An integrated newsroom

Yes, even here, buzzwords rule. This is the current one at the JG, where our digs have been invaded, as planned, by one of the other holdings of the conglomerate.

This conglomerate, at least it seems to me, is absolutely huge and has its fingers in many sectors. Just the media holdings include a couple of newspapers (one English, not sure how many Indonesian), a handful of newspapers, a TV station and a cable company.

There are more sectors, too. Based on what I know, there’s at least a bank and a hospital, plus a hotel and a shopping mall at the minimum. There are probably many more in both categories. I also know of a “Village,” which I am not sure what means but includes some kind of school or something.

So it’s big. And so is the newsroom. It’s been crowded, but now, it’s even more so.

I’m even more thankful for my little perch right now. I’m tucked safely in a corner with no one on my right. I can watch trash float around and have helicopter sightings that can be a little mesmerizing.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that. Since we’re on the top floor and Jakarta is nothing but 650 square kilometers of urban sprawl, helicopters are a big way to get around. Not by common folk, of course, but there is a market for it.

Helipads are everywhere, or so it seems. There’s on I can see from my fitness center, resting on top of one of the conglomerate-owned hospitals.

And there’s one right over my head at work. I’ve ever been up there, but about three times and evening I hear the whop-whop-whop blades and see a helicopter aiming just over my head. It’s a little disconcerting, or it was at first. Now I’m used to it and I just kind of an afterthought think, gee, I really might want to keep an eye in case someone is driving Cuba Gooding Jr. did in “Outbreak.”

So that’s my window on the world, as JB would sing.

I’m thankful for the relative speaking serenity even more so this week, since one of the other newspapers moved in.

I’m still not clear on how many groups are in our huge room, but we’ve cramped together a little more and added one of the Indonesian-writing holdings.

Suddenly, the crowded office is far more crowded. The empty tables now have chairs (still wrapped in plastic, as is the custom. You don’t like it, get a knife and rip it off yourself like I did) and Dells.

Both are annoying. The chairs are annoying because there are so darn many of them, and they’re all crammed together. The path from my corner to, say, the kitchen, was already crowded; now it’s a complete obstacle course. It’s not possible to just walk. You have to push aside chairs and “permisi” (“excuse me”) your way all the way to either the copier (which means you have to dodge a filing cabinet on the way) or the wall (which lengthens your path, but you get to say hi to Emmy and Katrin on the features desk).

Even if there aren’t people sitting in the chairs, they’re still in the way. This demonstrates how little room we have in there. I mean, it’s a pain in the butt. And since I’m in one corner, almost everything is a ways away from me – the sports guy, the photographers, the lead designer and the kitchen.

The kitchen was small when the newsroom only had one newspaper and however many magazine staff members. Now it’s absolutely crazy with staffers and the help staff (I’m not sure of the word for these guys, but we basically have a daily crew that runs errands and will go down and pick up your lunch or whatever). The big keg of water never has time to get cool because there are so many people drinking out of it.

And the cups. Wow. From appearances, it seems that everyone who has been with any part of the company since the beginning has his or her own cup. They don’t even fit into the kitchen, which is maybe four times the size of a telephone booth. Instead, a shelf outside the kitchen is completely overrun with mugs, cups and water bottles. It’s kind of crazy.

It’s a drastic change from before, though doable.

The behavior of the people is a little less tolerable.

The elevator behavior is just a post in its own. The concept of an elevator isn’t that tough. The doors open, people walk out, people walk in. But it doesn’t work that way here. It’s pretty much a bum’s rush when the doors open, with people trying to get on and off at the same time. Then people are surprised when the doors start to close and they’re not settled. Hello, have a little decency about it and it’ll be fine.

Last week, I almost went Bertuzzi on some moron because, while exiting, she stopped right in the doorway because she was in mid-text. I was behind her, having waited my turn to get out. But she just stood there.

I swear, I am growing Gordie Howe elbows. I’m just tired of it.

In the newsroom, some people are just as bad.

Since we’ve pretty much doubled the number of people in the newsroom, the internet has slowed. This isn’t because people are working; it’s because they’re streaming movies, music, playing poker and playing games. It makes it tough for those of us who are trying to work to get things done. [Disclosure: I do listen to music, but I bring my MP3. I’m extremely anti-streaming.]

The music is annoying especially, because there are a few folks who insist on not only streaming it live, but not using headphones and therefore subjecting people nearby to their playlists, which do not consist of anything I’m interested in, for one.

There’s one daily offender in particular who tends to tick off a neighbor who’s sounded of on me. It’s really just a matter of time before someone explodes.

Hope it’s not me, but man. I’m just tired of stupid people.

Went into the bathroom one day and, as I opened the door to one stall, a trying-to-be-helpful person waved me off, saying it was broken.

The toilets here have built-in bidets, and some idiot had left the water running, therefore shooting out of the toilet and onto the floor. This is what the would-be-helpful person meant by “broken.”

Hello? I walked in and turned off the water. It absolutely blew her mind. It just doesn’t occur to people to clean up messes. They certainly don’t touch their own, but if it’s someone else’s doing, just forget it.

The stupidity of some people – not all, and not even the majority – astounds me. I was close to strangling a reporter yesterday, who, luckily for him, wasn’t actually present.

The story had something to do with foreign investment in mining and how this political party wanted to change the law. Really, it wasn’t the party so much as the guy in charge of the party, who owned a mining company. I do credit the reporter with putting that in, although I felt it was important to add something like “So-and-so has a vested interest in amending the law because…”

But in all my reading of the story, I never found any reference to why the law was wrong. As in, what the heck the law said that they wanted to amend. Freaking basic facts.

When I went to the previous person who touched the story (not the author – I rarely, if ever, see the reporters themselves), he seemed kind of surprised why that was relevant. Seriously, I had to explain that if we had a story about the fact the law needed to be changed, then we really needed to spell out what the law said.

Eventually, I got it in there, but boy, it was like pulling teeth.

And on the “more of the same” subject, it looks like I’m in for another haul. It’s still not final, but I’m told my contract is being renewed and it looks like I’ll be here through April.

It’s not the greatest scenario, but it’s not like jobs are falling from the sky in the States.