Out of the Office...

This is an engaging topic: At what point does checking email constitute working overtime? This spawned from a dialogue over at ABC concerning writers and the broadcast behemoth. The company apparently issues blackberrys to many of its writers or employees, however with three of its newer writers a waiver was presented stating that the employees would not receive compensation for checking their emails and essentially conducting business after regular work hours. Later (undisclosed amount of time) the company took back the blackberrys from the three workers, however i think some shade of an agreement was reached later.

The eminent issue is not the exclusive fact of checking an email, the problem that really stirs the pot is when people are setting up guest appearances or writing material. In this digital age we all realize that there is now a 24-hour news cycle, however technically writers do not work 24-hours. Most news outlets aim to be the most credible and most aware institution therefore submitting the information before everyone else does giving the illusion that they have the best and most proficient news teams. So now when something happens at 8 o'clock pm is ABC really going to wait until the next day to report it, very dubious. However as a writer you have completed your regular business hours, should you then virtually and digitally clock back in and get to writing your piece or conducting business. I don't know.

From a news corporations standpoint i see where they need to abreast of every happening which is what their existence thrives upon, if every time they reported something we already knew all about it then they would be useless, so it behooves them to get the information out first. From that perspective, if something happens the writers need to get on it.

Now let me opine as a writer and a person, you cannot be accountable for every story. Perhaps the organization needs to have other writers who handle all of the late hours stuff. Being a writer myself at some point you just write because you enjoy doing it, so writing off the clock becomes blurry and ambiguous. Lets add another spin, if something huge is coming down the pipe and you are already off you realistically can't just ignore it, you have to put your foot in the game to keep your credibility as well as the outlet you work for. I don't want to say the outlet has you right where they want you but that's what im going to say.

This is pure dialogue, i just thought this was an interesting pillow to throw on the sofa.