5 ms·

Management can tell employees to do whatever they want, but employees can also tell management to shove it and quit. What's wrong with that?

by guelo 7y ago

xibalba 7y ago
Nothing whatsoever. I believe the GP is just scratching their head in confusion as to why this is such a story, because, as you both point out, it shouldn't be. I suspect this story has such legs because it is about the media. There is nothing the media likes to talk about more than itself, particularly when it is about front-liners defying execs.
- mcphage 7y ago
  > I suspect this story has such legs because it is about the media. Well, also it's a popular site—so if it just disappeared, people would be (rightly) confused.
- msbarnett 7y ago
  > Nothing whatsoever. I believe the GP is just scratching their head in confusion as to why this is such a story, because, as you both point out, it shouldn't be. Because of the aspect of this that GP is ignoring: there's a third-party in all of this who are the ones making a lot of the noise about it: the audience. Deadspin built a dedicated following among readers who very much enjoyed their eclectic, not just sports focus (as somewhat born out by this analysis showing that the non-sports content performs at least as well as, if not ouright outperforming, the sports content). The writers, and long-serving editor Barry Petchesky, are very much aware of this, and a lot of the noise about the "stick to sports" mandate is just how idiotic this is, given that it erases the very differentiating quality that keeps the Deadspin audience coming to Deadspin, and not SBNation, or ESPN, or BarstoolSports, or the million other competitors. This isn't so much "Bosses mandated X, and entitled employees just don't want to do X" as "Out-of-touch new Bosses mandated X, and employees rightly pointed out that this was going to kneecap the business, and then quit rather than circle their way down the drain"
basch 7y ago
In this case they actually cant tell them to do some things. The writers unionized, and there became certain conditions that must be met for management to delete writers stories after they had been posted. There was obviously a lot of work that was put into protecting the writers from management. And management knew of the situation and the status quo when they bought the company. They knew they were buying people willing to write things management might not like (or they should have known, i cant attest to their due diligence before purchase.)
- masonic 7y ago
  there became certain conditions that must be met for management to delete writers stories after they had been posted It would be very unusual for a CBA to specify such a thing. Is the CBA public anywhere?
  - ivanech 7y ago
    This is called editorial independence, and I believe it's fairly common in journalism. See section VIII in the CBA [pdf]: https://www.wgaeast.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/04/GMG-Agreement-2019-2022.pdf https://www.wgaeast.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/04/G...
aristophenes 7y ago
Nothing is wrong with that. I agree, that should be all there is.

Management can tell employees to do whatever they want, but employees can also tell management to shove it and quit. What's wrong with that?

by guelo 7y ago

Management can tell employees to do whatever they want, but employees can also tell management to shove it and quit. What's wrong with that?

xibalba 7y ago

Nothing whatsoever. I believe the GP is just scratching their head in confusion as to why this is such a story, because, as you both point out, it shouldn't be. I suspect this story has such legs because it is about the media. There is nothing the media likes to talk about more than itself, particularly when it is about front-liners defying execs.

mcphage 7y ago
> I suspect this story has such legs because it is about the media. Well, also it's a popular site—so if it just disappeared, people would be (rightly) confused.
msbarnett 7y ago
> Nothing whatsoever. I believe the GP is just scratching their head in confusion as to why this is such a story, because, as you both point out, it shouldn't be. Because of the aspect of this that GP is ignoring: there's a third-party in all of this who are the ones making a lot of the noise about it: the audience. Deadspin built a dedicated following among readers who very much enjoyed their eclectic, not just sports focus (as somewhat born out by this analysis showing that the non-sports content performs at least as well as, if not ouright outperforming, the sports content). The writers, and long-serving editor Barry Petchesky, are very much aware of this, and a lot of the noise about the "stick to sports" mandate is just how idiotic this is, given that it erases the very differentiating quality that keeps the Deadspin audience coming to Deadspin, and not SBNation, or ESPN, or BarstoolSports, or the million other competitors. This isn't so much "Bosses mandated X, and entitled employees just don't want to do X" as "Out-of-touch new Bosses mandated X, and employees rightly pointed out that this was going to kneecap the business, and then quit rather than circle their way down the drain"

basch 7y ago

In this case they actually cant tell them to do some things. The writers unionized, and there became certain conditions that must be met for management to delete writers stories after they had been posted. There was obviously a lot of work that was put into protecting the writers from management. And management knew of the situation and the status quo when they bought the company. They knew they were buying people willing to write things management might not like (or they should have known, i cant attest to their due diligence before purchase.)

masonic 7y ago
there became certain conditions that must be met for management to delete writers stories after they had been posted It would be very unusual for a CBA to specify such a thing. Is the CBA public anywhere?
- ivanech 7y ago
  This is called editorial independence, and I believe it's fairly common in journalism. See section VIII in the CBA [pdf]: https://www.wgaeast.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/04/GMG-Agreement-2019-2022.pdf https://www.wgaeast.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/04/G...

aristophenes 7y ago

Nothing is wrong with that. I agree, that should be all there is.