While Working.....

I spent some time as the managing editor of a newspaper in Chicago. The hell with all of that. Journalists are the biggest bunch of divas I have ever met. Nothing but a bunch of half-educated dimwits all convinced they're the next Hemingway or Hunter Thompson. Shut up and cover the damn baseball game. I'm not putting your over-poetic bullshit in the paper. Go apply at Rolling Stone if that's what you want to do.

Now, I run a freelancing editing house that is packed full of cynical, darling-slaying badasses, and I love each of them like my own kids.

Wouldn't trade my current position for the world.

Interesting take on someone that has been there, done that.

It really confirms my suspicions, and in the last several years what was once a noble profession seems to be populated by some real scrubs that have been indoctrinate at places like Columbia, and are wind up dolls to promote propaganda.
That's the way I see it.

Most of them weren't bad in that regard. Your average journalist really doesn't give a rat's arse. The problem is with their egos. They could be doing the police beat for 10 years and still think they're the best writer on staff. They're always trying to write a 1.5k word article on stuff that'll be on page 11 of section B.

This is really a matter of the blurriness of language usage. A journalist, in its broadest sense, is anybody who works for a news organization. That could be an opinion columnist, or a weatherman, or an editor.

A reporter is a very specific type of journalist whose job it is to go find out the facts of a current story. Their job is to tell the public the facts and nothing more.

Speaking from a completely US-centric point of view, reporters still exist, though in the major news networks there are precious few of them. Most that do exist are often on loan from local TV or radio stations.

Sorry. Linguistic tangent. Hazard of the job.

So true.

I only have myself to manage now. I’ll get up to find my glasses, notice a book on the table and take it to a bookshelf to put it away, notice the shelves are dusty and get the hand vac to clean them, remember to coil up the vac cord and put it away, straighten a rug in the hall, take a paper napkin away from the dog, and go back an sit on my glasses on the chair.

The weirdest set of circumstances has taken place at my work.

I like the job, it is a good job, go to work at 6AM and off work by about 2 or 3 PM which drawing my pension works for me, it is more about the benefits and some money coming in.

Everyone is cool from the Branch manager, Operations manager, Sales staff, other drivers and warehouse staff.

The warehouse manager is a total jerk though, and is the operations manager. He got the job because the other two drivers turned it down, he worked in the warehouse in the past, drove the small trucks, and was the third in line to be asked, and he accepted. Always pissed off and is rude in every way he talks to me, he has no skills tact, or diplomacy. Never mind you I have executed my duties very well, and have only made a few minor mistakes that is to be expected of anyone that is not familiar with the product lines...really inconsequential in the big scheme of things.

I worked a bit late one Friday night and the operations manager and I were the only ones on the property, and he asked me how it was going. I knew he was getting at something and it didn't take long for him to ask me what I thought about the warehouse manager. I was very diplomatic in my response as I told him that the guy lacked skills in managing, and micromanaged to a point that it is not a positive way to manage people. (We are GPS out in the field, and within five minutes of me arriving at any stop, he is calling me asking me what is going on. I have worked independently my whole career, with my nearest bosses several states away, never once questioned. )Then (surprisingly) the operations manager told me about the backstabbing he has received from the guy, and attempts to undercut him. I was shocked about what has transpired behind the scenes, and shocked that he was sharing it with me. He then went on to tell me that there is room for advancement for people in the company that want to move up. He then went on to tell me that the Branch manager was going to have a discussion with the warehouse manager the next day (Saturday).

The following Monday, it seemed that there was no change in the warehouse managers attitude.

I walked into the small office for the warehouse to complete paperwork and sign out. Undeterred by my presence, the warehouse manager was shredding the operations manager to a young sales guy that seems impressionable and wants to side with him. He called the operations manager an asshole and some really, really crude names. It was like a couple of bitchy women gossiping, and cattiness that was ridiculous. 

(prior to hearing that I had heard the same conversation between the two, figured it was the ranting's of a bad day in the office) but it predated the operations manager pulling me aside, I had not mentioned that to him at the time

I have no desire to manage anyone, I just want to live a stress free life, do my job, punch the clock and go home. I would like for the jerk to be found out, (especially by the branch manager that oversees all of operations in Arizona, our location is the state HQ) but I have no desire to interject myself into the drama.


An ideal solution would be for the branch manager to monitor the conversations made in the warehouse office...In short time he would find out that this guy refers to most of the sales staff and customers as C%&ksuckers. 

Kind of at quandry in it all, but something has to give.

Sounds like a tough thing to sidestep Charlie.

stress free life ≠ working in an organization

Agreed, I am going to keep my head down and hope that self exposure happens by the knucklehead. He seems to be his own worst enemy.

Yea, because a conventional drone looks so obvious. Who would notice a lawnmower.

My only management experience was from 17-21 years old when I worked for my brothers company. I started when I was 14 and worked 60 hours or more a week for the next 7 years. When I was 16 I had to do the payroll and schedule 200 part time workers, (mostly coax them to work), while he was out on a 2 week drunk. When I was 17 I was the obvious choice to manage crews because I had the most experience. I never had much problem. If someone didn't work they didn't get scheduled. Most everyone wanted to pull their end, and actually got competitive about it. When I was 21 my brother put his new brother in law over me. Worst person I have ever met.

At the last company I worked for I was a one man department. The entire company and their significant others turned out for my retirement party.

I was actually VP of Development at a software company relatively early in my career. For the last 15 years or so I've gone back to, and been much happier, being a code monkey and only being responsible for my work. ;-)