WHY I DON'T WORK THERE ANYMORE…
by Walter Johnston

Many of you are familiar with a web site I used to work at. What you are not familiar with is a policy that existed there which required that we, the employees, (unpaid volunteers, except the owner and president, and possible mr. self appointed vice-president) would have to put up with whatever day to day crap our members threw our way.

Now most of it was mild, laughable stuff, but some called on our natural instincts as human beings (are you listening, mr. president) to reply to this garbage. But we had to be very, very, very careful how we dealt with such things, because we were not allowed to be as offensive to our members (or customers, if you will) as they were to us, no matter what the circumstances. Call us idiots, no problem. Send us harassing emails, nothing we can do (through the website). Any form of denigration, we had to put up with it, because mr. president didn't want to offend the customers, no matter how offensive they were to us.

It should be noted that it was also unacceptable as a private citizen to answer private emails, as all knew you were an employee of said website, and you were expected to maintain the highest standards at all times, meaning give total control of your life to the website.

The number of hours put in by volunteers like myself numbered close to what most of you would consider a part time job, but it came with no pay. Yes, there were perks. Free admission to the races, but you are required to work while there, and after you leave. That usually entailed spending 2-4 hours of time composing a story for everyone to read, both those who'd attended that event, and those who couldn't attend or chose not to. Still sounds easy, right? Well, what if you throw in the combination of a Saturday night show on a "Double Header Weekend" where you also were expected to attend the Sunday afternoon events, and write up a story on them also? Again, you're thinking, pretty cool, two race shows for nothing. BUT, you had get a decent nights sleep, after getting home at the earliest 11:30PM, and getting up to write the aforementioned Saturday night story, and get it in by the "DEADLINE"; a deadline somehow set by the self appointed mr vice-president, before leaving in plenty of time (Like 10:45AM) to cover Sunday's event. You arrive home on Sunday night, eat a quick dinner with your family, then pound out another 3 hour composition on that days events, and get it off in time to be posted on the website that night. Still sound like a "Cool Job"?

Recently, some numb skull all the way from Texas, who's racing expertise seems to be genetic, since his grandfather and father raced years ago (but he never has), started attacking me personally once more. Not so much as he did on his highly unsuccessful website, but attacking me personally nonetheless. In my job as administrator, I gave him some time off to think about things, and think; he didn't. He just resumed the attacks when he had access again. No surprise, it's probably his lifetime track record, if you get my drift. So, rather than be harsh with him again so soon, I just edited his comments to conform to what I felt was right, and he in turn, edited them back to what he wanted. No amount of explanation to mr. president about the problem was able to get this to stop, so I did the only other thing I could to get the message across; edited the content, and closed the posts.

My, my, what an earthquake like reaction that caused!!! Did mr. president, whom I'd explained the problem to thoroughly, finally realize there was a problem? Yep, he deemed the problem to be ME, and promptly suspended me from my duties in that UNPAID, VOLUNTEER job. This being not the first time for this to happen, and involving the same type of incident (emailing a response to a customer last time), I did the only thing there was left to do. After careful consideration, I decided I would no longer be an unpaid volunteer for an ungrateful mr. president, and let all the duties I'd previously performed slide back to him. I wonder how he'll write those stories now that he lives permanently out of State?

Now, of course, I'll have to be a paying customer to get my weekly racing fix, but hey, I can afford it, and after the experience of my last one week suspension (sounds like Junior High School, doesn't it?), I will enjoy attending races again like I haven't in quite some time. Thanks for the reprieve, mr president! It's also nice to remember that I still have a great relationship with all the track people, along with the drivers and teams, and look forward to seeing all of them soon.

   Walter Johnston is a well-known media personality on Long Island, and may be reached at Wizgrand@gmail.com.