Should I at least suggest a newly hired colleague consider a different profession?

Mid 90s, I was an up and comer, right out of the Navy, in college, and working part time at my paper. A grizzled vet of the paper (also a Navy veteran) asks, "What are you going to do when you get out of school?" Me, "I want to work here."
I can still see him. He took off his glasses, smacked his chewing gum about a dozen times like it was Satan, and said, "Oh, son... don't make the same mistake I did."
Flash forward about 10-12 years. A local boy was working as a summer intern. Me, "What are you going to do when you get out of school?" Him," I want to work here." I took off my glasses, took a drink of coffee (because I don't chew gum), grimaced, and said, "Oh, son... don't make the same mistake I did."

A few years later, I jumped off the Titanic. He did the same a couple of years later.

 

The first question Bill Miller, then the editor of the Boston Phoenix, asked me when I applied for the listings editor job there in 1977 was "can you live on the shit we pay?" My answer was "shit's better than the nothing I'm making now." I was hired on the spot, but I can't say I wasn't read my rights before I took the job.

 

What if I suggest she get a different job as soon as possible?

 

Fuck that fuckin’ guy.

 

There is absolutely nothing true about this sentence.

And even if he did say it, he said it in jest.

And if he did, and you actually believed him, then it might be you who needs to seek a new profession.

 

Think Frederik should talk to her

 

Most of us posting here are old enough that older co-workers were comparing our shops to the Titanic BEFORE the Leo/Kate Winslet movie came out.

After the movie, the comparison changed to the guys playing violins while the boat sank.

 

Regarding Mr. X's question ... don't offer that advice unsolicited. I have, on occasion, been asked by younger colleagues about their strengths/weaknesses as a journalist, and if they should stay in the business or get out. Even when they've asked for my honest opinion, they usually don't like what they hear.

It's something you have to find out/decide for yourself.

 

He did say it and did mean it. It is best not to tangle with him and some of the city's residents.

Bottom line is that he knows basically nothing about journalism. When he was younger, I felt the best way to describe him was "a rich boy with a toy" the toy being the paper he founded when he was in his 20s.

 

Fuck him. Find another job and get away from that asshole.

 

Are you talking to Mr. X, Mr. X's new co-worker, or both?