Why I Quit My Dream Newspaper Job After 4 Months

Devon Maloney's mom?

 

I wouldn't have lasted long enough for the waiter to take the order. She's something else.

 

After work meeting? Were they offering OT?!

 

First they killed the travel budget, but I didn't speak out because I never go anywhere.

Then they killed the freelance budget, but I did nothing because I am not a freelancer.

They they hired some 20-something millennial to be my boss and tell me how to tweet, and I gave her so much guff she left after four months.

Then they came for the free coffee and there was no one left to save the caffeine.

 

I feel ya on the coffee, but no one values it when you give it away for free.

 

Well said. I do agree with Dick about millennials, but this was the the part that got me. Quitting her first real newspaper job after four months will not help her land another one anytime soon, which she may be fine with ... for now. At some point, though, having heath insurance, a steady paycheck and real benefits becomes important, if not vital, to almost every grown-up not living in poverty.

 

Still, as I look at it, this is a win-win. She gets the chance - imaginary or not - to go follow her bliss and someone else gets a crack at this job. (Or maybe her leaving saves someone else's paycheck at the Times.)

 

Dunno, maybe the snowball effect of having to compete for recognition in a over-crowded job market. How do you make yourself stand out? Talking about yourself incessantly to anyone who will listen seems to be the framework.

 

It is not so much competing for recognition as it is believing everything you do deserves recognition.

At the risk of picking up one of Dick's pet causes here, this is the generation that "graduated" from almost every year of school and had 8th-birthday parties that exceeded in grandeur what previous generations did for their 40th.

 

Looking back on the dog-walking allowance discussion: The shocking thing is that a salary increase was available in this era of shrinking revenue, cost cuts and layoffs. It's a safe bet that this won't happen under the new publisher, who's known to be quite heavy-handed with the budget-cutting ax.

 

So that's who let the dogs out.

 

Whatever happened to chaining the dog to a tree in the backyard? When did that go out of style?