Should it be THIS bad

Our staff, along with the rest of the newsroom, doesn't hang out as much as we used to, but part of that is that a couple of us live away from the town the paper is in now. And while we're away much of the time, seems like there's been mad turnover on the news side. I worked a news desk shift (very abnormal for me) and had to go around introducing myself to people. Some of the youngsters are starting to go out more. Thursday night is the traditional night for us. In the past, it was EVERY Thursday. Now, it's like maybe once a month or so. But for the most part, everyone is pretty social with each other. I think some of the guys in the office had a rotating poker party. (I'm staying out of the jokes on THAT one.)

 

i get that on the social interaction. But while I get more done at my current shop, I hate being here. And I don't think I do as good of a job because I'd rather be somewhere else.

 

Ahh, I find it to be more productive when you "click" with your coworkers.

A couple years into the gig at my first shop (21K circ, four full-timers), we ended up with a bunch of dedicated and diverse twentysomethings like myself on staff. After deadline every Football Friday, we'd hit the local Waffle House (only place open after midnight in town; no damn bars in that Bible Belt town) and dissect football until 4-5 a.m.

Sometimes, we'd go to the next town to the Huddle House. A couple times, we'd pile in to one car and drive about 25 miles south to the Steak & Shake. Those were the only options around, but boy, we had fun.

The guy who lived the farthest away, but who had to travel to the Big City to cover a college game the next afternoon, would invariably come back to the office, prop his feet up and take a nap for a couple hours until it was time to leave.

That environment lasted just two seasons before we all started to move on (and move up). We clashed a lot -- we all had strong personalities, and big ideas -- but we all respected each other, too. Worked hard for each other. And produced some great work, through it all.

Not sure if I'll ever get to be a part of a staff like that again. You move up, and people have kids and families to take care of. Too many iPods around the office. It's too quiet, too sterile, too nonconfrontational.

***

Frank_R mentioned it the other day on another thread, but I'll repeat: I think you lose something valuable when there's no connection, no interaction, in a newsroom. I think it shows up in the product every day. I think it shows up in the attitudes around the newsroom.

And I don't see how that can be a good thing.

 

SSM, I had the same situation, except my boss only showed me to my desk, showed me how to access the day's pages and told me deadline was in three hours. He's damn lucky I knew what I was doing, because his complete lack of guidance for a first-day employee was completely unacceptable.

Not surprisingly, the newsroom gathers occasionally for lunch and to bitch about the boss. That's the one thing we have in common.

At a different job, I had a boss who would walk in for the day without saying a word, despite having to walk right past two offices and three open-area desks. He'd go to his office, shut the door and if he wanted to speak to one of us, he'd send an email. The rest of us were social, so his anti-social behavior drove us crazy.

I think it helps to be friendly and get along with people. It increases empathy among those who share a workplace. You don't have to go out for drinks every weekend or share your deep, dark secrets, but getting along helps.

 

Riddick, you've been moved to the basement.

 

Here's a generalization that surely will set off somebody, but....

My experiences have been that the sports people I've worked with have been fun, humerous and friendly types. Partly because we were usually understaffed, you had a tendency to form some kind of bond just for the sake of survival. News people sat a few yards away and acted like they were performing brain surgery. Nobody over there smiled and they all took themselves way, way too seriously (like editing a story on Beirut put them in a higher class than us). Anyway, those news folks who didn't act that way then naturally kind of gravitated towards us and would hang out in our area some and often join us for post-deadline beers.

Again, just my experiences. It's a hell of a lot easier working five night desk shifts a week when there's actually something that puts a little enjoyment into it.

 

In the last six months, I've said about 40 words to the co-worker that sits across from me.

Of course, he's an idiot with the personality of a rat (I'm not sure what kind of personalities rats have, actually, but I'm sure they aren't good). For instance, two weeks ago, on a Friday, 30 min from the end of his shift, he informed us that he was taking the next two weeks off.

And the paper let him.

So, I've been covering his crap as well as mine.

Actually, I think I'm going to stop posting and go set his desk on fire now.

Carry on...

 

Joe Reader says: "Honey, do you know where the sudoku is in this paper? All I can find is the high school floor hockey results.

Mary Reader replies: "I don't know, but I see that Soon Kim Lee won the Seoul MasterCard Table Tennis Open."


Now that's a paper I'd read!

 

On the iPod issue ... I can understand why it would be a problem for desk people. But as a writer, I find in my office that I have to use it sometimes just to zone out and get into some sort of writing groove. Lot of people talking around me. Lot of people wanting to come up and start conversations. I'm terrible when I have to write two grafs, chats, two grafs, take a break to talk to this person or that person, two grafs, yada, yada, yada. When I'm plugged in, people tend to not bug me as much.

 

I used to love listening to my iPod at work. But now, it seems like everyone has one, so there's nothing left to drown out.

And Heiny, nobody puts Riddick in the basement.

 

His parents also tied a bone around his neck so the dog would play with him...

 

At my last job (45K, 6 full-time sports staffers) everyone got along great in sports and a good number of news and life people. There'd be a huge crowd going to the same bar and every Friday night was a great time. Work was fun and I actually enjoyed the social interaction.

Then, a year later people moved on to new jobs. Then another year, more people and so on. Eventually, there was complete turnover in sports except for me. The new people were jerks or antisocial. The new SE was a lazy ass who inspired no one. I went from actually liking work, to hating work. And my writing definitely suffered.

Rewrite that story? Screw you I want to go home. Get a third source? Screw you. Stay late to answer calls? Screw you, I'm at 40 hours for the week.

So, yes, being happy/not happy with your coworkers made a huge difference.