"Getting out of the business" resource thread

So I had a city editor who took immense joy in making the people she didn't like miserable through scolding and bullying. This was in the Lean Dean MediaNews days and this one was one of the preferred people in the chain because she cozied up to him and his cohorts when she worked in Colorado, so really a protected one who could get away with anything and, when she wanted to move closer to her parents, was transferred to the closest paper in the chain.

Right off the bat she, who kinda resembled the little nerdy chickenhawk in the Looney Tunes cartoons, took on an immense dislike of a kid we hired right out of college a few months earlier, telling him she wouldn't have even hired him to work in the mailroom. When he wasn't being screamed at over the phone for something he had done wrong (at one point nearly bringing the guy to tears), it was in email. He finally found an escape hatch and left for a communications job at a non-profit up the road.

And so it went. There always needed to be someone to put in the doghouse and scold. Next was the newly hired education reporter. Then after he was run off it was my turn until I was let go. For six months, I feared opening my email and seeing what vitriolic and belligerent message awaited. She figured out what tasks I didn't like doing at this job and they soon became by responsibilities in addition to my beat -- weekends, early mornings, video shooting and editing. I still remember the day I was fired because I consider it a day of celebration -- November 16 -- for I was truly more relieved to be rid of this person than worried about what my future held. I'd find out within a year that it was nothing personal because the person brought in to replace me endured a similar fate.

Fast forward nine years and, coincidentally, I'm at my day job on my birthday. By this point I have been freelancing for three years and the editors have mostly been pleased with the work I've been producing. I don't live in fear of emails, phone calls or text messages anymore. Around noon, I get a text message from a Pennsylvania number that I don't recognize.

"Did you know that (our former editor) was fired?"

I replied "Umm, who is this?"

It was the original guy that she had been managing through vendetta. The paper she was working for was bought out by Gannett and she could see the writing on the wall and started sending out resumes, one of which arrived at the non-profit my old coworker landed at. Since he was high up in the communications department at that point, it landed on his desk. We shared a nice exchange for a few minutes commiserating about that time in our lives and how it all turned out okay for both of us -- and also how it wasn't turning out okay for her.

 

You know, if you have a spare hour sometime, read this thread front to back. It reads like a good longform.

 

I hope the old coworker contacted the ex-editor and notified her that there wasn’t a chance in hell that she was going to get hired.

 

I told him to bring her in for an interview so she had to see who was doing the rejecting. He, thankfully, is more mature than me and simply tossed the application.

 

Too bad. I would have sent her a letter or email instead. Yeah, I’m not mature:

“Dear Ex-Editor:

Your application for our open position was received. I hope you recognize my name below, as I used to be one of the employees at the Bumfuck Daily Herald that you used to scream at, insult, berate, browbeat, and otherwise make my professional life miserable. I really should thank you, as your supervision, for lack of a better word, motivated me to seek another career which led me to this wonderful organization and this opportunity to be the hiring manager for our opening.

Needless to say, while your credentials are certainly vast and impressive, after a few nanoseconds of consideration, our office will be looking elsewhere to fill our opening as there is not a chance in hell that I will ever want to subject any of our valued employees to your style of “managing”.

I hope you learn someday that it’s always better to be kind to those on your way up the ladder because you may very well see those same people on your way down.

Politely wishing you luck in your future endeavors.

Cordially,

Better Than You Are Hiring Manager.

 

Two months after this happened, the 2019 BASW came out and a story I did was listed in the back. An old coworker from that stop texted and said "Are you going to send this over to (that editor) and (the other one there who enabled it)?" I said, "No need. I know I won and they lost."

Maybe I have matured a bit too.

 

I've shared this story before. Even without naming names, somebody on here recognized who I was talking about, having encountered him elsewhere.
He was the editor, a screamer who expressed his displeasure at full volume throughout the newsroom. And it was usually personal.
For me, emotions ran from fear (dammit, I'm going to get fired), to fright (shit, he is mad at me again), to shrugs (oh well, my job is on the line again, let me get the horse racing agate coded). For my boss, the SE, it was worse. He got the brunt of the attacks and reached the breaking point. One day he arrived at work at 8 a.m. and the editor immediately jumped on his ass. The SE put a piece of paper in the typewriter, wrote "I resign, effective immediately" and walked out of the door. Later, he told me he had no intention of quitting when he came to work that day, but he and his wife had talked about it. He felt relief and was glad he quit, despite not having another job lined up.
A few years later, I got word that the editor, who had moved on, was killed in a car accident. I called my former SE and told him. He said, "Dammit, I didn't want him to die, I just wanted him to feel pain for a little while."

 

Well, I’m still there and though I don’t know for sure. I think I’ve weathered the storm and found my niche, something I enjoy and I have some ability and better understanding of it.

I still have some misgivings about the early months of my job. For most of the first four months, I worked from home because the internet wasn’t ready in the office. If you’re new to a job it’s not very conducive to learning (at least for me) and I think it set me back quite a bit.

The training was kind of half-assed. Sometimes it was just “Here’s the manual, read it.” Sometimes it was just a quick how-to without any effort to make sure I really understood the job. I ended up getting a verbal warning with my first review. There was something I didn’t even know was a job requirement until I got dinged at the review for not doing it.

Last Christmas was a classic example. Another newbie and I were the only people on. It was supposed to be an easy day. Then some things happened that both of us (working alone in different shifts) were new situations we had not encountered until then. With little to no guidance we did the best we could but got in trouble because “the messaging fell below standards.”

Then there was one other thing for which I was written up, supposedly a “safety violation.” I did what I thought I was supposed to do but it trout I was supposed to handle it differently.

I think I’ve turned it around now but I still don’t quite know what to make of it. We’ll see at the next review.

 

My paper is on its last legs, and I've been actively applying to places for the last three or so months. Not much interest; out of over 30 applications, I've been notified of referral to hiring manager about five times, and have gotten two interviews.

I'm aiming mostly at university communication jobs. There is an open assistant athletics communication job at my alma mater I'd love to have and think I'd be a good fit for, but I'm worried about not making it passed HR screening software.

What is considered acceptable re: contacting a hiring manager directly? The CoSIDA job listing has a contact (head SID), but I'm not sure what is considered acceptable as far as contacting such a person.

 

I am not sure there is a hard and fast rule about contacting the hiring manager directly. Used to be, that was how you “set yourself apart.” These days, it could be how your resume gets binned. It’s just impossible to know.

What DOES seem to be consistently beneficial is if someone else contacts the hiring manager on your behalf. If there’s a mutual connection somewhere in your network and that connection recommends you, that seems to be the best way to move up on the list.

 

Thank you!

 

I have inoculated myself mostly from punching out of journalism altogether.

I sold a small 40-acre property recently that will eliminate about 80% of my debt. Paying off 2 credit cards and about 3/4 of a third in full is huge. Probably will be able to deal with the rest in a year or two afterward.

(I have a side hustle that frankly is paying more than journalism.)