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I wish I were allowed to banish funeral homes from putting their obits in our paper. I realize that might cause them a lot of trouble, but damnit, they started causing trouble with us first.
There's a local funeral home who gives me and the other obit girls a ton of grief. They're annoying, obnoxious, pushy, and hateful. We only just resolved one major issue they generated and it ended with me drawing a picture of a snowflake with the funeral home's name on it and posting it on my desk (Shpeshul Snowflake drawing, a joke which the other obit girls giggle at constantly).
Well, the snowflakes started shit with me again today.
On the weekends, I work from 12 to 4, or later if things are goofy. Now, during the week, the deadline to get a paid obituary is 4, since it's handled in a different department, but on the weekends, the deadline is 2:30, same as the free ones, since I'm writing them all up. The funeral homes all know this. I called them personally when this policy was decided and told them. (And this particular funeral home bitched and whined about it then, too.)
So today, I get to work at exactly 12 and settle in to work, grabbing faxes from various spots, sorting them, etc. 2:30 rolls around, and a different funeral home calls me and asks (nicely, hint hint) if they can squeeze in one, and I tell them if I get it in the next couple of minutes, it can go in. They thank me, they do, I did, and I get the files sent over at about 3. At 3:10, a good 40 minutes after the deadline, I get fax from Shpeshul Funeral Home. I look it over, see the funeral isn't till Tuesday, and thus there's no big hurry, and set it aside to start working on other stuff.
About 3:20, Shpeshul Funeral Home calls to see if we got the obit, and S, the editor on duty, took the call and said yes, we got it, but it's past deadline and so won't be in tomorrow's paper. At the same time, he's trying to deal with some kind of legal notice issue, so he can't really devote his full attention to it, so he transfers it to me to handle. No big so far.
Me: Newsroom.
SFH female: Yes, did you get the John Smith obit?
Me: Yes, ma'am, we did, but it was after deadline so we won't be able to run it until Monday.
SFH female: *immediately sounding huffy and just getting snippier as the conversation goes* What time was the deadline? (They KNOW the deadline, damnit.)
Me: 2:30.
SFH female: And can't you squeeze it in?
Me: *facepalm* No, ma'am, everything's been sent over (to the copy desk) already, I don't have any way of getting it in for tomorrow.
SFH female: *to SFH male in background* They say they can't get it in. *SFH male mumbles* *to me* Well, then, we'll do a paid one.
Me: I'm sorry, ma'am, the deadline for paid obits is 2:30 as well on the weekends, I can't get it in.
SFH female: *to SFH male in background* They say the paid obit deadline is 2:30 too. *SFH male audibly bitches* Hang on a second. *puts me on hold*
Me: *sigh*
SFH male: *pissy* Hello.
Me: Hi.
SFH male: The deadline for paid obits is SUPPOSED to be 4 o'clock.
Me: During the week, yes sir, but on the weekends, the deadline for both is 2:30 because it's all being done in the same area. If you call and ask, I can even wait till 3, but it's almost 3:30 now so it's way past the time I could get anything in for you.
SFH male: Well, since when has it been like THAT??
Me: *since I called personally and told you bitches like EIGHT MONTHS AGO* It's been quite a while, sir.
SFH male: *scoffs* Well, we were TRYING to get the obit in from 12 till 1, but YOUR FAX wasn't working, and we had a service from one until now.
Me: Well, sir, I was here from 12 till 1, and I received faxes from several people, so I don't understand why we wouldn't have received it. (Except oh yes I do you lying sack of...)
SFH male: ...well we were TRYING to send it and it should have gotten through! *irritated pause* So there's nothing you can do for us here, huh??
Me: I can run it for you in Monday's paper but the deadline has already passed for tomorrow.
SFH male: All right fine! *hangs up*
Ugh.
You know, I gotta be honest, if they were any other funeral home, and if they asked me nicely, I'd have harrassed the copy desk into sending back the files so I could work in their obit. Or at least asked if I could. But since they're always such bitches to us, and were just continuing to be so now, I wasn't about to go out of my way for them.
Oh, but it's not over. About five minutes after this, my phone rings again, and they've sicced the widow on me. Of course. (And of course since this is the widow I can't be snarky back, because honestly it's not a fair fight and she most likely is the one having the worse day of the two of us. Fucking code of honor I HATE YOU.)
Me: *answers, stupidly thinking this had nothing to do with what just happened* Newsroom.
Widow: Yes, are you with the obits?
Me: Yes ma'am, I am.
Widow: Now, are you the one in charge or the editor, because if you aren't at the top, I won't...I don't want to start at the bottom, I want whoever's in charge.
Me: (Oh for FUCK'S SAKE.) All right, hold on, ma'am. *transfers call to editor*
He spent a few minutes on the phone with the widow, giving me bewildered looks once in a while, then managed to tell her that he'd give her a call back and hung up, asking for the story. I told him all of the above. He responds by telling me that the widow told him the funeral home was trying to get their fax in starting at ELEVEN that morning, trying all da way to ONE, and they never got it, and her husband was some VERY PROMINANT CITIZEN (no he wasn't, or we'd be doing a news story about it), and she hoped none of US ever needed help and no one would give it to them, blah blah blah.
I told him flat out that the funeral home was constantly pulling shit like this on the rules, acting like they didn't have to follow them, being rude and shitty, etc., and that they were now lying because the funeral home had said they had only been trying since 12, PLUS yes, I was here at work AT 12 until 1 and the fax machine was, in fact, working. Not to mention that at no time did the funeral home call me, as we are CONSTANTLY telling all the funeral homes to do, to verify whether or not we had gotten the obit. If they had, and I had not, I could have given them a different fax number to try, or if all else failed, let them slide on e-mailing me an obit (something that is normally strictly verboten) for the family's sake. Short version, they had made NO effort to get the obit in on time, and were trying to hoist all the blame on me. And further, the funeral wasn't for a couple of days yet and would be local, so there was no reason that it being in Monday instead of Sunday was really that big a deal (aside from Sunday's bigger circulation, which is obviously what the funeral home was wanting).
The editor agrees with me on all of this that I'm in right, and calls them back to tell them as much. The funeral home swiftly tosses the widow back at him and she whines and cries and calls him names and bemoans our complete lack of sympathy for not breaking all our rules (at this point over an hour past the deadline) for HER because she is so much more shpeshul than the 11 OTHER grieving familes who were able to get their paperwork in on time...blah blah blah.
Finally, the girl in charge on the copy desk, wanting to know what all the trouble is about, suggests we put a pending notice (a two-line bit that says basically "So and so died, Such and such funeral home will announce later") for them, which is more than I would have given them at this point but which is a moderately acceptable compromise. This seems to mollify the widow, and she goes away, which is all any of us really want. (Also for the record, if the funeral home had asked me for a pending notice at any point before all this, I'd have give them that too because it is such a tiny little thing to fix.)
At that point, I was so irritated with all of it that I told the editor I was leaving early, clocked out, went to the mall, and bought a cookie.
I'm absolutely certain there's going to be more to this, as the funeral home will more than likely either try to harrass me tomorrow, or will be calling Monday to try and talk to other editors/bosses to get me in trouble for FOLLOWING THE RULES.
God, I wish we could just ban them. That'd teach the bitches a lesson.
There's a local funeral home who gives me and the other obit girls a ton of grief. They're annoying, obnoxious, pushy, and hateful. We only just resolved one major issue they generated and it ended with me drawing a picture of a snowflake with the funeral home's name on it and posting it on my desk (Shpeshul Snowflake drawing, a joke which the other obit girls giggle at constantly).
Well, the snowflakes started shit with me again today.
On the weekends, I work from 12 to 4, or later if things are goofy. Now, during the week, the deadline to get a paid obituary is 4, since it's handled in a different department, but on the weekends, the deadline is 2:30, same as the free ones, since I'm writing them all up. The funeral homes all know this. I called them personally when this policy was decided and told them. (And this particular funeral home bitched and whined about it then, too.)
So today, I get to work at exactly 12 and settle in to work, grabbing faxes from various spots, sorting them, etc. 2:30 rolls around, and a different funeral home calls me and asks (nicely, hint hint) if they can squeeze in one, and I tell them if I get it in the next couple of minutes, it can go in. They thank me, they do, I did, and I get the files sent over at about 3. At 3:10, a good 40 minutes after the deadline, I get fax from Shpeshul Funeral Home. I look it over, see the funeral isn't till Tuesday, and thus there's no big hurry, and set it aside to start working on other stuff.
About 3:20, Shpeshul Funeral Home calls to see if we got the obit, and S, the editor on duty, took the call and said yes, we got it, but it's past deadline and so won't be in tomorrow's paper. At the same time, he's trying to deal with some kind of legal notice issue, so he can't really devote his full attention to it, so he transfers it to me to handle. No big so far.
Me: Newsroom.
SFH female: Yes, did you get the John Smith obit?
Me: Yes, ma'am, we did, but it was after deadline so we won't be able to run it until Monday.
SFH female: *immediately sounding huffy and just getting snippier as the conversation goes* What time was the deadline? (They KNOW the deadline, damnit.)
Me: 2:30.
SFH female: And can't you squeeze it in?
Me: *facepalm* No, ma'am, everything's been sent over (to the copy desk) already, I don't have any way of getting it in for tomorrow.
SFH female: *to SFH male in background* They say they can't get it in. *SFH male mumbles* *to me* Well, then, we'll do a paid one.
Me: I'm sorry, ma'am, the deadline for paid obits is 2:30 as well on the weekends, I can't get it in.
SFH female: *to SFH male in background* They say the paid obit deadline is 2:30 too. *SFH male audibly bitches* Hang on a second. *puts me on hold*
Me: *sigh*
SFH male: *pissy* Hello.
Me: Hi.
SFH male: The deadline for paid obits is SUPPOSED to be 4 o'clock.
Me: During the week, yes sir, but on the weekends, the deadline for both is 2:30 because it's all being done in the same area. If you call and ask, I can even wait till 3, but it's almost 3:30 now so it's way past the time I could get anything in for you.
SFH male: Well, since when has it been like THAT??
Me: *since I called personally and told you bitches like EIGHT MONTHS AGO* It's been quite a while, sir.
SFH male: *scoffs* Well, we were TRYING to get the obit in from 12 till 1, but YOUR FAX wasn't working, and we had a service from one until now.
Me: Well, sir, I was here from 12 till 1, and I received faxes from several people, so I don't understand why we wouldn't have received it. (Except oh yes I do you lying sack of...)
SFH male: ...well we were TRYING to send it and it should have gotten through! *irritated pause* So there's nothing you can do for us here, huh??
Me: I can run it for you in Monday's paper but the deadline has already passed for tomorrow.
SFH male: All right fine! *hangs up*
Ugh.
You know, I gotta be honest, if they were any other funeral home, and if they asked me nicely, I'd have harrassed the copy desk into sending back the files so I could work in their obit. Or at least asked if I could. But since they're always such bitches to us, and were just continuing to be so now, I wasn't about to go out of my way for them.
Oh, but it's not over. About five minutes after this, my phone rings again, and they've sicced the widow on me. Of course. (And of course since this is the widow I can't be snarky back, because honestly it's not a fair fight and she most likely is the one having the worse day of the two of us. Fucking code of honor I HATE YOU.)
Me: *answers, stupidly thinking this had nothing to do with what just happened* Newsroom.
Widow: Yes, are you with the obits?
Me: Yes ma'am, I am.
Widow: Now, are you the one in charge or the editor, because if you aren't at the top, I won't...I don't want to start at the bottom, I want whoever's in charge.
Me: (Oh for FUCK'S SAKE.) All right, hold on, ma'am. *transfers call to editor*
He spent a few minutes on the phone with the widow, giving me bewildered looks once in a while, then managed to tell her that he'd give her a call back and hung up, asking for the story. I told him all of the above. He responds by telling me that the widow told him the funeral home was trying to get their fax in starting at ELEVEN that morning, trying all da way to ONE, and they never got it, and her husband was some VERY PROMINANT CITIZEN (no he wasn't, or we'd be doing a news story about it), and she hoped none of US ever needed help and no one would give it to them, blah blah blah.
I told him flat out that the funeral home was constantly pulling shit like this on the rules, acting like they didn't have to follow them, being rude and shitty, etc., and that they were now lying because the funeral home had said they had only been trying since 12, PLUS yes, I was here at work AT 12 until 1 and the fax machine was, in fact, working. Not to mention that at no time did the funeral home call me, as we are CONSTANTLY telling all the funeral homes to do, to verify whether or not we had gotten the obit. If they had, and I had not, I could have given them a different fax number to try, or if all else failed, let them slide on e-mailing me an obit (something that is normally strictly verboten) for the family's sake. Short version, they had made NO effort to get the obit in on time, and were trying to hoist all the blame on me. And further, the funeral wasn't for a couple of days yet and would be local, so there was no reason that it being in Monday instead of Sunday was really that big a deal (aside from Sunday's bigger circulation, which is obviously what the funeral home was wanting).
The editor agrees with me on all of this that I'm in right, and calls them back to tell them as much. The funeral home swiftly tosses the widow back at him and she whines and cries and calls him names and bemoans our complete lack of sympathy for not breaking all our rules (at this point over an hour past the deadline) for HER because she is so much more shpeshul than the 11 OTHER grieving familes who were able to get their paperwork in on time...blah blah blah.
Finally, the girl in charge on the copy desk, wanting to know what all the trouble is about, suggests we put a pending notice (a two-line bit that says basically "So and so died, Such and such funeral home will announce later") for them, which is more than I would have given them at this point but which is a moderately acceptable compromise. This seems to mollify the widow, and she goes away, which is all any of us really want. (Also for the record, if the funeral home had asked me for a pending notice at any point before all this, I'd have give them that too because it is such a tiny little thing to fix.)
At that point, I was so irritated with all of it that I told the editor I was leaving early, clocked out, went to the mall, and bought a cookie.
I'm absolutely certain there's going to be more to this, as the funeral home will more than likely either try to harrass me tomorrow, or will be calling Monday to try and talk to other editors/bosses to get me in trouble for FOLLOWING THE RULES.
God, I wish we could just ban them. That'd teach the bitches a lesson.
to every employee at that funeral home involved in this.
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