Start at the beginning

Look over to the right. You can read the posts in the order they were written. It makes for a better story.

two weeks later

so on the following sunday after i parted ways
i got a phone call from the guy
his voice is worse than fingernails on a chalkboard
he insisted i needed to bring in my keys right then
i said it was sunday and that wasnt going to happen
he called the next day
and was like when are you coming in
i said its st patricks day dude
i am not coming in
and he was like well uh uh uh uh
dude i will not steal anything you will get your keys

so i went in on tuesday
and i asked her when i was getting paid
and she said it wasnt up to her but her accountant
seriously
what

i told them no stories for the next week
as i would be out of town

sure enough the guy calls
on monday night asking where the stories were
i did not even answer the phone

today i sent an email
the email basically said
i told you i was on vacation and you didnt listen
i will not send any more stories until i am paid
what i am owed
and if they wanted more stories after that
the cost of those stories

so like an hour later the guy calls
and says
they cant pay me until i send a letter of resignation
i said bullshit
the guy says our legal department
i was like you do not have a legal department
and what you are saying is illegal
he puts the woman on the phone
and she spews the same
i say that i will not be sending such a letter
since it is illegal and she said she would have the lawyer call me

a little later they call back and i let it go to voice
now they claim
i have to send a letter saying i am self employed
or i will not be paid
so i send an email stating
i am self employed and i am only saying that
because i was told i cant be paid unless i say that
but i was giving up no rights

maybe i am paranoid
but i think i have reason to be

so i go in
and they have a check with all the taxes taken out
and i am like why do i have to sign something
if you have already taken out the taxes
and she goes on some rant about something
anyway she tears up that check
and writes a new one with no taxes taken out
whatever
while the guy types -- seriously types up the check-
she criticizes me for a wrong date in a issue
and how some ad was wrong on the easter page
a page i asked her over and over what she wanted
and she said to leave alone
and then just left
and she wanted to argue about it

so i walked into the other room
where her son was
and he was at the computer
and he said
didnt you work here

i said
briefly

and he said i told you what you were getting into

so while i waited for the check
she said
well you will have to be more careful
about the errors

i told them if they wanted me to write more
i sent an email with my terms
and they said nothing

i took my check and went straight to the bank
to cash it

i plan on never going into that office again

i will write if they agree to pay what i asked
but
i so made the right call to leave there

Start at the beginning

If you want to read these posts in the order they were written, look to the right in the archives. It may make more sense.

Also check out my sports blog that I will now have time to write in: Red Right 88

A happy ending?

03-12-08

So the woman kept calling me and pushing back our meeting. She had doctor visits. It makes me feel bad to feel so much venom about an elderly sick woman. It puts things in perspective and adds another reason to get out. It is not healthy to think mean thoughts about someone's grandma.

While I waited- I went to craigslist and responded to an ad by WKYC Channel 3. They are starting a website about bars and restaurants. I got a call back less than ten minutes after I emailed my resume and clips. They want me to come in Monday at 6pm for an informational meeting. I told the guy you want me to come in on St. Patrick's Day. Shouldn't I be out at bars gathering information for you?

Anyway the start is simple. They will give me 25 assignments. I call said assignment- and ask a checklist of the owner or manager. I type up list and get $10 a pop. I need to do 25 a week. If I can do them in 3 days then they will send them faster. If I do well-- down the road I could get bigger assignments. Sounds like easy money. So you figure ten minutes on the phone, ten minutes to type. So for slightly more than four hours work a week- I can make $250 or just $100 less than I was making for 50 hours a week. Even I can do that math.

I went into the office at 4:30. I was humble and precise. I told her I bite off more than I could chew. I was writer not a graphic designer and that this was not working. She asked when I felt that I said Friday after we talked on the phone. She insisted on knowing what she said. I told her she said the paper was worse with me than before. She denied saying that and I believe her that she believes she didn't say. She apologized and said all of these nice things. I apologized to the guy for losing my temper a few times and he said it was understandable under the circumstances. But I said still not acceptable which is why I had to leave. She asked me to kept writing and I agreed to write one school class of the week feature and one other. She asked that my dad still write his Out to Lunch feature. I said sure and I will as long as she pays me what she owes me. She asked what I get for a story normally I said you can't afford it but that she could pay me what she could afford between $10 and $20 for the size of the article. I don't mind working for less- if I can crank them out.

I just don't believe they will get a paper out. But maybe they will. When I left the office I knew my mother had said another pray. That went way too well and way too smooth.

But I knew I had done the right thing. That doesn't happen often.

So it is Tuesday will the building catch fire?

03-11-08

I get there before nine. He shows up after ten. She arrives after lunch.

The same old problems. The same old headaches. Another threat of no paper if without that ad fixed even though it was fixed yesterday.

I just plug and plug away.

There are moments when I am alone when I think I can make this work. That I love doing this. I want to chase and tell stories. I don't mind long hours and low pay.

But then they speak.

It is the lack of respect and the absolute inability to ever connect with these people that bothers me.

My favorite activity was always playing basketball. But my least favorite was playing basketball and never getting the ball or having the person I guarded every get the ball. That is just running. That isn't fun as since you are so close to doing what you love to do, it hurts more.

Now after I can't play ball- I like to play shuffleboard. I love playing really talented people but I don't mind playing low key. But play with all drunks who disrespect the table or take ten minutes between shots to do shots-- that isn't fun. You get frustrated because you just want to play.

That is how I feel. I could plug away at this but I don't see it getting better. She isn't going to change. He isn't going to change. Even if I could stomach working for them-- who would sell for them. I have already missed my brother's tournament games and now the thought of missing Easter week with my nieces and nephews for a lost cause is too much.

I want to write. I don't mind layout. But to be close to what I want but to be forced to be miserable is too much for me. I am going to have a heart attack and I am making $350 a week with no health insurance.

I made phone friends with two women at the printer. They helped me so much. They told me I was the best the paper has had since the main guy left some time ago. I guess they have been many, many people in my seat.

I guess what is frustrating is I am exactly what this paper needs but they don't understand that.

I finished the paper around eight or so -- but it took until after 11 to make the last correction and have it leave my outbox to the printer.

There are so many more ridiculous things I haven't written about. This is just a small taste.

I called the printer at nine and one of the woman told me they had everything. I called the office of course he wasn't there and she wasn't there. I had to call two numbers since the answering machine is locked in her office. I called at noon and told him to have her call me when she gets in so we can talk. I want to do this face to face. It will not be pleasant and I wonder if I will ever see a dime.

I worked it out and I have put in to complete three issues in 16 days a total of over 130 hours.

Third Monday

03-10-08

I got to work before nine. The guy wasn't there. He showed up late and the woman did not arrive until well in the afternoon.

That would be ok but when I got there, my internet was working. This was bad.

When he got there his solution was to just kept trying, it would work eventually. I told him the phone line was dead- I could try all I wanted but it wasn't going to work. We swapped his phone for the internet phone to make sure maybe just the receiver wasn't dead. When I went to his side of the office, the smell was so obnoxious I had to run outside and get some fresh air as I almost puked. The phone jack in my office area was buried under piles and piles of old newspapers. That has to be a fire hazard. It turned out to be the jack and not the phone. The guy called the phone company the same one that has jerked him around for three weeks on installing a dsl line. It was promised the week before I was hired and even though they still haven't fulfilled the order, they don't go to a company that I have heard of before. It is obvious they jack will not be fixed, so I brainstorm. I decide to plug my computer into the fax line so I can have the internet. But the guy protests and says but we won't have faxes. I said that is a shame but no internet means no paper.

Hours late when she arrives, she is incensed to discover she has no fax machine. She screams we aren't getting a dsl line because we need a fax machine more. (Of course that makes no sense) Every hour or so she yells about the fax machine, it is like she can't comprehend that without the internet I can't produce a newspaper.

She is also focused on the one ad that did not look good last week. Five times I have told her that the fault was the people who made the ad. The printer people have said so over and over. I have sent the ad to the them and they have cleaned it up. Yet she refuses to give me any other ads until the company sends a new ad (the same one we have) to the printer so they can clean it up and look at it (which they have already done) and then resend it back to me so I can resend it to back to them on a page. If I don't do this then there will be no paper. Insanity. Ultimate insanity.
Around two I ask the guy how many coaches called him back, I had him call five hoping to get two or three. He tells me none. I am flabbergasted. You were going to tell me this when?

Never fear for filling the hole though, she tells me at 2pm on Monday- she wants a full page ad that is a coloring contest. Here is the problem-- they have no indesign copies of it. They have old pdfs and they have old pagemaker files. If you open the pagemaker in indesign it doesn't work- its all garbled. You can make changes for new dates in pagemaker but it won't make a pdf because the distiller is missing. I spend three hours calling people about this. Finally I open a pdf in photoshop make it a tif and place it as an image then I cover up the dates. Of course all the ads are two years old and she hasn't sold any new ones but she has me leave them in. Oh and the cost gives cash prizes to little kids for coloring. She won't pay me a decent wage and worse tells me no more $10 intern stories but little kids get cash money for coloring. Oh we have enough content now she says. Because I am working my butt off and she can't pony up ten bucks so I can get one real story written by a good writer to help me out.

She has the worst phone voice well except for the guy maybe. She can barely make conversation on the phone and confuses whoever she calls. You can't understand anything he says.

It is hard to describe them. Imagine if the stapler guy from Office Space was an orthodox jew, that would be him. The voice is nearly the same. I am sure at one time she was good at what she did and that is all she remembers. She doesn't notice what her paper is now and she is clueless at how it is now perceived. I went to a mayor's office today and someone told me if she calls the mayor and he doesn't call back in ten minutes, she gets very abusive with whoever she is on the phone with.

At any rate, at 6pm I get my ad list and I still have no stories from the guy. During the day alone- while I solved all these crisises-- I wrote four stories all with real quotes from real people. One story with two mayors and a service department head. And he has nothing.

I go home 11 hours after I got there.

The start of the end? Already?

03-07-08

I had another strong Thursday and early Friday. I got a great story and leads on several other strong ones. The few people aware of the paper's existence were all pumped at what I did. One AD told me that my new paper was a joke and he was glad I was there to make it better. One coach asked if the "guy" still worked there and laughed at his experience with him. Another coach said she had never heard of the paper. The Rocky River school pr lady was thrilled with the paper. She said she bought four copies on her own and was so proud of me.

When I got to work I learned they print 800 of the main paper. About 400 of them go to newstands and the rest are given mostly to old folk homes and some to schools. The other three papers have 200, 65 and 65 copies distributed to newstands. I was shocked at the low numbers.
About 35 of the main papers are mailed in bulk. But the guy told me he never mailed last week's because I had moved up his deadline. I asked his stories be done Monday. He did one. He spent all of Monday and Tuesday morning writing a second. Never bothered with the rest. So I don't understand why he couldn't mail the papers. Turns out he mails papers on Friday- why I don't know since the paper gets returned on Wednesday night. I guess that is what happens when you have the guy whose is supposed to mail them doesn't have his own car. Well he missed today's bulk deadline of noon so no one will get this week's papers either.

Unreal.

Yesterday all the woman had to say about the paper was to complain about how one ad looked. I pointed out it looked fine on the pdf and showed her. The printer told me it was a problem with the pdf provided by the company, she showed me what to do to fix it. The woman got mad because I told her all she said was negative and it would not hurt her to be positive. She started yelling. I told her I understand you yell at everyone else who works here but that doesn't work with me. Oh she was offended. She said she can yell at me all she wants and I am sensitive. And she never yells at anyone else. I told her I worked hard for her. I worked 50 hours so I was making less than 7 bucks an hour. I told her she was paying the guy more than that yet he can't write his four stories and get the paper out. Oh was she mad.

So today I was in the office for an hour. The big snow had started. I couldn't do much work because the dial up was too slow and I was way ahead anyway. I left to go to city hall in Rocky River. The guy wanted me to sign out where I went when I wasn't there. I said no way. I was getting paid salary and as long as the paper came out -- who cares where I worked from. They had my cell phone if they needed me.

So I am with the mayor when she calls. I tell her where I am and tell her I will call her back. She said well thought we had a meeting scheduled. We didn't and anyway she didn't even come in. She then yelled at me over the phone. Accused me of being rude to her and being a bad boy. She said I was disrespectful and I made demands. I asked her to tell me one demand I had made. She went on and one but the 7 dollar an hour comment. She said I was never in the office. I said I was there until 4:30am the first week and got there at 5am the second week. She said that is your job. She said I lied about being able to do layout. I said if I can't do layout how did the paper get out two weeks in a row. She said the paper was worse then before I got there

Stab me in the heart.

She has no clue what a joke her paper has become. She said I knew nothing about newspaper and I better improve soon or else.

I asked what that means. She just said it over and over.

So in my mind, I think I quit. I don't need this. I am so close to my dream but I can't live with these people. It is too much. I am not being miserable for $350 a week with no benefits and no appreciation for what I am doing. I will finish the issue I started and then stop unless another miracle happens. When I interviewed they said I could take off the first two Fridays to go to my brother's conference tournament and the first round of the NCAA D3 playoffs. I didn't go the first week because I had so much to do. And the storm scared me off from going the second week. I sacrificed family for someone who doesn't care.

I talked to the once a week ten dollar freelancer and she said they go through people like me like water. She said she really wanted me to stay. I told her she was vastly underpaid and could get work elsewhere. She said there was a new ad person but when they refused to pay her she quit. I figure I will never see a dime from this and then she will damage my rep even further. The two weeks proved this is what I should be doing or at the very least just writing features but I can't live like this. Working unreal hours only to be abused for nothing.