“I’m Not Assigned To The Sports Department”: Writer Receives An Unfair Write-Up, Complies Maliciously And Vows Not To Help Colleagues Instead
In almost any field of activity, employees with additional professional merits are welcome. For example, an NBA player receives bonuses to the contract for getting into the All-NBA Top 5 at the end of the regular season, NFL players have additional payments for fulfilling certain game indicators, and if you are a sports journalist and get, for example, some kind of award for article contest, you can expect a promotion. Or not?
It turns out that this isn’t always the case. Moreover, the user u/Longjumping_Bad9555 recently shared his story on the Reddit Malicious Compliance community, and it turns out that if you get a professional award, the bosses can not only leave you without any bonuses, but even write you up. Still don’t believe it? Then let’s read on!
The author of the post is a former sports writer who once switched to news writing at the same local newspaper
Image credits: The Climate Reality Project (not the actual image)
However, the author attended sporting events from time to time and covered them to back colleagues and maintain his own skills
Image credits: u/Longjumping_Bad9555
Image credits: Tembela Bohle (not the actual image)
Image credits: u/Longjumping_Bad9555
After winning a sports article contest with his story, the author got written up by management for allegedly ‘making other sports writers look bad’
Image credits: Israel Andrade (not the actual image)
Image credits: u/Longjuming_Bad9555
The writer vowed not to help the sports department anymore – and was adamant when the bosses begged him to do this soon after
So this was about fifteen years ago when the Original Poster (OP) was working for a small regional paper. At first, the author covered sports news, but then moved into news writing. But being into sports is something that does not depend on your work. Therefore, from time to time, our hero volunteered to cover some sporting events – just to maintain his skills and to help a few colleagues in the sports department.
One of the stories that the original poster wrote that year turned out to be really great in his opinion, so the author decided to submit an article to the contest the following year. And he was incredibly happy when he won this contest! However, the paper bosses, as it turned out, were far from delighted with their employee’s victory and recognition. Moreover, the author got written up two days later. And now try to guess why!
Plagiarism in the article? No. Inappropriate wording in the text? Still no. An attempt to bribe the contest jury? Didn’t guess it either. Okay, enough suspense – the original poster was punished as he wasn’t assigned to the sports department and “therefore made our sports writers look bad by beating them for this honor.” Remember Tony Romo being a holder for fieldgoals for the Cowboys? Now imagine Jerry Jones writing him up for doing so as he “makes holders look bad.”
Basically, the author of the post was naturally offended and vowed never to help colleagues from the sports department again. Even when a few months later, the whole department was outstaffed between layoffs and a person quitting. When the higher-ups asked him to cover several events for old times’ sake, the author refused, sarcastically recalling that he “wasn’t assigned to the sports department.”
Then there was a request for him to move to the sports department for a short time. The OP said he would consider it, but would not cover anything off of his news beat, then, as he wouldn’t be assigned to news. In the end, the act of malicious compliance turned out to be excellent, with a subtle touch of petty revenge, and the original poster did not receive such offers from the bosses again. Moreover, after some time, he completely changed his job, but this is actually a different story…
Image credits: AndyLeungHK (not the actual image)
“A true cringy story, although I have seen a lot during two centuries of my journalistic career (it actually started in the 20th century),” says Michael Spivakovsky, a sports journalist and the host of the YouTube sports show TaToTake, who was asked by Bored Panda to comment on the story. “It seems to me that any award to a newspaper journalist in any case increases the entire paper’s prestige, regardless of which department the awarded author works in. And certainly this does not have to sadden anyone. It’s like Emma Stone’s Oscar for La La Land could have driven Damien Chazelle to despair…”
“If we draw a sports analogy, then the MVP award at the end of the season is an achievement not only of the athlete who received it, but also of the teammates, coaching staff, and the franchise per se. And to be honest, I don’t remember cases when after receiving the MVP award in any league, a player was fined for this. If you remember something like this, just let me know and we’ll laugh together.”
“Most likely, the hero of this story simply fell victim to some dubious intrigue within the editorial office. In fact, newspaper offices sometimes look like a sort of serpentarium. And there is no universal recipe for how it could be treated. In any case, the guy, according to himself, found another decent job, and he retained the award for winning the contest, as an assessment of his skill and merits. So let’s just cautiously celebrate a happy ending,” Michael summarizes.
Most of the commenters to the original post had not encountered similar situations for many years in the profession – and there were also journalists with several decades of experience among the folks in the comments. However, as it turns out, incompetent bosses and pettiness of newspaper management are far from being only the OP’s problem. “Ridiculous how some small egos can be bruised by nothing more than you doing good work,” one of the commenters aptly noted.
By the way, if you like the topic of malicious compliance in the office, you can also read, for example, this post of ours about the boss who demanded the staff attend an offline training class in the midst of quarantine restrictions, and how it all ended for her as well. And of course, we’re already looking forward to your comments about this tale, so please feel free to write them below the post.
People in the comments were shocked by this story, but some writers admitted that it’s pretty common for newspaper business
OP, thank you for that last statement about just reporting the facts and allowing the readers to form their own opinions! I fear too many journalists are forced by their "corporations" to, not necessarily embellish the facts/truth, but to lead readers/watchers a certain way by how information is presented. Words are powerful and can have more impact on people than most realize in the moment they are initially read/heard. I wish more people realized, and cared, exactly how influential journalists of all mediums are & can be. It's too bad that the most ethical ones, the ones we need the most, often leave the business. Thank you for your integrity.
I'm kinda sick of the Washington Post blending politics with fashion, arts, real estate, you name it. I don't mean making a story political, like discussing Kapernick while covering a 49ers game. I mean treating their favored politicians like fashion stars, arts stars, real estate trendsetters, etc... but then also putting political stories in these same departments, allowing them to cover political news outside the scope of the news editors.
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Oh, I loved it when I worked for newspapers. I worked in prepress just when computers were being introduced so we still had to paste the paper together, take a picture with a special floor standing camera, develop the film, and then make the plates for the printing press. Whew, I hope you understood that. It is a long long process. Well, our editor/owner had a habit of stopping the press to have an ad put in causing a portion or all of a story to be deleted. I hated when he did this because it completely negated the work done on 2 - 4 pages. I had to rework and repaste a page, send it to the camera room, and then finally off to the press again. Mind you everything related to that page and the butchered story had to be thrown away because it didn't have that 1 freaking ad. Oh yeah, I was also the ad designer, so I had to do that too. The editor/owner never seemed to understand why we were most always over budget. I eventually rage quit and as I slammed the front door open it popped off its hinges. I glanced at it and walked away to never look back. I did win a few design awards which helped further my career in graphic design.
"sees a nice set of thighs used in the header image* Nice. *Article has nothing to do with it* Dang...
OP, thank you for that last statement about just reporting the facts and allowing the readers to form their own opinions! I fear too many journalists are forced by their "corporations" to, not necessarily embellish the facts/truth, but to lead readers/watchers a certain way by how information is presented. Words are powerful and can have more impact on people than most realize in the moment they are initially read/heard. I wish more people realized, and cared, exactly how influential journalists of all mediums are & can be. It's too bad that the most ethical ones, the ones we need the most, often leave the business. Thank you for your integrity.
I'm kinda sick of the Washington Post blending politics with fashion, arts, real estate, you name it. I don't mean making a story political, like discussing Kapernick while covering a 49ers game. I mean treating their favored politicians like fashion stars, arts stars, real estate trendsetters, etc... but then also putting political stories in these same departments, allowing them to cover political news outside the scope of the news editors.
Load More Replies... Oh, I loved it when I worked for newspapers. I worked in prepress just when computers were being introduced so we still had to paste the paper together, take a picture with a special floor standing camera, develop the film, and then make the plates for the printing press. Whew, I hope you understood that. It is a long long process. Well, our editor/owner had a habit of stopping the press to have an ad put in causing a portion or all of a story to be deleted. I hated when he did this because it completely negated the work done on 2 - 4 pages. I had to rework and repaste a page, send it to the camera room, and then finally off to the press again. Mind you everything related to that page and the butchered story had to be thrown away because it didn't have that 1 freaking ad. Oh yeah, I was also the ad designer, so I had to do that too. The editor/owner never seemed to understand why we were most always over budget. I eventually rage quit and as I slammed the front door open it popped off its hinges. I glanced at it and walked away to never look back. I did win a few design awards which helped further my career in graphic design.
"sees a nice set of thighs used in the header image* Nice. *Article has nothing to do with it* Dang...
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