BlogHer - Working in a 24/7 World - Comments

Boundaries - Either Set Them or Don't

paulag01 — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:38:35 -0500

Great article. I had seen the death by blogging article myself. I have to agree with Vered and you when you point out that workaholics are everywhere. I have met people in totally uncritical, non time sensitive jobs work like crazy people at all hours. Why? They either create their own or respond to other people's man made crises. I think the same can be said in the blogosphere.

That being said some topics and blogging models (esp for earning money) are more manufacturing widget oriented (quantity) as well as paprazzi oriented (I need to post this 1 millisecond before her or I'll DIE). Even so, there's a human behind the wheel of each person's career. You do get to choose.

Thanks for such a candid and humorous look (LOVE the "The usual omfg if you do not do this right now then we
will all DIE type phone calls.") at not only the blogging aspect but how it applies to all our work lives.

-Paula

Paula Gregorowicz
The Paula G Company

www.thepaulagcompany.com
www.coaching4lesbians.com

NYT "death by blogging" article a mixed bag

stephanie fierman — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:56:39 -0500

This article has received so much attention - even from me (http://www.stephaniefiermanmarketingdaily.com/stephanie-fierman/stephanie-fierman-blog-stress.php).

I think part of the reason that it generated so much debate is that it lumps all bloggers in together; there is little discrimination between the person who blogs on the side (that is, on the side of a "real" job that pays the bills) and the individual who makes a living by blogging. There's a big difference.

Personally, I blog because it's fun, it gives me an outlet and my friends like it; if I was, in essence, getting paid by the word, I might have an very different attitude... and obsessive work schedule.

And of course I agree with those who are saying that blogging invites excesses just like anything else in life, and holds particular parallels for those laboring in the honorable-but-not-sexy-right-now arenas of journalism and poetry.

And hey, when Matt Richtel was deciding what to write about, I assume he'd naturally gravitate toward a timely and popular topic: after all, he wants to get paid, too!

Stephanie Fierman
www.stephaniefierman.com and www.stephaniefiermanmarketingdaily.com

Blog and DIE!!! Feh.

Elisa Camahort — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:33:00 -0500

I thought the NY Times article was just another angle in their ongoing campaign to build up hysterical hype about the evils of blogging. Which is pretty much what I said over at my Worker Bees Blog.

Small wonder, given newspapers are losing market and mindshare to blogs.

But frankly, I also found it really distasteful and disrespectful to those two men who died. Jory knew both those guys, and I think they were both very enthusiastic bloggers.

I also liked Dave Winer's point (REDACTED/INACCURATE) that heart disease takes years to come to a boiling point...a couple of years of active blogging isn't going to do it.

That article was total link bait as one of my Worker Bees commenters said...and look, it worked on us both :)

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.org

What About All Those Overworked Poets?

Pam — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:48:37 -0500

The thing that bugs me about the NYT article is the idea that this is "news" because it's blogging. Never mind the poets and painters who come home from their day jobs and stay up all night getting their own work done for barely pennies an hour, if they're lucky. Or, hey, skip the creative types and look at migrant workers, killing themselves by harvesting our chemically treated crops at below minimum wage, all while worrying about immigration. Instead, we pity the poor blogger, taking low wage gigs because we can imagine we're them.

Smeh. ANY job has sweatshop potential and there's plenty of common wisdom about blogging that says, essentially, don't quit your day job, bucko. The only thing that's new here is the idea that worker is wired. And even that's not all that new, as anyone who's worked to produce a technical product can tell you.

Nerd's Eye View

Workaholics are everywhere

Vered — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:07:55 -0500

Not just in the blogsphere. Although it's true that the fast pace of the internet creates unique pressures to constantly produce fresh content.

I think it's more of a problem for professional bloggers in high-profile blogs.

High-Stress Blogging Creates Health Problems

Vered DeLeeuw
www.momgrind.com

The extreme vs. the norm

Virginia DeBolt — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:13:03 -0500

To me, the flaw in this "blogging yourself to death" theory is that a few extreme examples were held up as the norm for all bloggers. I blog a lot, but I still have time to vacuum cat hair off the furniture and get the hummingbird feeder ready for spring.

http://www.webteacher.ws/

http://first50.wordpress.com/

Working in a 24/7 World

HeatherB — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:34:12 -0500

I've been fascinated by the recent New York Times article
about writers who 'blog till they drop' and the subsequent response it
has garnered. Perhaps because yesterday I found myself churning out
words while on a train into Manhattan while my coworkers sitting across
from me laughed and joked and drank tiny bottles of wine. Meanwhile I
sat there typing away pretending to be engaged in their conversation
but instead trying to find proper adjective usage that made me sound
smart, witty and like I actually cared. Every so often my phone would
buzz with work related items; letters that needed to be finished and
people that needed to be spoken to right this second or else the world
would implode. The usual omfg if you do not do this right now then we
will all DIE type phone calls.

At some point I turned off my laptop since my brain was on
complete overload. Keeping up with all that blogging encompasses is
stressful in and of itself. Throw in a more than full time job and I'm
sure that there are people out there who are shocked that I haven't
spontaneously combusted due to the stress of it all. From trying to
keep up with two different non-stop worlds. Which is where the New York
Times article intrigues me; bloggers who are trying so hard to keep up
with the 24/7 world of social media:

A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed
with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under
great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock
Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.

It's something that I can appreciate, that the internet never stops. I
spent last weekend with several bloggers who were on 'vacation' but
during their vacation they still had to work because the sites they
write for needed updating. The internet doesn't go on vacation nor does
it care when it's a holiday; people are still reading. And with
blogging in particular, for many - certainly not all - it requires so
much more than just posting as Merlot Mom has pointed out:

As a SAHM, I find this efficiency a challenge. Worse, now that I'm not
"working", others who do work, consider my complaints unjustified. I
used to get sidetracked by dirty breakfast dishes, a pile of soiled
laundry, and phone calls but I've traded these for another
time-consuming distraction: blogging. Not the writing part. To spend
endless hours writing is my dream. No, it's the blogosphere learning
curve: blog administration, marketing, social networking. The blog
world is enormous and learning how to navigate it is overwhelming.

While all of this is understandable what was lost in this article and
what By Jane and Web Worker Daily pointed out is that much of this view is
'one-dimensional'. There is a whole slew of bloggers who are able to
blog and live their lives without completely overdoing it:

It’s certainly possible to overdo in the blogging world - but that’s
true of just about any occupation, from management to software
development to, well, you name it. It’s also possible to find a level
of web work that allows you to have a life, with children and pets and regular meals and vacations.
Of course, the folks who find a balance aren’t sensational enough to
write news stories about. From my point of view, though, the real news
is in the ever-increasing number of people who manage to work on the
web without feeling that their lives are remarkable.

I am a blogger who also works in politics. Both of which can be easily
overtaxing and stressful. And there are evenings when I go to bed
realizing that I need to be up in four hours to finish three separate
posts and then to go to work for 12 hours and then come home and
whoops! Forgot to post something. But I also know when enough is
enough. And it doesn't mean that I want to be any less successful or
that I am not passionate about either work but it means that I am not
about to stress myself out about things which in the grand scheme of
the world, are not that huge.

So last night, I closed my laptop when I realized that there was no way
that everything that needed to be completed would get completed. Sadly
with only two arms and one brain, I cannot physically get things done,
no matter how well I plan because in both politics and blogging there
is always the unexpected. Perhaps I am destined to be a failure because
I refuse to work, work, work but at least I will be a failure who is
extremely well rested. The problem isn't the nature of the work - all
work is difficult and stressful - it's how someone reacts to their work
and the balance they hopefully can find between their career and life.
One can either stress themselves out to death (which isn't something
that only happens to bloggers of course) or one can realize that pauses
in the space-time continuum are few and far between so maybe a nap or a
week away is in order. I prefer to be the latter.