ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 17, 1997 TAG: 9704170002
SECTION: AT WORK PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: The Daily Grind
SOURCE: JOHN WARREN
Staff writers Leslie Taylor and John Warren normally will take turns writing ``The Daily Grind,'' a weekly column about the workplace, but in this introduction we offer a few words from each:
I sleep until noon.
Why do I sleep until noon?
Because I can. I don't have to get up and go to work in the morning. I'm a second-shifter.
I work nights on the Times' copy desk, which is when we lasso the day's news stories and turn them into a newspaper. I'm part of a small army of ``word people'' who write headlines, edit stories and lay out pages.
Copy editors are a lot like offensive linemen: If we do our job right, no one knows we're there.
I head for work around 5 o'clock, with a 6-year-old asking me why I have to leave again and just when my ``other'' is getting home. Our longest interaction during the day is usually a five-minute pause in the doorway to say our hi's and 'byes.
When you're a second-shifter, you're dogged by the feeling that you're missing something. And you are. So you hurry to get off work, only to find the world didn't wait up for you.
With this column, part of my work becomes . . . writing about work. I hope to talk to those of you who, like me, never thought you'd conform to the workaday world, yet there you are. To those who crunch numbers and actually like it. To sales clerks, assembly workers and all the rest of you, including those who use your windshield visors on the way to work because the sun is coming up - not going down.
I suspect I'll find your workdays are a lot like mine: filled with periods and commas and lots of question marks and exclamation points. For better or worse, they're our own stories, and I hope to show they're more interesting than we sometimes realize.
JOHN WARREN can be reached at 981-3244 or johnw@roanoke.com
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB