These days we live in a pretty lean and mean world. There are never enough hours in the day; everyone’s hat rack seems stuffed full as careers that once required one set of skills now cobble together two or three.
I bring this up in what has so far been a rather futile attempt to garner any sympathy for my current workload.
Like expense accounts and extended vacations, sympathy is in short supply these days.
Summer is supposed to be a quieter time in television news. With political campaigns and rating periods in both the spring and fall, the summer has traditionally been a calm between the storms. It’s a time when the courts and City Hall and the schools are all in a lull, a chance to get some R and R and catch one’s breath before plunging into the next Big Thing.
That hasn’t been the case this year. Some of our staff members have left and the management, citing a restructuring of shifts coming in the fall, has opted to wait to fill them.
The bottom line is, “Help is coming but hold the fort for now.�
That has caused situations requiring producing, anchoring, writing and reporting, often for the same shift and even for the same newscast.
But if you don’t feel that badly for me at this point, don’t worry. You’re not alone.
Going to a coworker for sympathy these days is like going to the desert to find water:
“Man, do you know that I have to make all these calls, write all these stories, and still anchor the show? What do they want out of me?�
“Pffft, what about my day? I have to shoot all these stories then file a bunch of video and burn some back ordered DVD’s!�
“Well, we can get to your day in a minute but what about…oh, never mind.�
At least I have my loving family to fall back on:
“Honey, you should see what they’re making me do at work. It used to take half the staff to do what I’m doing, and I can’t even get anyone to appreciate it!�
“Pffft, what about my day? These kids have been fighting since they got up and I had to take them to lessons and go buy school clothes and drop them off at the pool and make stuff for Sunday School!�
“Yea, but I…oh, never mind.�
Oh, I know. You have to give to receive. If I would stop to listen to them first then perhaps they would be willing to give me a little comfort in return.
But, hey, who has time for that?
I’m busy.
Besides, it’s not as if I can’t find anyone to listen.
You just did.