Posts tagged as The Way We Work Now
Letters From The Gulf, Parts 10 & 11: Waiting Out Tropical Storm Alex
Dan Horton, a friend and former colleague, works on tugboats out of the New York Harbor for a living. Two weeks ago, he flew down to Louisiana to take a job on a barge unloading crude oil from the skimmer boats that clean the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Crew are only allowed to send and receive one email a day; his girlfriend, Lori, passes along his daily email to friends and family. With their permission, we're passing them along to you. -Dave Bry READ MORE
Photo: Gawker HQ's Telescreen Displays List of Most-Successful Blog Posts
This screen, mounted above the reception desk at Gawker Media's headquarters, currently displays blog posts from across the network with the most unique visitors over the course of the last hour. The names of the posts' authors are included. Earlier this week, we discussed the TV-watching cows of Russia, and suggested that, instead of pretty scenery, the cows be shown pictures of the best, most productive cows. After all, every animal likes the bellyfeel of gazing at a more successful animal. Plus, there's also a nice chilling effect! As we wrote the other day, "there's nothing more motivating than the fear that if you don't churn out enough product you're going to end up at the abattoir."
Choose Your Own Adventure: The Blog Post
It's 4 p.m. on a long Monday. Of course you could get some work done, but your boss is elsewhere, you've got a headache from trying to cut back on caffeine, and it's drizzly outside. Plus they stole an hour of sleep from you over the weekend! Meaning: you'd rather just cruise the net, floating on a raft of hyperlinkage toward that horizon of informational numbness. But before you can say "choking on the pen cap you were absently chewing," a perfectly outrageous blog post title loads in your browser, begging for-or perhaps openly provoking-your attention. READ MORE
Clark Hoyt's Reign of Error Ends in June
Much went awry in the handling of these two articles: a new freelancer was not properly vetted; e-mail in which she disclosed her personal relationship was overlooked; an editor wanted to accommodate a respected staff member even though she knew his essay was flawed. – New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt. READ MORE
Graydon Carter Orders Fresh Desk Clearing
Since every memo leaks in this annoying modern age, the way to handle potentially embarrassing corporate moments is what they used to call "in person," which means "face to face." Smart policy! That's what we hear Vanity Fair's managing editor Chris Garrett just did, when she went around to inform all the magazine's assistants that they were not allowed any personal items on their desks. Apparently not even back issues of the magazine are allowed upon these flat surfaces? This is odd, as the assistants' desks are behind cubicle walls, so you can't even see their desktops from the aisles. This policy was not necessarily in the service of general Graydon Carter insanity, but towards making the some recently emptied desks look as equally empty as those occupied by actual remaining employees.
