heavy desk

Brabinger · **Posted:** Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:40 pm

i just realized that alll my fellow deskers are overweight. how about your copy desk?

SusanV · **Posted:** Sun Apr 24, 2005 8:12 pm

Not on my desk (eight of us).

oldmanandcow · **Posted:** Sun Apr 24, 2005 8:36 pm

I would say three of the six of us qualify as overweight, but zero qualify as obese under any published guidelines.
I think the difference is 20 pounds over target weight is overweight, and more than 20 is obese.
Isn't that the measurement?
Of course, the only true measurement is getting in the pool and getting the true BMI (not the one on the table at your doctor's office)

EMorse · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:28 pm

We've got a big (i.e., populous) desk, so there's a mix of body types.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2005 1:06 am

EMorse wrote:

We've got a big (i.e., populous) desk, so there's a mix of body types.

We're fairly lean for the most part, largely due to variety of ethnic food outlets in the retail district.

mslayter · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2005 2:21 pm

Nobody's obese. The women are all fairly thin. A few of the guys are what I would call stocky, but none are really fat. I don't think we are in any worse shape than the reporters and assignment editors.

EMorse · **Posted:** Wed Apr 27, 2005 4:43 pm

paulwiggins wrote:

We're fairly lean for the most part, largely due to variety of ethnic food outlets in the retail district.

You're lucky. My office, despite being located in one of the great restaurant cities of America, is in a relatively isolated area. There's a bar across the street that's OK in a pinch, a convenience store three blocks away, a diner (that closes early) about the same distance, and that's it, unless you want to spend your entire dinner break walking. And this being Philadelphia, you can't really drive to anyplace, because you'd never find a parking space. Fortunately, a lot of places deliver. There's also a guy who sets up a roach coach outside the building, and the day crew says his stuff's pretty good, but he's always gone by the time the night shift gets here.

kvetchingeditor · **Posted:** Wed Apr 27, 2005 4:47 pm

See, when I went to the copy convention last year in Houston, I almost expected to see more 'larger' folk like myself. I was shocked to find a lot of lean, nerdy looking folk. It was truly a surprise for me.

Not that I expect everyone to be overweight -- but it almost seems like that's how it would be.

Most of the folk on my desk are pretty petite -- and they do nothing but snack all evening.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Wed Apr 27, 2005 4:50 pm

EMorse wrote:

There's a bar across the street that's OK in a pinch, a convenience store three blocks away, a diner (that closes early) about the same distance, and that's it, unless you want to spend your entire dinner break walking.

***"Dinner break.***

mslayter · **Posted:** Wed Apr 27, 2005 6:34 pm

I walk to a coffee shop that's all of about 5 blocks away most evenings for coffee. The entire errand takes maybe 20 minutes, and yet people marvel at how "far" I walked.

SusanV · **Posted:** Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:10 pm

For only five blocks? They'd think I was insane if I told them where I frequently go when I take a break (from roughly 30th all the way to Canal/Foxhall and back).

JulieS · **Posted:** Wed Apr 27, 2005 8:23 pm

A couple of my co-workers bike to work, so they stay in pretty good shape. The rest of us are average.

The only decent and inexpensive restaurant nearby is a Mexican place with great halibut tacos across the street, so we get take-out occasionally, but we're mostly chained to our desks and don't have time to leave.

We have a workout room here at the paper, but when 1 a.m. rolls around and the choices are riding the stationary bike or praying the bar is still open, there's not much of a contest.

young_one · **Posted:** Thu Apr 28, 2005 10:26 pm

Quote:

I walk to a coffee shop that's all of about 5 blocks away most evenings for coffee. The entire errand takes maybe 20 minutes, and yet people marvel at how "far" I walked.

In a city where I recently saw a Starbucks put in *right across the street* from another one because people were complaining about having to walk that extra 10 feet, nothing surprises me anymore.

On the other hand, I regularly do the same thing (walking a few extra blocks, that is), just to get to any coffee shop that isn't Starbucks.

mslayter · **Posted:** Thu Apr 28, 2005 10:39 pm

That's why I have to walk, too. Member No. 1 prefers Caribou Coffee. Bad things happen on the desk when he's unhappy. Very bad things.

vtuss · **Posted:** Fri Apr 29, 2005 12:28 pm

I have dropped 10 pounds in switching jobs. I attest it to three things:

1) New paper has great workout room, accessible 24 hours. At first, I too found it hard to trade in the bar and the beer for the treadmill. But really, I work out after work three times a week. It burns off the aggrevation and really tuckers me out.

2) Taking a dinner break and eating an actual dinner at the cafeteria at work. At the last job, I was stuck at my desk and would eat an apple, a banana and a granola bar at work. Which led to big portions at home for lunch and dinner.

3) You'll be surprised how the reduced aggrevation of a new job reduces the need for beer.

Bad news though is that the work cafeteria is about to close at 2:30 every day instead of 7:30. Which is fine in summer. But when it's 5 and snowing, you can burn up the dinner hour just clearing your car, going someplace else and finding a place to park.

kvetchingeditor · **Posted:** Fri Apr 29, 2005 1:11 pm

Do most papers have a cafeteria ...?

Anyone know about the ... Denver Post ...? : )

*sips Starbucks frappuccino*

nstockdale · **Posted:** Fri Apr 29, 2005 1:26 pm

vtuss wrote:

Bad news though is that the work cafeteria is about to close at 2:30 every day instead of 7:30.

I'll assume the night-side employees complained. What was management's response?

vtuss · **Posted:** Fri Apr 29, 2005 3:38 pm

1) Not a lot o' papers have cafeterias. Of course, when I worked at a 20,000-circ paper, I could drive the 10 minuted and sup in my own house. It's your moderate-sized papers where the city is big, downtown shuts down early and you can't make it home where you're eating out of a Mickey D's bag all the time.

2) Denver Post: No cafeteria. But you're right near the 16th Street pedestrian mall, which not only has restaurants but the free bus service that run the length of the mall. I believe there is a Starbucks only a couple blocks up the mall from the paper.

3) Yes, the night staff complained. Even a petition. The problem is, no one is quite sure whose decision this is. It is believed to be by Aramark, who runs the cafeteria. However, this decision hasn't been announced either. Word filtered out through the employees up there, who are now forbidden to talk about it.

nstockdale · **Posted:** Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:11 pm

I would guess that, given the right pay, Aramark would agree to stay open. Management shouldn't be in the business of letting the food-service industry dictate such things.

Translation: Sounds like a cop out. Sorry, Vince.

EMorse · **Posted:** Fri Apr 29, 2005 5:26 pm

The company that runs our cafeteria tried to pull something similar a few months back; they were going to start closing at 5 instead of 8:30, as had been the custom. Still, it would have put nightside people in a bind, especially since it would have meant no full dinner service, only leftover pizza and sandwiches from the lunch rush.

The Guild got involved, and it turned out the whole problem was that hardly anyone went in after about 7:30. So for the sake of saving the labor costs for that last hour, they were going to cancel dinner altogether and close at 5. (There was also the matter of a subsidy from the paper's management, but I never quite figured out how much that had to do with it.) Anyway, a compromise was reached, and we can still get dinner until 7:30.

young_one · **Posted:** Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:44 pm

Quote:

That's why I have to walk, too. Member No. 1 prefers Caribou Coffee. Bad things happen on the desk when he's unhappy. Very bad things.

Really, who wouldn't prefer Caribou Coffee over anything else? Member No. 1 apparently has good taste in coffee on top of everything else...

vtuss · **Posted:** Fri Apr 29, 2005 10:44 pm

nstockdale wrote:

I would guess that, given the right pay, Aramark would agree to stay open. Management shouldn't be in the business of letting the food-service industry dictate such things.

Translation: Sounds like a cop out. Sorry, Vince.

Well, it sounds like the cafeteria is going to stay open now. I do think it was somewhat similar situation to what emorse described. But they are saying "cafeteria traffic was low after 2 p.m."

So maybe everyone who signed the petition will buy a snack and the desk will get heavier.

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