Many benefits

There are many positives that come out of my recent job change.

First off, I will be working for people again who are sympathetic to my writing. The change to corporate ownership at the newspaper half year ago was definitely for the worse in that regard. That company is pretty much in it just for the money, and really couldn't care less about its employees. Unfortunately, that's not uncommon in American business today, but newspapers are especially bad in overworking their employees because of the amorphous nature of the job duties. I was on salary, and from all indications the management would've been content to have me work 80 hours a week. They are very good at giving orders and not take into consideration the workload. Practically speaking, many newspaper employees spend enormous amounts of time working off the clock. That kind of hourly theft is journalism's dirty little secret. It's hardly surprising among the rank and file of American workers that capitalism has a bad reputation; what was it Ambrose Bierce said? "Piracy is capitalism without the frills."

Now with with my change in job, I can actually attend conventions on Thursdays and Fridays. In fact, I need to contact conventions whose invitations I have already accepted to let them know of my beneficial change in schedule.

The current owners of my old paper did me one serious harm when they canceled my two weeks accrued vacation upon taking over the business, thereby preventing me from attending the world science fiction convention in London this summer. Loncon programming didn't wonderful job of matching me to a couple of panels on steam punk and alternate history, but I had to renege on my commitment once my vacation time evaporated. Unfortunately, I have worked in corporate owned newspapers before, and that was hardly a surprise; that's the way they treat their employees.