I have always said that I would rather be busy than bored. In fact, that is one of the things I love best about my job. I have said it before and repeat it often (to remind both the reader and myself ), one of the things I love most about my job is that I am never bored.
I have worked as a journalist for nearly three decades and I have never been bored —every day I learn something new or meet someone new or learn a new thing about someone I’ve known for years.
The down side of “never boring” is that sometimes, it can be overwhelming.
Newsrooms are often chaotic.
First, there is the nonstop chatter of a police scanner.
Beyond that, there are typically at least two reporters typing at any one time. When Kayleen Petrovia types, there is a steady, almost melodic cadence, so fast it sounds not like a series of clicks but more like a single hum. When I type, it sounds like a blind seal trying to open a clam. All that to say, the rhythm is that there is no uniform rhythm.
Typically at the newspaper at least one reporter is on a phone interview; someone is listening to music on their phone speaker; someone else is talking on speaker phone; two reporters are having a very random, but semi-work related conversation; … and then there is the dog. We have an office dog, owned by the publisher. I like the dog a good bit and she adds something positive to the work environment, but she can be both loud and easily agitated.
So all this can be overwhelming. It can be difficult to concentrate.
There is also the matter of mood that must be accounted. While I live for chaos, there are times I do not care to hear anyone while I am trying to write. So on occasion I wear headphones while I write. Not always, probably not even often, but certainly on occasion.
Regardless of how often I wear them, every time annoys my editor, Chad, tremendously.
I can’t tell you the number of times he has been three minutes into a story or set of directions for me, only to realize I can’t hear him. (I can’t tell you because I wasn’t listening, but Chad can sure tell you!) The tiny nature of my headphones and angle of my desk make it impossible for him to tell if I have headphones in or not.
Also, Chad says I am a bad influence because now others in the newsroom sometimes also wear earphones.
In an effort to make sure he has my full attention, earlier this year, Chad bought a box that lights and glows when he pushes a remote button. The remote button stays on his desk and the light box stays on mine, buried under a mound of notebooks, pens, expired betting slips, old newspapers, council notes, drawings from my kids, baseball cards, business cards, napkins with a phone number I might need someday and a random assortment of coupons I don’t know how I got and will never use.
While that’s OK with me, this setup also irritates Chad who says neither of us can see the light when it is buried.
Chad says the system doesn’t work at all and he can’t tell if the button and box are even operational if the box is buried.
The light on my end also has the option of adding a chime, as obnoxious as it is long. Sometimes I turn it on and while I can’t see the box, because it is buried, or hear the box, because of my headphones, at least Chad knows it is functioning. Again, it feels like I keep trying to help Chad and he never appreciates my efforts.
But several weeks ago, he pushed the button to get my attention with no response— no glowing light, no annoying chime.
So Chad correctly determined there was likely a fault with the system. He checked his button and found no issue. When he checked mine, he found that someone had removed one of the three small batteries. (While this is exactly the kind of thing I would do, it is not a thing I did do.)
As I am thinking about this my age has played into this entire scenario.
I find that the older I get, the more difficult it is to tune everything else out or to separate what I need to hear from noise I need to ignore. I also find that as I age, it is more difficult for me to tolerate other people and the assortment of noises they make. I can isolate myself with headphones.
The biggest factor, it seems, is that Chad is easily irritated. Maybe it is his age. Perhaps he should get a set of headphones.
-Mac Cordell is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.
Editor’s note: He most certainly does wear the headphones often.