It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. No, just make that the worst of times. That is how the vivid imagination of former lethargic Politico labor reporter, Mike Elk, paints his Dickensian visions of working conditions at that organization. Never mind that Elk wrote a grand total of five stores in his ten months at Politico, the last six of which were simply a paid vacation since he had no writing output during that time. In his mind the working conditions were horrible and the only solution is to unionize.
Let us join Elk as he spins his fairy tale of working conditions hell for Pacific Standard magazine:
Mike Elk, 29, lives in Washington, D.C. He worked as a labor reporter for Politico starting in September 2014, but appears to have been fired in August. There is speculation that Elk—who is the most visible face of a burgeoning movement to unionize digital media workers, and was attempting to unionize Politico—was fired because of his attempts to organize.
“The first couple months there I really couldn’t take the pace,” Elk says of his time at Politico. “At Politico, they want to be first with everything, and that’s how they define their revenue model. In addition to all the stories they write, they do these morning newsletters. [The newsletters] go out at midnight. So people come in. They work a full day. Then they go home. They try to write the newsletter before they go home. Then they have to edit the newsletter. It’s such an unpredictable schedule, and there’s no formal system at Politico for how to deal with working overtime. There’s no comp time, there’s no overtime.”
Gasp! The reporters had to write newsletters? Oh, the horror. The sheer horror. Better to be shoveling coal into the hot furnaces of a steel factory. Of course, such newsletter writing grunt work was beneath Elk as he proudly boasts of work shirking:
Many younger workers are loath to push back against these expectations. They understand that the media industry is a competitive place, and many feel fortunate to have one of a limited number of full-time jobs.
“If you’re a younger reporter, it becomes very difficult to draw boundaries,” Elk says. “I’m an established reporter with a long track record. I can walk into a newsroom and say, ‘No, I’m not working those hours.’ Because I’m not afraid of getting fired. But if you’re 22, right out of Stanford Journalism School, you’re not going to stand and up and say, ‘I don’t want to work these hours.’ You’re going to say: ‘Hey I’m grateful to have this job. You want me to work around the clock? I can do that.’ So younger reporters who haven’t had as many big stories feel that the only thing they have to give is their entire lives.”
How many hours did you work, Mike, from last October to the end of January when you wrote a grand total of five stories for Politico? We already know the "established reporter" worked approximately zero hours from February until he was fired last month since his work load during that period was zilch.
It now seems that Elk's days of bellyaching over work loads that were non-existent for him are far from over. Just picture Elk as a Sally Fields type holding up a sign saying "UNION" as you read of his future plans:
Elk—seizing upon what some see as promising developments in unions for journalists—is leading the Convergence to Organize Digital Media, which is holding a conference in Louisville during the second week of October. Ahead of the conference, the Convergence has issued a statement of media workers’ rights. The list of demands addresses overtime protections, freelancer rights, and intern rights, including the right for media interns to unionize. It also includes protections against discrimination, a commitment to increasing racial and ethnic diversity, and the right for media workers to unionize “without interference from management.”
“I’ve talked to people all over, and constantly I’m hearing stories about people saying, ‘Yeah, I’m dealing with being forced to work all the time as well,’” Elk says. “This is inherent of digital media companies. With email, it’s tough for people to draw boundaries. A lot of people treat it like: ‘Hey, I want to hear a response to that email, I want to hear it when I email you.’ Outside of the places that are unionized, like NPR, there aren’t any real standards of when you should work and when you should not work.”
Yeah, Mike, to the barricades to lead the downtrodden digital proletariat in their struggle against email oppression. Meanwhile we can rely on you to continue in the art of work avoidance. Paging Maynard G. Krebs!
