Leaving The Border Watch

Posted on March 9, 2010 at 3:01pm | 8 comments

There may be some interest in the fact I have left The Border Watch. This will be my only public statement.

When you hold a senior position in an organisation you learn to ride the bumps and take the rough with the smooth.

If you’re unhappy in a job you either put up with it, change the things that make you unhappy or leave.

I couldn’t change the things that were making me unhappy, so I chose to leave. I reflected on this while on holiday in January, and handed in my notice the day I returned to work.

The Border Watch is a very good newspaper with a proud history. It will be 150 years old next year.

The Border Watch is unique. (more…)

Horoscope in retrospect

Posted on February 17, 2010 at 6:44pm | 1 comment

If I was able to write my own horoscope in retrospect it would be something like:

Capricorn for Wednesday

A series of mistakes and frustrations will sap your natural energy today. Don’t let it get you down! Money matters will command your attention. Stand up for yourself and recover what’s owing to you.

The day started with me forgetting my office key. I arrived 10 minutes later than usual at 7.40am and figured someone else would get there soon, so I may as well just wait.

The next person arrived at 7.55am. During the wait I discovered I had few staff members listed in my phone’s contact book. I knew that none of the early arrivals would answer the switchboard phone and I needed to call a direct line to get in.

Should I go home and get the key or wait? I waited and eventually got in. (more…)

Workplace bullying

Posted on February 6, 2010 at 5:47pm | 1 comment

Workplace bullying can have fatal consequences, as this report from The Age, reveals.

A 19-year-old girl took her own life after months of degrading treatment at the hands of work colleagues.

As a manager I have only once encountered a complaint of workplace bullying.

I took it very seriously because I immediately believed the person making the complaint.

She was a vulnerable type, fairly quiet, but always sincere. The person she complained about was the opposite and I had her under observation for a range of reasons to do with productivity, ethics and performance. (more…)

Quotable quotes from the office

Posted on December 10, 2009 at 9:51am | 0 comments

I caught up with a friend and former colleague via Facebook recently. Let’s call her JL.

JL is one of those people you love to be working with. She brings out the best in people, professionally and socially.

Beneath her laconic exterior lurks a cutting wit.

JL was the keeper of a book in which she scribbled “quotable quotes” and “memorable moments”.

The book must be nearly 25 years old now, and I feature in some of its pages from 1988 to 1990.

JL sent me some samples this week. Most of them I wouldn’t like to publish here, but some are okay for mainstream consumption. (more…)

Where do all the lost pens go?

Posted on September 5, 2009 at 3:43pm | 1 comment

We ran a story on Friday about how some men love their sheds.

According to a survey, nearly 20 percent of shed owners are partial to “hanging out” in their shed, 36 percent have installed a stereo, while one in four have a bar fridge.

I’ve never been someone who hangs around in sheds. To me, they are storage facilities, often for junk or things that don’t fit in the house.

We have three sheds at our house. (more…)

Staying patient

Posted on February 25, 2008 at 9:34pm | 0 comments

My Firehorse horoscope on Facebook today includes: “Bureaucracy will be slower than usual, which will cause you to be in an execrable mood; but at least spare your near collaborators.”

I’m waiting for the bank to approve finance on a new housing investment loan. That seems to be a circular process which has no logical timeframe. Based on our last experience I’m actually happy with how smoothly this one has gone.

If the stars were flagging a work issue I can’t say the wheels are turning any faster or slower than usual. Read that as you will.

I filled my former deputy in this morning on some recent events and she replied it’s fortunate I have “the patience of a Saint”. (more…)

Newspaper novels: The truth will make you fret

Posted on October 29, 2007 at 12:18pm | 1 comment

There aren’t many novels about newspapers. Stories involving print journalists are far fewer than those about lawyers, soldiers and police for example.

That’s a little surprising when you consider that journalists are writers. But when you think about it, we are craftsmen while novelists are artists. We ply a trade while they follow their creative spirits. We have responsibilities, they don’t.

Three good books about newspapers come readily to mind. PG Wodehouse wrote Psmith, Journalist in 1915; Evelyn Waugh wrote Scoop in 1938 and Terry Pratchett published The Truth in 2000.

In Wodehouse’s classic, Psmith arrives in New York on a cricket tour and becomes involved with the home entertainment weekly “Cosy Moments” which he transforms into a hard-hitting investigative journal. He rides the bumps of organised crime and American politics along the way.

In Waugh’s story, scribe William Boot is mistaken by the publisher of the Daily Beast for a war correspondent. He is uprooted from writing country garden features to covering the civil war in Ishmaelia. Both novels are cleverly satirical.

Pratchett’s The Truth is a typically fantastic work from the author of the Discworld series. The hero in this case is William de Worde, who teams up with dwarfs to print the first newspaper in Ankh-Morpork.

As usual, Pratchett offers some tremendous insights into human nature. His observations of the newspaper profession are also very sharp, suggesting excellent research or personal knowledge. For instance, he offers a rare literary tribute to the unsung work of sub-editors.

I’ve just finished reading The Truth for the second time. I found the focus on hired assassins to be distracting and kept wanting the story to get back to the trials and tribulations of The Times.

There are some great one liners, like when the dwarfs make a typesetting error with the newspaper’s logo, which becomes: “The truth will make you fret”.

I related personally to the serial pest who kept coming into the office with remarkable vegetables. Anyone who has worked on a country newspaper will know there are people in most towns who like to show off their giant tomatoes or funny-shaped parsnips.

I admit it’s one of my long-term ambitions to write a satirical novel about newspapers. I started taking notes of strange but true incidents last year, like when one of my reporters disappeared while on the trail of visiting Mongolian detectives.

I have heaps of material; just need the time to write it.

Page 1 of 141234510...Last »