Writing 'free' for our newspaper... what the heck?!?

[Joe Williams]

At my place, everybody knows it's not possible for most of us to do our jobs without going over 40 hours some of the time, but we don't get overtime and have been told we're not allowed to work more than 40 hours.

It's obviously bullshirt, and everyone involved knows that. And if somebody really wanted to, they could turn in 50 hours, demand overtime and see what would happen, which would probably be a world of shirt raining down upon the place like it had never seen and the employee one way or another ending up leaving the place.

That sucks, obviously. They're assholes for doing that to us and it's completely slimy, underhanded and illegal. Maybe at some point somebody will make a stink about it and basically burn the place to the ground. Maybe that will ultimately be for the greater good of the industry. But it probably isn't going to do much for the people there, now, other than get them a couple hundred bucks on their way out.

You just gotta bend over. That's the way it is.

Exactly. Glad to see some others have the same situation. Sports writers work 60-70 get paid for 40. It's the way it is. News writers work 40; paid for 40. Always been that way in our business; always will be. That's why college kids who want to have a "normal" family life in the future should be forewarned. If you are going to cover sports you are going to be bending over a lot.

What I've learned is newspapers get around it by making the employee fill out a time sheet and signing their life away saying they got paid for the hours they worked. Nobody is "forcing" you to lie on there, so the newsppaer is free in court.

Some places get around it -- get around union contracts, even -- by exempting sports writers from the rules of the contract. Saw language in one that was something like, "the sports staffers and management determine their hours" which allowed bosses to work sports staffers way, way more than the news side people and deskers would tolerate or face.

Especially annoying since the phrase made it sound like both parties would have to agree, like the hours were "negotiable." Nope. Unilateral. But the stewards and other union types would just shrug and say: "The contract says you guys figure out your own hours. If you leave Sports, we can help you."

 

[Fredrick]

Rick, it's great that your place apparently doesn't force its sports people to work 50-70 hours and get paid for 40. But the wink-wink just get it done mentality is out there at many organizations.
Like the one poster said, if an employee raised a stink about it, all heck would break loose, and the employee would get his overtime, but in a few weeks that person would be off the beat or mysteriously no longer working for the company.

If you cover a MLB team you'll work more than 20 hours a week just traveling. How will that person work 40 hours and only 40? If you cover a college team that plays 2 road games in a week and have to write, blog, do video, write previews, features, game stories and all that, there's no way you can avoid working 60 or more. And no news organization will pay that. You can quit, sure you can, so yes ultimately it is the employee's fault for bending over. Not everybody has the energy to devise a lawsuit or raise a major stink especially in this economy.

The strange thing is I've yet to hear of a news editor understand what is going on in sports. They think it's all fun and games in sports and the writer is stealing money from the company.

Good for you if you are a sports editor that you are working it out and there is no wink-wink mentality.

 

[RickStain]

Again: I wish my paper would try to pull that with me. Lawsuit = punitive damages.

 

[Twoback]

The job has evolved people. Yeah, I blog, I tweet, I do all that shirt and I fit it in the confines of my eight-hour work day. Some of the other duties I used to have to deal with -- working phones, helping out with preps -- have been delegated somewhere else. I just don't get this idea that you should be compensated extra for blogging, etc. It's just part of the work for the company that writes your paychecks. It's still writing, just for a different medium.

That's fine, as long as you're fitting it in your 8-hour day. From what exmediahack's describing, he's working 10-11 hours (and hopefully getting paid for them, though I doubt it), and now his company is giving him work for another one of their businesses, which will increase his hours more, and not paying him for it. That's illegal (unless you're in management or something to that effect).

If they reduce his duties elsewhere, then I can see why the company wants him to do some newspaper work. Somehow, gathering from his post, I don't think that's happening.

An 8-hour day? When has this business ever been about 8-hour days?
And seriously, how many white-collar workers out there are doing 8-hours?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The job has evolved people. Yeah, I blog, I tweet, I do all that shirt and I fit it in the confines of my eight-hour work day. Some of the other duties I used to have to deal with -- working phones, helping out with preps -- have been delegated somewhere else. I just don't get this idea that you should be compensated extra for blogging, etc. It's just part of the work for the company that writes your paychecks. It's still writing, just for a different medium.

That's fine, as long as you're fitting it in your 8-hour day. From what exmediahack's describing, he's working 10-11 hours (and hopefully getting paid for them, though I doubt it), and now his company is giving him work for another one of their businesses, which will increase his hours more, and not paying him for it. That's illegal (unless you're in management or something to that effect).

If they reduce his duties elsewhere, then I can see why the company wants him to do some newspaper work. Somehow, gathering from his post, I don't think that's happening.

An 8-hour day? When has this business ever been about 8-hour days?
And seriously, how many white-collar workers out there are doing 8-hours?

At my last place, deskers and reporters put in 8-hour days. If they worked more than 40, they got OT. They had to notify their supervisor in advance if they were afraid they were going to go over. If they didn't notify them and cut their hours down, then it was their fault for not telling their supervisor.

And this business should be about 8-hour days. Dedication is one thing. Getting screwed over is another. There are plenty of stories on here about people getting screwed over. Especially with the way things are now, with people who have put their entire lives into the business only to get dumped, journalists should get every dollar they earn.

And when journalists make as much as white collar workers, then we can talk about putting in extra time for free.

 

[Fredrick]

And seriously, how many white-collar workers out there are doing 8-hours?

Yes but this is a blue collar profession, it really is, and we should be in theory paid for every hour.
Only the muckety mucks 10 a.m. meeting people are white collar.

 

[Twoback]

I don't know any 8-hour lawyers, or accountants. I don't know many 8-hour PR people.
I'm not a blue collar worker. I went to college four years and earned a degree.
You're not working in the fast food business. You're not working in a rock quarry. The whistle doesn't go off and everybody slides down the dinosaur tail.

 

[RickStain]

I don't know any 8-hour lawyers, or accountants. I don't know many 8-hour PR people.
I'm not a blue collar worker. I went to college four years and earned a degree.
You're not working in the fast food business. You're not working in a rock quarry. The whistle doesn't go off and everybody slides down the dinosaur tail.

Everyone you just mentioned is paid for those services according to the law and their employment agreements.

 

[J-School Blue]

The job has evolved people. Yeah, I blog, I tweet, I do all that shirt and I fit it in the confines of my eight-hour work day. Some of the other duties I used to have to deal with -- working phones, helping out with preps -- have been delegated somewhere else. I just don't get this idea that you should be compensated extra for blogging, etc. It's just part of the work for the company that writes your paychecks. It's still writing, just for a different medium.

That's fine, as long as you're fitting it in your 8-hour day. From what exmediahack's describing, he's working 10-11 hours (and hopefully getting paid for them, though I doubt it), and now his company is giving him work for another one of their businesses, which will increase his hours more, and not paying him for it. That's illegal (unless you're in management or something to that effect).

If they reduce his duties elsewhere, then I can see why the company wants him to do some newspaper work. Somehow, gathering from his post, I don't think that's happening.

An 8-hour day? When has this business ever been about 8-hour days?
And seriously, how many white-collar workers out there are doing 8-hours?

40-hour work week=!8-hour day every day. But unless something on the beat catches fire (in which case the bosses should be forking over over-time and not complaining), much of the Big Stuff can be planned for. You know you're going to need to put in 10 or even 12 when the schedule gets killer? Manager should damn well structure your week so you can take a day or half-day off somewhere.

The 40-hour work week is a very basic right that early labor leaders fought tooth-and-nail for for a reason. It maintains a basic standard living out-of-office and forces employers to treat their workers with some degree of humanity. The fact that the job has brainwashed newsroom employees into thinking they "owe" their job more than that is pretty forked up. The culture that's developed is distinctly anti-labor (and, heck, I was an hourly employee, damn right I was labor) and I think leadership relies on it to get by right now.

 

[Joe Williams]

There is nothing noble about working for free for a commercial enterprise.

That doesn't mean you reach the end of your work week or the end of your work day and, facing an important and unscheduled task, say, "Nope. Sorry. I'm off the clock." You do the task and then sort out the compensation later. If there's no compensation once you've done it, then you don't do it next time.

Big difference between a reporter who, when he learns of a breaking story, calls up his boss and says, "How are you going to be pay me for this?" before covering the news, and one who covers the story and later says, "How are you going to pay me for that?" If the response is, "We're not," then you don't exceed your hours next time unless you have a better reason than pay to do so. Like a clip to help you get the heck out of that place.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I don't know any 8-hour lawyers, or accountants. I don't know many 8-hour PR people.
I'm not a blue collar worker. I went to college four years and earned a degree.
You're not working in the fast food business. You're not working in a rock quarry. The whistle doesn't go off and everybody slides down the dinosaur tail.

Lawyers bill hourly, sometimes in 6 minute increments. They're still getting paid for doing extra work. Accountants frequently work more during tax season, and get comp time during the slow periods.

In the newspaper industry, they tell you they'll give you comp time, then conveniently forget when you tell them they owe you an extra couple of weeks of free time because you were cranking out so many extra hours.

At my first job, which I mentioned earlier, I told the bosses that I wouldn't be available on certain (weekend) days because I would have other plans. A couple of times, if there was a fire or car accident or something, I'd voluntarily scuttle those plans. But other times, when they'd want me to cover the BFE JV volleyball game, I'd tell them I was busy.

 

[Twoback]

Lawyers bill hourly. And their companies collect. A junior associate billing at $110 an hour does not walk out the door with $110. It doesn't work like that.
Sitting there and saying you'll only work a 40-hour week in an industry like ours makes you no better than the beancounters who say you should be able to do x-number game stories, advances and features in a regular day. It doesn't work like that.