I thought the nights of the long knives were over, but it looks like Baby’s job is not as safe as she’d thought . . . I’ve been copy editor here for seven years, and we recently got a new boss in; all heck broke loose, as it does in these circumstances—mass firings and hirings, etc. I was still standing, along with a handful of others, when the dust cleared. Working 11-hour days during issue-closings, but standing.
So the managing editor called me in this morning to warn me that this next closing was going to be even more hellish than usual, and that new boss “doesn’t really get your sense of humor, and finds the wisecracks on the copy very annoying.” Hmmmm. Ya see, I try to do my job, but I also try to keep things easy-going, so I make my notes and suggestions humorous and light-hearted, rather than just saying, “this sentence is crap—rewrite it.”
“Does she hate me?” I asked. “Well, nooo . . . Not as a person,” was the reply.
I think it’s time for a career change. I’m too old to get hired as anything but a freelancer (read: no benefits) in publishing, so I’d better start calling in all my contacts and see what’s out there. Maybe I can get that gig as a wise-cracking hash-slinger I’ve always dreamed of . . .
I’ve been in exactly the same spot, when my noted “dry” wit was getting me nowhere with my clients. As my boss put it when he sat me down for a serious chat: “They all love you once they get to know you – they just don’t want to get to know you.”
Suggestions: don’t put wisecracks on the copy (or any place else in writing) until you’ve had a chance to bond with the new boss and dazzle him personally with you charm and wit.
Seconded - I am sure the new boss will quickly be dazzled. Boss cannot really find a sense-of-humour difference to be more important than seven years experience in the same company, I hope?
I hope you get the Newboss creature housetrained, soon, Eve
New boss has been here more than six months. If she ain’t been dazzled by me yet, she ain’t ever going to be. She seems like a very nice lady, I’ve never had any run-ins with her (we don’t have time to schmooze and “get to know each other”). I suspect she simply has No Sense of Humor.
Well, I will just have to become a Stepford Editor for however long I have left here . . . No more jokes, no more personality, no more wisecracks.
Anybody got some spare heroin lying around to get me through this next issue-closing?
Spider-Cook, Spider-Cook.
Cooks the Hash now just like a Schnook.
Taylor Ham? Anytime. Nickel more for Ketchup & Thyme
Hey There! There goes the Spider-Cook…
Is she strong? Listen Bud…
She’s got Hypertension Blood.
But Can she Sting in a Thread?
Take a look Overhead
Look Out! There goes the Spider-Cook…
In the scheme of life, where the pain doesn’t rhyme,
She worked all her life to just to make half a dime.
70 hours a week she slaved for that Dump.
Till this ‘wonder-boy’ started playing Donald Trump.
Spider-Cook, Spider-Cook.
Friendly neighborhood Spider-Cook.
Wealth and Fame, she’s been ignored.
Thank God she has SD Message Board
Up There! There goes the Spider-Cook…
Life is one Great Big Bang-Up,
Send resumes without a hang-up
You’ll find work or be a Spider-Cook!!!
Maybe, maybe not. Some people just don’t cotton to anything other than strictly business on the job. I had occasion to get to know some Navy admirals while I was still working. Some of them were great jokesters and were funny as hell in the O club or playing golf. On the job they were all business and wouldn’t stand for nothin’ else from nobody. Maybe they wanted to get the job over as quickly as possible so they could get back to the golf course and be funny.
I know people who have No Sense of Humor. Some people simply don’t get funny stuff, or feel that it makes them look stupid, soft, or otherwise less-than-capable, so they never develop a sense of humor. It starts young. If you don’t have funny parents (or a funny influence in your life), chances are, you will be unfunny as an adult.
My son and my niece are hilarious! It kicked in at the age of 7 or 8 with my son, and my niece is 12 now and has a sophisticated sense of humor.
To all you parents out there…this is important child-rearing stuff! Never underestimate the power of a good laugh!
There are unfortunate people out there who are humor impaired. They look like normal people, they talk like normal people, they even laugh at jokes like normal people. But they don’t get it. They’re just going along with the joke because they know that other people are laughing and it’s a social thing. On their own, they’re unable to tell whether or not something’s funny.
Irony is your best test of whether or not somebody’s humor impaired. Expose them to something that’s funny but doesn’t announce itself as a joke. If they realize it’s a joke anyway, they’re okay. But if they’re unable to tell the difference between irony and reality, they have no sense of humor. Pity them.
Poor Eve. Where oh where shall you find an outlet for your talents? Maybe there’s a message board that you favor that might appreciate your wit?
Or, I can type some gibberish and you can copy edit it for me. Let’s see… It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! Guilford ran down the stairs, trailing his silk smoking jacket behind him. The body of his butler lay in the foyer. Guilford set down his glass of whisky, ran his fingers through his mane of black hair, and pondered the mess.
Has your new boss published any books? Does she yearn to do just that? Is she simply consumed with envy? Maybe it’s time to show her some of your writing and ask her advice.
I thought you were considering going to library school, Eve? Might be an ideal time to jump ship for a crappy get-experience library job (well, except for that starving to death thing)? Or a time to keep one’s head down and wait it out until you can make a life-change.
“She doesn’t hate you as a person” has got to be the most perfectly female office-speak I’ve heard in a while.
I can understand someone not wanting humorous or unprofessional comments on a document that may be seen by others and thus expose the company to litigation or complaint. Discovery in a lawsuit is an incredibly painful procedure when you find that someone has been filing things that shouldn’t be filed, or making written comments on documents without your knowledge. This has happened to me. The prime rule is: If you don’t want to hear it on the six o’clock news, don’t write it down. That said, some folks carry it to extreme limits.
