4 ms·

Happy to answer, although this is a bit of a funny forum for it: From a work perspective, it's pretty simple. I quit, and then was rehired to the same position

Happy to answer, although this is a bit of a funny forum for it: From a work perspective, it's pretty simple. I quit, and then was rehired to the same position a year later. But The Times' Graphics Desk was super nice about it. We had a handshake agreement that I'd come back when I got back, and they even lent me a laptop to maybe file some travel-ish bits and bobs from along the road. So in that sense, it was partially justified. In the end I didn't end up writing anything for them for a few reasons: I didn't want to turn the ride into work; I wasn't on my best NYT-standards behavior (booze, bribes, women) — well, one spectacular woman, and we're married now; and finally, I personally hew somewhat to the Janet Malcolm attitude: “Every journalist who is not too stupid or full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.” Especially with respect to travel writing. You can do it right, but you really have to take the time and be invested and involved. And I was riding to follow the seasons and wasn't. Ultimately, even though the industry as a whole is in decline, the NYT and other world-class news sources are still strong, and in some ways, getting stronger. In particular, the visual journalism The Times publishes every year keeps pushing the state of the art.

jonny_eh 9y ago
As important as your work on the above mentioned libraries were, your continued work at the NYTimes is even more important. So thanks!
md224 9y ago
> booze, bribes, women Kind of curious about the "bribes" part...
- catacombs 9y ago
  Probably bribes for police, soldiers or any other government official he ran into during his travels.
- jashkenas 9y ago
  Nothing too spectacular, I've got enough Spanish to talk through all of the border crossing paperwork comprehensively, which helps avoid problems with papers down the line. You have to get a temporary import/export permit and country-specific insurance every time you cross a border. I ended up crossing 33, so that's plenty of paperwork to potentially get fouled up on. And in some countries checkpoint cops love busting gringos for their paperwork, because if they're missing something mandatory, that's easy money. I screwed up the US/Mexico border first by not having done my research. Crossing from Presidio to Ojinaga, I made sure to get Mexican insurance, but didn't think to set Banamex bond for the temporary import permit — not required in the border zone, so the customs officials don't mention it. I didn't have it, and if any official in the length of Mexico had asked me for my paperwork (despite passing multiple checkpoints), that would have been full legal grounds to seize the bike. But I made it to the Guatemalan border trouble-free, and the customs exit officer nailed me for it there. "It's easier if you just pay me the fine." Around $50, I think. I got change from his wallet. The second not doing my research screwup was not bringing my original title document to the motorcycle with me, just some color photocopies. In most cases, copies are fine — after all, we don't drive around with our titles in our glove boxes. But leaving El Salvador, at the Honduras border, a cop in front of the immigration building decided to make an issue of it. "I'm sorry, but without the original title document, there's nothing that can be done." After about half an hour, with some help from a roadside border-crossing fixer (there are many on the El Salvador / Honduras border, because these situations are notorious there) and a little over $200, the bike and I were through. Of course, the first thing I did after arriving in Choluteca, Honduras, was to head over to the police station and file a false report, saying that I had left the original title in the top bag of the motorcycle and someone had stolen it, along with a few other miscellaneous documents. When getting yourself out of paperwork trouble, an officially stamped police report is as good as gold. From that point on, at any border where the photocopied title wasn't good enough (Peru, in particular, gave me a really hard time about it), I could show them the police report, show them that the VIN on the report matched the VIN on the photocopied title matched the VIN on the bike, and we were good to go. Like I said, not NYT-standards behavior.
  - throwawayknecht 9y ago
    > not NYT-standards behavior. Are you kidding? Spin the bit about the border-crossing fixer into a homily about capitalism, italicize a list of the meats you ate, and you've got a Friedman column.
chrisallenlane 9y ago
> In the end I didn't end up writing anything for them I understand that you didn't write anything professionally about your trip, but did you ever write anything casually about it - blog posts or the like? It sounds like it would make for interesting reading :)
- jashkenas 9y ago
  From roughly sketched map to marriage, it's all archived on Instagram. But I'm afraid there's nothing more than that written up ... yet.
  - chrisallenlane 9y ago
    I'll check it out and will keep my eyes open. Thanks :)
catacombs 9y ago
I admit it is a funny forum to ask this, but, hey, here we are. Thanks for the response. It seems your situation was unique, and you're definitely fortunate to have a department willing to make this agreement. The Average Joe more than likely can't pull this off, especially if the company can hire a replacement.
- markdog12 9y ago
  I'd say NYT was fortunate to have him, and realized it.
  - jgalt212 9y ago
    agreed, he's a star. And companies, rightfully so, do pretty much all they can to retain stars.
- franze 9y ago
  actually I don't think it so uncommon. when you travel you meet a lot of people who just quit and can prop. go back to the job when / if they return. just do it.
  - catacombs 9y ago
    This isn't recommended. If you quit the company, that shows you obviously do not want to work for them. If you quit once, what's the likelihood you'll quit again? And how soon? Why waste everyone's time? You'll need to make a seriously good case as to why the company should rehire you. In Jeremy's case, he wrote a lot of code that a lot of people use around the globe. That adds a lot of value to him. Luckily, for him, the NYT is lenient to bring him back on the job. Some other companies aren't so nice.
    - franze 9y ago
      >Some other companies aren't so nice. Just ask! And if it's not ok, do it anyway and then get another job. Maybe this is more common over here in europe but basically everybody who really wants to travel does it like this. On my travels (mostly most of asia, south and middle america, some europe) I have met nurses, doctors, military doctors, journalists, devs (a lot), sound engineer, hair stylists, bankers (he was hilarious), DJs, salespeople, night watchman, .... Travelling the world gives you more experience, more insights and more perspective than just being another desk jockey like everybody else in the company. Also never let your actions be determined by fear ("will not be hired again, will not be as valuable in the workforce if I travel for a year, ..."). if you want to travel, just do it. (and read books about stuff that really interests you while you do it.) And: companies are usually not nice, but the people within companies are most of the time pretty decent, and they usually like people which just do their thing.

jonny_eh 9y ago

As important as your work on the above mentioned libraries were, your continued work at the NYTimes is even more important. So thanks!

md224 9y ago

> booze, bribes, women Kind of curious about the "bribes" part...

catacombs 9y ago
Probably bribes for police, soldiers or any other government official he ran into during his travels.
jashkenas 9y ago
Nothing too spectacular, I've got enough Spanish to talk through all of the border crossing paperwork comprehensively, which helps avoid problems with papers down the line. You have to get a temporary import/export permit and country-specific insurance every time you cross a border. I ended up crossing 33, so that's plenty of paperwork to potentially get fouled up on. And in some countries checkpoint cops love busting gringos for their paperwork, because if they're missing something mandatory, that's easy money. I screwed up the US/Mexico border first by not having done my research. Crossing from Presidio to Ojinaga, I made sure to get Mexican insurance, but didn't think to set Banamex bond for the temporary import permit — not required in the border zone, so the customs officials don't mention it. I didn't have it, and if any official in the length of Mexico had asked me for my paperwork (despite passing multiple checkpoints), that would have been full legal grounds to seize the bike. But I made it to the Guatemalan border trouble-free, and the customs exit officer nailed me for it there. "It's easier if you just pay me the fine." Around $50, I think. I got change from his wallet. The second not doing my research screwup was not bringing my original title document to the motorcycle with me, just some color photocopies. In most cases, copies are fine — after all, we don't drive around with our titles in our glove boxes. But leaving El Salvador, at the Honduras border, a cop in front of the immigration building decided to make an issue of it. "I'm sorry, but without the original title document, there's nothing that can be done." After about half an hour, with some help from a roadside border-crossing fixer (there are many on the El Salvador / Honduras border, because these situations are notorious there) and a little over $200, the bike and I were through. Of course, the first thing I did after arriving in Choluteca, Honduras, was to head over to the police station and file a false report, saying that I had left the original title in the top bag of the motorcycle and someone had stolen it, along with a few other miscellaneous documents. When getting yourself out of paperwork trouble, an officially stamped police report is as good as gold. From that point on, at any border where the photocopied title wasn't good enough (Peru, in particular, gave me a really hard time about it), I could show them the police report, show them that the VIN on the report matched the VIN on the photocopied title matched the VIN on the bike, and we were good to go. Like I said, not NYT-standards behavior.
- throwawayknecht 9y ago
  > not NYT-standards behavior. Are you kidding? Spin the bit about the border-crossing fixer into a homily about capitalism, italicize a list of the meats you ate, and you've got a Friedman column.

chrisallenlane 9y ago

> In the end I didn't end up writing anything for them I understand that you didn't write anything professionally about your trip, but did you ever write anything casually about it - blog posts or the like? It sounds like it would make for interesting reading :)

jashkenas 9y ago
From roughly sketched map to marriage, it's all archived on Instagram. But I'm afraid there's nothing more than that written up ... yet.
- chrisallenlane 9y ago
  I'll check it out and will keep my eyes open. Thanks :)

catacombs 9y ago

I admit it is a funny forum to ask this, but, hey, here we are. Thanks for the response. It seems your situation was unique, and you're definitely fortunate to have a department willing to make this agreement. The Average Joe more than likely can't pull this off, especially if the company can hire a replacement.

markdog12 9y ago
I'd say NYT was fortunate to have him, and realized it.
- jgalt212 9y ago
  agreed, he's a star. And companies, rightfully so, do pretty much all they can to retain stars.
franze 9y ago
actually I don't think it so uncommon. when you travel you meet a lot of people who just quit and can prop. go back to the job when / if they return. just do it.
- catacombs 9y ago
  This isn't recommended. If you quit the company, that shows you obviously do not want to work for them. If you quit once, what's the likelihood you'll quit again? And how soon? Why waste everyone's time? You'll need to make a seriously good case as to why the company should rehire you. In Jeremy's case, he wrote a lot of code that a lot of people use around the globe. That adds a lot of value to him. Luckily, for him, the NYT is lenient to bring him back on the job. Some other companies aren't so nice.
  - franze 9y ago
    >Some other companies aren't so nice. Just ask! And if it's not ok, do it anyway and then get another job. Maybe this is more common over here in europe but basically everybody who really wants to travel does it like this. On my travels (mostly most of asia, south and middle america, some europe) I have met nurses, doctors, military doctors, journalists, devs (a lot), sound engineer, hair stylists, bankers (he was hilarious), DJs, salespeople, night watchman, .... Travelling the world gives you more experience, more insights and more perspective than just being another desk jockey like everybody else in the company. Also never let your actions be determined by fear ("will not be hired again, will not be as valuable in the workforce if I travel for a year, ..."). if you want to travel, just do it. (and read books about stuff that really interests you while you do it.) And: companies are usually not nice, but the people within companies are most of the time pretty decent, and they usually like people which just do their thing.