If this isn't a reason to keep writing I don't know what is

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Eric Summers

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It's 9:57 and already two people have been taken away in ambulances due to sudden spikes in their blood pressure. Stress is at an all time high around here, and Christmas season hasn't even kicked in yet.

Like I said in another thread: "A bad day writing is better than a good day in Corporate America."
 

Andre_Laurent

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Eric Summers said:
It's 9:57 and already two people have been taken away in ambulances due to sudden spikes in their blood pressure. Stress is at an all time high around here, and Christmas season hasn't even kicked in yet.

Like I said in another thread: "A bad day writing is better than a good day in Corporate America."
I agree. I can't stand the corporate world... ya sell your soul to some stinking company that can kick you out the door at a moments notice. Man, that's living!
 

Saundra Julian

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Point to consider...
My doctor asked me if I wanted to live to be sixty-five or work for XYZ corporation!
The choice was very easy to make!
 

kuatolives

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I work for a corporation and do maybe 2 or 3 hours of real work in any given week. I sit at my desk and write. I steal paper. I steal printer time. I steal internet time. I travel around the world on their nickel. I get out of the house and meet new people. I sexually harass some. They pay my bills. I couldn't be a writer without corporate support.
 

Andre_Laurent

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kuatolives said:
I work for a corporation and do maybe 2 or 3 hours of real work in any given week. I sit at my desk and write. I steal paper. I steal printer time. I steal internet time. I travel around the world on their nickel. I get out of the house and meet new people. I sexually harass some. They pay my bills. I couldn't be a writer without corporate support.
I also write on the clock and print my stuff but I put in a heck of a lot more than 2 or 3 hours a week. I also have to cater to a pack of morons who don't have a clue about how much work it takes to give them the things they want and then listen to them b*tch when I can't do it in two days. They also seem to think I am their personal programmer and they call and email me direct instead of going through proper request procedures. Also, I am chained to the office in my free time, 24/7 on call and a nice laptop to make sure I can remote in. That said, I feel no guilt about using their paper and printer and writing on their tab every chance I get.
 

cree

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kuatolives said:
I work for a corporation and do maybe 2 or 3 hours of real work in any given week. I sit at my desk and write. I steal paper. I steal printer time. I steal internet time. I travel around the world on their nickel. I get out of the house and meet new people. I sexually harass some. They pay my bills. I couldn't be a writer without corporate support.
Minus the sexual harassment, I'm with you.
This week, I rec'd a $200 bonus for a mini-project I didn't even work on. I brought it to my boss's small attention span; he referred the matter to human resources, who referred it to regional payroll, who referred it to corporate payroll in a different timezone, who emailed my boss that they would write it off because it would take more effort and time for their staff to take the money back then to just write it off.
I took a stapler home that day, too.
 

gp101

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The company I work for has over 10,000 employees. It pays the bills but I hate it. That said:

Eric Summers said:
Like I said in another thread: "A bad day writing is better than a good day in Corporate America."

If you're King, Grisham, or Rowling, yeah. Idealism is great, if not misguiding sometimes. If you're a mid-list writer where your next novel's success may decide whether or not the mortgage gets paid, or a struggling newbie with a stack of rejections at your side, the stress of a bad day sucks ***. The good day in the corporate world doesn't seem so bad then.
 

Jamesaritchie

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gp101 said:
The company I work for has over 10,000 employees. It pays the bills but I hate it. That said:



If you're King, Grisham, or Rowling, yeah. Idealism is great, if not misguiding sometimes. If you're a mid-list writer where your next novel's success may decide whether or not the mortgage gets paid, or a struggling newbie with a stack of rejections at your side, the stress of a bad day sucks ***. The good day in the corporate world doesn't seem so bad then.

I think there's a middle ground. Find a day job you really like.
 

soloset

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I'm pretty sure I couldn't work with any competency on a piece while constantly looking over my shoulder to see if I was about to be sacked for malingering. Or worse, that my boss might catch me, say, writing a sex scene instead of working.

And I'd feel too guilty. Because it's dishonest, even if they treat you like dirt. Although I've definitely had jobs where I was tempted to take a stapler on the way out. :D

I didn't have to worry about any of this at my last job, because they had a lovely non-compete that gave them the rights to anything I produced on the clock with their equipment.

Originally it was an internet-downloaded boilerplate that specified anything (software, fiction, anything) I created at any time while employed there; that should have been my first clue I was dealing with morons.
 

expatbrat

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I got bored at home all day so I went back to work 2 full days and 2 half days a week - I get wednesdays off. This gives me one full day and two half days to write and run my errands.

I like the extra money and I like being out there sharpening the axe.
 

Andre_Laurent

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soloset said:
I'm pretty sure I couldn't work with any competency on a piece while constantly looking over my shoulder to see if I was about to be sacked for malingering. Or worse, that my boss might catch me, say, writing a sex scene instead of working.

And I'd feel too guilty. Because it's dishonest, even if they treat you like dirt. Although I've definitely had jobs where I was tempted to take a stapler on the way out. :D

I didn't have to worry about any of this at my last job, because they had a lovely non-compete that gave them the rights to anything I produced on the clock with their equipment.

Originally it was an internet-downloaded boilerplate that specified anything (software, fiction, anything) I created at any time while employed there; that should have been my first clue I was dealing with morons.
The one perk of my job... my new boss is a bud... he knows I write... I have his blessing to write if my work is done... I also know he screws off on the clock on a regular basis... told me he puts in about three hours a day on the net. I have never fessed up to writing on the clock, lol, nor will I.
 

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expatbrat said:
I got bored at home all day

Same here. If I sit around all day trying come up with an idea to write about I can't do it. If I'm out working the ideas seem to really flow as I try to battle boredom. Those little pocket tape recorders really come in handy then, so I can dictate them to write out later, even if it seems of little value at the time.

After a few days/weeks/months I pull up my 'idea' folder in Word and find those bits I wrote down to use here and there. Even the stupidest musing seems to find a use.
 

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That's the spirit

kuatolives said:
I work for a corporation and do maybe 2 or 3 hours of real work in any given week. I sit at my desk and write. I steal paper. I steal printer time. I steal internet time. I travel around the world on their nickel. I get out of the house and meet new people. I sexually harass some. They pay my bills. I couldn't be a writer without corporate support.

Sounds like a good plan to me.
 

expatbrat

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Eric Summers said:
It's 9:57 and already two people have been taken away in ambulances due to sudden spikes in their blood pressure. Stress is at an all time high around here, and Christmas season hasn't even kicked in yet.

Like I said in another thread: "A bad day writing is better than a good day in Corporate America."

Back to the original post - two people being taken away with stress related illness in the first hours of work is a shocking result. It is certainly a good reason to find something that you enjoy doing, if it's writing then fantastic, if it's something else then great too.

Dying of stress is sad, no job is worth that.
 

soloset

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Andre_Laurent said:
The one perk of my job... my new boss is a bud... he knows I write... I have his blessing to write if my work is done... I also know he screws off on the clock on a regular basis... told me he puts in about three hours a day on the net. I have never fessed up to writing on the clock, lol, nor will I.

That always makes it weird! I worked for this awesome lady once who didn't care what I did when the work was done as long as my work was done well. Her bosses did, though! I made the personal choice not to write at work then, too, but it was a temptation.

To the OP: The only thing similar I can think of is the summer I was working for a large retail chain and two people died of heart attacks on the salesfloor over a span of about three weeks. We were getting a lot of pressure from above, and the managers weren't above using blackmail to squeeze out unpaid overtime.

I changed our diet and made a vow never, ever let that happen to me. I also took a hard look at my job and our finances and figured out exactly what "bad things" would happen if I were fired. Turns out, not much besides needing to find a new job fairly quickly. And here I'd been thinking the sky would fall in and hyperventilating over it. ;)
 

Andre_Laurent

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soloset said:
That always makes it weird! I worked for this awesome lady once who didn't care what I did when the work was done as long as my work was done well. Her bosses did, though! I made the personal choice not to write at work then, too, but it was a temptation.

To the OP: The only thing similar I can think of is the summer I was working for a large retail chain and two people died of heart attacks on the salesfloor over a span of about three weeks. We were getting a lot of pressure from above, and the managers weren't above using blackmail to squeeze out unpaid overtime.

I changed our diet and made a vow never, ever let that happen to me. I also took a hard look at my job and our finances and figured out exactly what "bad things" would happen if I were fired. Turns out, not much besides needing to find a new job fairly quickly. And here I'd been thinking the sky would fall in and hyperventilating over it. ;)
It's funny, even though he is a bud and I know his "sins", I'd never tell on myself. I've seen management positions do things to people before. Trust isn't something I have in the work place, ever. I've learned over the years, that the less you talk and the more you listen, the better off you are.
 
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