Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Friday, Feb. 08, 2008 - 3:23 a.m.

Things I Like About My New Job:
The show is well-done.
The people are nice.
My writing partner is really nice.
The pay is great.
There are no "cast members" to throw temper tantrums or stab each other in the back over a guy or money or a car.
It's documentary-style.
I will not have to live with asinine bullshit from the cast for 12 weeks, since the segments are like, a day long each.
No mean or rude people asking for books.

Things I Don't Like About My New Job:
I have no work station.
I am 2 offices away from my writing partner, while the rest of the story department are all together.
No one seems to understand why this is a problem.
The computer program we are dependent on is the worst in the business.
The office has about 5 microclimates, so moving just from one room to the next results in the need to add or remove at least one piece of clothing, as the temperature differential is about 20 degrees.
The bathrooms are outside, so at 2am, if I have to pee, I have to walk outside and to the other end of the building, and we share the men's room. With men. Duh. (I walk further, inside the next building, to the one ladies' room.)

Also, I could stand for there to be a few less women. It's not that big a deal, but holy crap, is there a LOT of estrogen in those halls.

I am out of the bookstore as of last Friday. Back in television as of this week. Tonight, to be precise. Assistant Story Editor, which is usually better than logging, and the pay is great. I was looking forward to it and had very high hopes. Now I realize tv is tv, and one probably shouldn't expect any more from it than that, regardless of the show or the production company or whether it's a big network show or a little basic cable pilot. And it's not customer service for assholes, so it has that going for it. Because if I'd had to deal with one more rude customer at the BCB, I really can't guarantee you I would not have killed them with a kids' pencil. I'd hit my max saturation point by the time I landed this job, and it was definitely time I left.

Still, my last week in the store, the DM fell in love with me and had 3 different customers approach him while he was there to tell him how awesome I am, and he wanted to transfer me to another store for promotion. Which my store manager shot down on accounta he didn't want to lose me. Which turns out much of the time to be my "professional" lot in life. I do enough of a great job to be noticed by other people, but my bosses shoot down my promotion over and over again so they don't lose me. It happened several times at the first production company I worked for, which is one reason I don't work there anymore. That, and it was the most hellishly toxic place I think I've ever worked and crushed my self-esteem under the giant roller of it's abusive toxicity until there was literally nothing left of my soul or sense of self or well-being.

So, the new job.

The show is pretty cool. I watched the pilot tonight, and it was really well-done, and the ending was fantastic. I was hyped and glad I was working there.

And then I went out and found out I don't have a desk.

Or a computer.

My job hinges on having a computer. And preferably my own desk.

What I have is a spiral notebook.

I'm not kidding. It's orange and has a little post-it with my name on it. I wrote the post-it, on accounta I have nowhere to put it and had to shove it in someone else's desk. I won't go into how much I want to cry. I really don't know how to deal with people when I say to them, "I need a desk," and the response is a blank stare and the question, "Why?"

::sigh::

The day people all started on Monday. THEY have computers. The night people who worked during the day this week also have computers. I am literally the only person who does not have a work station. Once we proceeded past the "Why?" part of the discussion, the next response was, "Can't you just sit at a logger's desk?"

The problems with this are manifest (and many), but I seem to be the only one able to grasp them. I come in at 5, as does my writing partner. The day people are sheduled until 7. Even were I to come in at 6 - my other alternative - the loggers are still there until 7 or 8. The loggers are there until 7 and 8, actually. And that's just the day crew. They have night loggers starting next week. Three of them. There are three logging stations. Do you see where this is going, or need I go on? Not to mention, I am two offices away from the one person I need to be able to turn to a million times during the day and exchange words with. The only person I actually need to talk to during my working hours, and she is 30' away or more. I have no phone. If I have to talk to someone or they me, an actual change in geography is required. Not exactly optimum. Another problem is that the desks in the logging room are situated so that only 2 of them are viable at any given time. The third is set so close to the desk on the left that both desks can not be occupied simultaneously. There is a 4th desk, at the right end of the room, and while it does not thrill me, at this point, I would be overjoyed to have the use of it. Unfortunately, it has no computer. And since I can not work without a computer, what with all the footage being digitized and accessible only through the server and a special computer program (which program sucks ass, btw), a desk lacking in computery goodness really does me no good.

I wanted to cry when all this came down and had to call Em when I went out to move my car off the street. It's nice they're paying me good money, but I'd also like to be treated like a real member of the team, not the bastard red-headed stepchild who is an afterthought. It's demoralizing and demeaning, and frankly, I live for the next 12 weeks to be over, at this point. I'm hoping that someone will, at some point, realize that I need to have a fucking computer and a desk, and that that should be somewhere in the vicinity of my writing partner, but I have learned that when things are dysfunctional in television, they pretty much stay that way for the entire run of the project. So it's really hard to stay positive about it, frankly. And I don't get why this shit seems to routinely happen to me. Does this sort of thing happen to other people and I just don't see it? Because holy fuck, people, it happens to me a LOT. Way more than the average. And I would understand it if this were some fly-by-night pilot for MTV, but it's a greenlighted, scheduled series for ***ABC***. A major television network. And they're paying me actual money. You'd think they'd want me to be able to *earn* it, for crying out loud.

Jeebus. I have to go watch something mindless and wind down. Me and my notebook are together again tomorrow.

Peace out,
Katie

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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008