Arthur wrote:
> Now let's get away from our computers and go out and enjoy what is a > wonderful sunny day. Ah, well, it's heavily overcast here with more rain immanent and I've just come from a memorial service for a friend of nearly 50 years. So I'll take the liberty of continuing in the morose vein, albeit on topic: http://thefastertimes.com/news/2011/06/16/aol-hell-an-aol-content-slave-speaks-out/ or http://j.mp/kqr7Ik of you like obfuscated URLs. I got the job through a friend. The job was this: I would write about TV for a section of the AOL Television website. In theory, this sounded great. In exchange for writing about "The Simpsons" and other TV shows, I would be making $35,000 a year (which sounded like a shockingly large amount of money to me at the time; and sadly, it still does). I performed this job for less than a year before I was fired. During that period, I wrote more than 350,000 words for AOL. [snip] ....I was so grateful. But this was part of the problem. We -- by which I mean me and my fellow employees -- were all so grateful. Which allowed us to ignore -- or willfully overlook -- certain problems. Such as the fact that AOL editors forced us to work relentless hours. Or the fact that we were paid to lie, actually instructed to lie by our bosses. [snip] I still have a saved IM conversation with my boss, written after 10 months of employment, when I was reaching the breaking point: "Do you guys even CARE what I write? Does it make any difference if it's good or bad?" I said. "Not really", was the reply. If I can come up with any constructive and upbeat follow-on thoughts on the subject, it will have to wait for a brighter day or at least until after supper. -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [email protected] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
