever he started, to have a new phonebook.

 

Wow.

 

just out of curiousity, have you asked for a desk -- or permanent work station as some desks are now called?

 

Yes. See above post.

 

get one of those camp tables that roll up.

Set it up each day. Then roll it up and take it home at night.

http://www.camptime.net/roll-a-table.htm