Work Rules Govern Private Lives

By: Randy Dotinga For a young, single reporter named Kelly McBride, getting a job at The Spokesman-Review didn't mean she could settle down in the newspaper's home city, the most happening place in eastern Washington. Instead, she found herself living and working in Idaho, far from the bright lights of Spokane.

No written regulation required her to live near the bureau where she was based. But McBride knew the score: her bosses wanted her to live in the region she covered, and resistance was futile. "If you challenge the rules, you face the possibility of consequences," said McBride, who later got demoted to an undesirable beat -- the night "cops" shift -- after moving to Spokane with her boyfriend.

McBride, now an ethics faculty member at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., regrets not challenging the policy. It turns out that she could have had a case. While plenty of newspapers set rules governing the personal lives of their employees, some may be less than legal.

In California, for example, a three-year-old state law prevents employers from taking any action against employees who engage in legal activities outside the workplace, said Lisa Klerman, an employment attorney with the Los Angeles law firm of Morrison & Foerster. At least 20 states have similar laws, although those in California and New York are among the most strict, Klerman said.

The state legislature designed the California law to protect the civil rights of employees, Klerman explained. But at the least, it appears to imply that newspaper reporters can live where they want and perhaps even engage in touchy activities like supporting political causes and sleeping with sources. "Maybe it wasn't designed to encompass things like that, but it's written so broadly that it casts a wide net," Klerman said.

The existence of the California law came as a surprise to Marian Needham, the Newspaper Guild's former director of contract administration. But she's very familiar with the desires of employees to keep their bosses out of their private lives. Ideally, union employees would like to see contracts that allow them to engage in any activities on their own time, said Needham, who now works for the guild as a sector representative. But, "practically and realistically," contracts usually forbid employees from working for competitors or exploiting their positions as employees of a newspaper, she said.

Guild chapters also negotiate ethics policies that limit the activities of newsroom employees. Some policies are quite extensive. The New York Times, for example, just issued an ethics guide that runs to 44 pages. "If a newspaper chooses to have such a policy that's going to affect people's terms and conditions of employment, it needs to deal with the union," Needham said. In the case of the Times, negotiations were held with Local 3 of the New York Guild.

Plenty of newspapers, of course, don't have unions to worry about and fail to set precise standards about rules affecting private lives. But there are exceptions.

The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., for example, makes no bones about expecting employees to live within the circulation area instead of in nearby Seattle. The newspaper rarely makes exceptions to its policy, said Executive Editor David Zeeck. And top newsroom editors never get special dispensation.

"Having people write or edit the paper who have limited affinity, familiarity, and stake in the community is like fighting a war with mercenaries," Zeeck said. "They may be involved, but they aren't as committed as those who have a true stake in the community."

Some might question the newspaper's strict policy, which could make life difficult for single employees and others who may feel more comfortable in diverse Seattle. (Zeeck said the policy has never been a problem.) But The News Tribune deserves credit for making its expectations clear from the start instead of leaving employees to navigate a sea of vague unwritten rules.