Q: I’m the editor in chief of a college newspaper. My staff is relatively small and there are several positions that have gone unfilled. I’m having a hard time getting some members of my staff to do all of the work they have been assigned – much less take on extra work to make up for the missing staff members. Everyone complains that they are too busy with school and other obligations, and some only do certain parts of their job duties. I feel that I’m to blame because I wasn’t assertive enough in the beginning — mainly because I was so desperate for editors — but I’m starting to feel extremely overwhelmed by all the extra work I now have to take on. Firing them obviously won’t help decrease my workload, and there’s no one to replace them. How can I get my staff to start pulling their...
