Here it is, daylight, and I'm home! It's so so lovely.
It's an intensive experience, overall. Those unfortunate enough not to be muckety mucks of the uber or quasi variety don't get hotel accommodations. Ergo, they (we, poor saps) get to do the back-and-forth commute with family and other obligations in the mix. But I'm getting off easy, because by volunteering for insane morning hours (this morning: arrival at 6:45) and begging not to do evenings, I could arrange not to do 14-hour days. My unfortunate colleague with a few tech skills, however, is doing the 14-hour days, plus commuting, plus juggling family life with a 6-month-old. Did I mention they're living in a rental while trying to coordinate insurance and contractors on a water-pipe rupture? As I left today, he was curled up in a corner sleeping.
Meanwhile, other staff are not expected to work any events at all, with the management excuses on her behalf ranging from "the train commute for her on a weekend is hard" to "her home life is really difficult right now." Indeed.
And so it goes, not unpredictably. I'm sending out the resumes right now.
3 comments:
I'm still amazed that an editor has to staff a conference that is umm... not on editing..... don't you have student types who can do this?
Yes, indeed, start zipping out the resumes.
Yeah, factored into this mix are the various pubs-related obligations. In fact, this is why I skated today: I was there for meetings.
The students are all conscripted, doing the usual hand-holding things (Mr. Man Purse, whom you'll recall, cannot possibly be expected to click through his own powerpoint presentation). And, for no apparent reason and despite my efforts to change this, we've had both a student and a staff member doing photos at events--making this 14-hour-day stuff all the more ridiculous. I also pushed hard to set up a.m. and p.m. shifts, so that we could avoid overstaffing and ridiculously long days, but that didn't penetrate either.
But yes, nonsensical allocation of resources all around. Some people just are incapable of planning and executing with many people but get stuck doing it--plus there's the cultural component that "*of course* you crawl through fire for no reward, I do." And you can only do so much when you don't wield power--mainly nag and beg.
Oh, and as an editor, I'm still a minion, and minions are expected to provide staff support. Director types, not so much, unless said conference happens to be in the Caribbean, in which case former rules don't apply.
These things are just such watershed moments for tanked staff morale. Such a waste.
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