Through a Glass Darkly for Oct. 9, 2008

• By BOB ANDERSON
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Oct 9, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Few of us in any profession escape the stress of deadlines.

Contractors face deadlines when they build houses. Mechanics must meet them when they promise to have families’ cars ready for weekend trips. Lawyers have to file papers on time or see their cases thrown out of court in front of seething clients.

Earlier this year, the mayor of Walker’s bid for re-election died before his campaign began when a judge ruled that the mayor arrived a couple of minutes after deadline at the Livingston Parish Clerk of Court’s Office to file his qualifying papers.

Few professions are associated as closely with the word “deadline” as that of news reporters.

Many nights as I have covered meetings I’ve listened to political figures each try to get in the last word as I’ve watched the second hand on the clock spin. Sometimes their rhetoric becomes maddening as the big hand inches closer to the minute I know is the last instant at which I can hurry to my office, bang out a story and send it to an editor just one deep breath before deadline.

Then the pressure shifts to him to get the story edited by his deadline. From there it goes to the copy desk for a last reading, the writing of a headline and an electronic slap into the waiting hole on a page just in time to make a deadline to transmit to the printers. At the building where the presses sit idle, another set of deadlines must run its course before a bell rings and the presses start to roll.

I read recently that being a reporter is one of the top 10 most stressful jobs. That’s something people in the news business had already assumed. Strict deadlines are the biggest reason.

What I think stresses people most about work deadlines is the clash that they have with personal deadlines and obligations.

The mother who is up against the wall to meet a deadline at work, but also has to meet a deadline of picking a child up from school or day care often faces an untenable situation.

The guy who is waiting for one last phone call to finish a project at work, while the timer is going off on his wife’s oven as she finishes preparing their candlelight dinner knows he’s about to have a displeased wife, boss or both. If dinner guests are coming, the stress gets magnified.

Humans have faced deadlines for generations; but I suspect the number of deadlines we deal with daily have grown in our lifetimes. Some are thrust upon us. Some we agree to take on, especially if they seem a long way off.

Deadlines have the positive effect of motivating us to produce.

The downside is that they can leave us with stress that can shorten our lives and make our existences less fulfilling.