A study by the Harvard Business Review with the title “Why Some Men Pretend to Work 80-Hour Weeks” sheds light on one of the more unfortunate aspects of my four-decade career in newspapers.

Before I get to the study, though, you need to know that newspapers are one of the worst-managed businesses you will ever find. The reason that’s often given is that they are run by creative people, and most creative people are not well-suited to managing others. 

Years ago, I worked for a city editor who kept a quotation from H.G. Wells at his desk that said something like: “No compulsion in the world is stronger than the urge to edit someone else’s copy.” The quote that I kept at my desk was from humor columnist Dave Barry, who once wrote that many news stories need a warning label: “Do not read! This story intended for contest entry only.”

My point is that journalists, myself included, are a surly, paranoid lot who don’t take kindly to other people telling them how to do their job, even when those people are their peers. 

But I’m straying. Let’s go back to my relatively brief career as a manager and the connection I felt with the Harvard Business Review article.

From 1998 until 2003, I was business editor of a staff of 10 at Iowa’s largest daily newspaper, which was owned by the nation’s largest newspaper chain. 

It was a job that I had aspired to for years, and which I finally got by default after an editor from outside Iowa quit after holding the job for less than a year. 

His departure created a vacancy, which I filled for nearly a year without the title or compensation. When I finally got the title, and a very small raise, I worked long hours, 80-100 hours some weeks, and I put together a staff that I thought did a good job and which won several awards. 

My bosses weren’t happy, though, because I didn’t always do what they wanted, usually because what they wanted was dumb. 

As a result, my first job review as business editor was a disaster. And it didn’t get much better when I learned that there was nothing I could do to affect my annual manager’s bonus, because the bonuses of all newsroom managers were tied to circulation and advertising goals that the newsroom had no control over. 

Did I mention that most newsrooms are dysfunctional? 

Anyway, the Harvard Business Review article by Erin Reid studied consulting firms where the “ideal worker” was expected to be “fully devoted to and available for the job, with no personal responsibilities or interests that interfere with this commitment to work.”

That’s a good description of the way I viewed my job when I became business editor, and I put in the hours to prove it.

Reid discovered that few of the consultants she interviewed wanted to work 60-  to 80-hour weeks, but virtually all said they did. 

Some of her consultants openly resisted and tried, usually without success, to balance family life and work. 

Others actively deceived their bosses by telling white lies, claiming to work when they were actually spending time with their families or doing other things. 

Reid’s conclusion was that in many cases, pretending to work was better than actually working because the pretenders did not become as demoralized as those who carried the burden. Plus, the deceivers were more likely to get promotions.

That was my experience too. I was not promoted. In fact, I was eventually invited to return to reporting. Meanwhile, managers who seemed to work as long as I did, but who avoided confrontations by disappearing for long periods during the day, were promoted.