D-Day Has Arrived At My Shop. Wish Me Luck.

I applied for a few part-time jobs at the mall and other stores and that's what I always hear.

 

That's what happened to me. You're fired, but we'd like you to stay two more weeks. I did it. Wasn't like I had anywhere to runoff to and I didn't want to leave money on the table.

Just reading this thread brings back flashbacks to those days. I think I'm going to go vomit.

Pete, I wish you well.

 

I'd welcome the extra month of pay.

No sense getting mad at that.

 

Glad you avoided the ax, Pete. You're good people. My paper is closing in a few weeks, and I know what that gut punch feels like. But we're all in the same boat -- think having some stay employed and some go would be really awkward and difficult.

That sounds kind of like I'm saying I'm glad were all losing our jobs, but hopefully it made some sense.

 

For those of you who take pictures as well as write, when I moved to my current town, I couldn't find a full-time job in journalism (moved here for doc's job) so I got a part-time job at a Picture People. Yeah, the kids are a pain in the butt sometimes, but most of the time, it's pretty nice.

 

This thread makes me think of an old interview I saw with Alfred Hitchcock, where he defines suspense in film terms. Said that having a bomb explode in a city bus is a shock and a surprise that lasts for a moment. But showing someone stash the bomb under a seat on that bus, and then showing the passengers and the boardings and exits and the timer of the bomb is what makes for true, agonizing suspense -- and that's a sensation as great or greater than the shock of the bomb itself exploding.

This industry has become Hitchcockian that way, I guess. We're not shocked or surprised by the bombs going off around us, but we still get that gut-wrenching feeling when we know there's a bomb in a newsroom somewhere set to explode sooner or later. Mostly sooner.

 

Damn Joe, I love your posts.

 

Every day we talk about the next time around my joint. The layoffs from January are done. Most of us feel a sigh of relief, but deep down we know better. The death rattle is getting louder.

 

And it's not getting any better...ever.

Glad you're employed, but sorry you had to go thru that today.

 

Not only that, it's so terribly random. It's not a process of paring the industry down to the good and essential. It's being pared with a machete.

 

Exactly. I now have two people (reporter and photographer) beneath me in seniority. And I'm sure I'll be gone next cuts. The question is, do corporations cut once a year or once a quarter? I'm guessing once a year because all this is in the budget for 2009.

 

Inky, you're a survivor. I agree with those who say you wife and child should get an extra hug and kiss each night before you turn in.

I have a friend who's an associate prof in ... a very prominent journalism school. I don't know whether to:

A. Ask him how he can sleep at night knowing he's leading lambs to the slaughter.

B. Hope he's giving these kids a comprehensive journalism education, including posting to the Web, taking and uploading pictures, recording and uploading audio, and if there's time a little bit of actual writing -- which is then posted to the Web.

C. Leave him alone and trust he's doing right by those students.

Under no circumstances would I ever recommend this career for anyone under the age of 25. Anyone who asks, I will tell them to acquire as many different skills as possible and keep an open mind about the industry in which to work. In the end, newspapers will have cannibalized themselves, and those at the top of the masthead looking for blame need only look in the mirror.

Makes me sick.