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| "They all work until 9 p.m." 1913, Lewis Hines photographer (Library of Congress) |
My particular unit of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Neil Steinberg column division, keeps long hours.
Most days, I’ll wake shortly after 4 a.m. and stare into the darkness, puzzling out some wrinkle in whatever I’m working on. Then toss back the covers and pad up to the office to iron it out. That shifts into polishing it in earnest in the morning after the coffee’s brewed. Hunting around for the next column in the afternoon. And it’s not unknown to get a far-away expression at dinner — oops, it’s “separate,” not “seperate” — and bolt back to make a change.
Still, I don’t consider myself overworked, because a) it’s my choice, b) I really like doing it and c) if you counted up the scattered minutes, I don’t think it would exceed the 37.5 hours a week I officially work. It’d be impossible to tally.
Everyone’s job is different, of course, and I’m in something of a unique position. Still, COVID-19 has taught many employees to value flexibility. They’re more interested in having a life outside work, not less. Nobody wants the boss hovering over their shoulder, and many professionals are trusted to do what they need to do, where and when they need to do it. “Get ready to put in a lot more hours!” is not a diktat that anybody, columnist or carpenter or cop, will greet with much enthusiasm.
So while the ongoing public tantrum that Elon Musk has been throwing since he paid too much for Twitter last month grew extra boring of late, Wednesday’s twist of the knife caught my attention.
Musk ordered his remaining employees — he has already fired half of Twitter’s staff — to commit to “long hours at high intensity” or quit. Why? Basically because he spent too much and now wants to squeeze more return on investment out of his employees’ lives. Working for Twitter, Musk wrote, will become “extremely hardcore,” a term with an apt connection to pornography since both forms of grinding are obscene.
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I for one will be extremely happy when most of twitter's employees quit & then the company files for bankruptcy & that lunatic loses all the money he & his equally insane financial buddies put into it!
ReplyDeleteThe remnants will then be auctioned off by the bankruptcy court for a few billion, making that the biggest business failure of all times.
And it will prove that never make an offer to buy a business while stoned on pot!
I know where you're coming from, Clark St. But thousands of people still work there, and Twitter, despite all its Trump-amplifying, troll-enabling problems, is (was?) a very dynamic place. It's tragic.
DeleteBirds tweet. I don't. Never felt the attraction or found the need. If Twitter crashes and burns, I will shrug, because its implosion won't affect me in any way whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteBut if the racist billionaire South African fascist (Musk) pisses his fortune away and goes belly-up, I will stand up and cheer and applaud. As I said about a week ago, it couldn't happen to a richer jerk...because there isn't one.
I do agree, but I would ask you to reflect on your if-it-doesn't-affect-me-then-I-don't-care approach. I don't think you'd say that about a typhoon hitting Madagascar.
DeleteEspecially if I were involved in the importing of coffee, tea, vanilla, and nickel.
DeleteTwitter has only existed for about fifteen years. And if it were to go POOF, and Musk was left holding nothing but an empty bag with a big hole in it (a hole of his own making), then all the erstwhile tweeters (twitterers?) would undoubtedly find some other platform that meets their vital messaging needs. Or revert to whatever conduit they employed before 2006.
“Never felt the attraction or found the need.” Are you sure? Or do you just fulfill the “need” elsewhere, like here and other forms of social media?
DeleteThat should have read: “Never felt the attraction to Twitter...or found the need for it." I've spent too much time at too many other sites since '99....until I either got booted or until they pulled the plug and closed down. Since March, I've earned lifetime suspensions from both the Washington Post and Nextdoor. For me, 2022 has been a banner year.
DeleteYou must have some pointed opinion to get totally banned.
DeleteEven among hundreds of thousands of liberals messaging (and massaging) one another, there are going to be some jerks. I called WaPo "My Blue Heaven. I called a few of them out and I called it like I saw it, and after a number of suspensions, I finally got the boot. They won't respond to e-mails, but still want me to re-up for another year...at triple the previous rate. Good luck with that noise.
DeleteNextdoor?. ND is moderated by self-righteous Bay Area killjoys who think an arched eyebrow constitutes incivility and bullying. You can't even say damn or hell or crap...or stupid. They've banned countless thousands of users over trifles. Or language. I was reinstated after a year...and two months later, I was suspended indefinitely, which at my age means for life. I do miss talking to my neighbors...but I've moved on.
Many, many people work very long hours. Every Goddamn day. Most for very little pay. its that end of the spectrum that finds the demands of their employers particularly onerous.
ReplyDeleteThe unskilled, single parents, stay at home parents often are putting in over 50 hours a week or more. working more than one job. Likely grueling and sometimes dangerous
Fuck Elon Musk and I've the worlds smallest violin playing just for his employees. Maybe one day they'll have a real job and understand how good they have it
I'm with you Franco (good seeing you at B&B, by the way; thanks for coming). I had to dial today's column back, thanks to insight from an editor who works set hours in the office. Originally, it was sort of let-them-eat-cakey. Like a lot of people, I was lost a bit in the fog of my own experience, and took my eyes off the fact that most people don't work whenever they like doing something they really love.
DeleteI do, Mr. S...at Habitat. But I had to retire first, and I don't get paid to do it.
DeleteI am not sure what you consider a real job is. That is something one hears a lot especially when it comes to sports. Being a great athlete is not easy. They work hard to earn their money. No doubt some jobs are easier than others. I certainly wouldn't want to be out in freezing weather fixing electric lines that go out or fighting a fire. And I wouldn't be playing your violin for Musks workers. After all they were there before he got there. I am sure I couldn't do their jobs being how technically illiiterate I am.
DeleteI have to say that I just do not get the sore spot that liberals seem to have about Musk (Racist, fascist? Huh?). I see that today’s unconscionable crime against humanity was that he misspelled the first names of a 2nd rate psychologist and a 3rd rate comic upon his tweet that he was reinstating them. Oh, the horror! Better have him drawn and quartered. Is it because he doesn’t dutifully parrot every single vestige of the orthodoxy, the same reason that people like Bill Maher are despised?
ReplyDeleteI also don’t get why you were so impressed by Marshall’s reply to that kid. I thought it was gratuitously rude and becoming of an arrogant jerk, but what do I know? I haven’t made the robust and enriching contribution to the cultural landscape that Marshall has.
Speaking of contributions to culture, consider the dichotomy between the target of your wrath and recipient of your adoration: on the one hand, an innovator and baron of electric cars and space travel. And on this hand, the creator of Happy Days and auteur of Pretty Woman. Hmm, tough choice.
I'm sure there is a lot beside this you don't get, and it isn't in my skill set to take your hand and try to lead you to comprehension. In the words of the great cham, Samuel Johnson: "I have given you an argument, sir. I am not also obligated to give you an understanding."
DeleteSeems like it was stated pretty clearly to me. "Why? Basically because he spent too much and now wants to squeeze more return on investment out of his employees’ lives."
Delete"...turning Twitter into even more of a masked ball for haters than it already is; then insulting your customers for not leaping to pay $8 a month for a meaningless blue checkmark; while decimating your staff and bullying your remaining workers."
I'm disappointed to learn that one evidently has to be a liberal to find those things unappealing. My negative attitude toward him is based on the fact that he's a talented rich guy who thinks that his success makes him an expert on whatever he chooses to pursue. His off-base and disparaging suggestions and remarks during the Thai cave rescue. The magic tunnel between downtown Chicago and O'Hare that he wanted to build so rich people could avoid the indignities of the Blue Line. (Not that any actually take the Blue Line, of course.) Covid 19 disinformation, for good measure. Elon, March 19, 2020: "Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April." Etc.
If he were decimating the staff at Tesla, I wouldn't really care that much. I'm not even on Twitter. Despite it's flaws, however, it's a public good that he seems intent on almost willfully destroying because he spent way too much money on it. And why did he even want it in the first place? So that the "free speech" rights of obnoxious trolls and racists would be protected. Oh, and so that he could use it to tell people to vote for Republicans.
Marshall has probably bought more happiness to the public than Musk has. Marshall might have been snarky but he probably wasn't wrong. Musk might not be racist, but he seems pretty thin skinned
DeleteDamn! An inveterate nitpicker such as myself felled by apostrophe abuse. "Despite it's flaws, however, it's a public good" Uh, I'm going to pretend that the appalling apostrophe in that first "it's" is an optical illusion!
DeleteWell yes, and Aaron Spelling probably brought more happiness to the public than Henry Ford or Robert H. Goddard, but I wouldn’t say that he was the more accomplished public figure.
DeleteThe Musk/Twitter situation reminds me of the old adage "How do you make a small fortune? Start with a large one."
ReplyDeleteYou’re not the only one: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593415171149791232?s=46&t=19d9PpTmHix0RHDfk9m7Pw
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