Is anybody else finding it hard to tear away from the biz?

I've been in the business for a year and a half. I figured out about six months ago that just because I love sports, doesn't mean that employers can treat me anyway they like (long hours, low pay, etc.). So I'm done. Whoever wants to work six days and 50+ hours a week for $25k can gladly have this job. The first company to offer me a job -- whether it's teaching or selling crack -- I'm taking it. This shit is for people who have accepted the fact that they will be broke and not have a life outside of their career. Maybe that's you guys' dream - to break a big story and go home to your roach-invested apartment - but me, I'm officially done. Life is about much more than telling the world about how many points some future janitor scored at Podunk High.

 

I found a video of newspaperman! (NSFW audio)

 

You still love sports?

 

Big Circus, that video portrays me exactly. But I will personally say "fuck you" to everyone in the building (ad salesmen, secretary, janitor) the day I leave the biz...LOL. And stitch, yeah I love sports - but I also like being able to pay my rent on time and see my family. Those things take precedent over watching some future inmate play a sport with 30 people in the stands.

 

I'd tear away from the biz in a second if I could find a job nearby that paid more, the same or slightly less.

 

I had many of the same feelings about "tearing away." I fought with it, but ultimately decided to make a move for many of the same reasons most of the posters here have.

I left newspapers this year and I'm working in sports information for a D-II state college. I will have close to three weeks off over Christmas -- any nominal work over that period can be done from home. Yes, the hours and days can be long at times, but I'm accustomed to that. And, after the days of shrinking deadlines and space limited my capabilty to write as a small-paper SE, I'm doing more writing now than ever. Looking forward to wide open blocks of time with the family in June and July as well.

For me, this has been the perfect leap. Good people, good work, good times -- and no annoying little league parents that the publisher wants me to call back. Sign me up.

 

Oh, and I got a raise, something I didn't get from newspapers for three years.

 

It's funny, as the thread's creator, how much things have changed in my personal outlook in a year and a half.

 

Going back and reading your first post, I'd be really interested for you to elaborate on this. Did you take the job? (Apologies if that answer is later in the thread.)

I've now got two shifts left in my full-time newspaper career and "mixed feelings" is an understatement. I'm really curious as to how you feel.

 

I did not, though it was not necessarily through my own volition (I didn't get it). It was, looking back, a wise decision.

I rode out my situation last year, which wasn't overwhelmingly negative, but I couldn't say it was really positive either. I was marooned from friends and family, biding my time in sports journalism purgatory at a job that was just fine, but it wasn't great. Kept my head down, kept applying and eventually took a nice sports writing job - solid step up, nothing ostentatious - about 100 miles from where I'm from, in the town I went to college, no less. Loving the new gig, new coworkers, new area etc...

I'm not emotionally attached to this profession, but I enjoy it. A lot. If I find a legit avenue out, I'm taking it. But for now, I'm more than okay to be doing what I'm doing. Circumstance changes everything.

 

I love this job, but if I hadn't started up a new magazine for our paper, I would have been gone about six months ago.

The constant stress - and unnecessary stress, mind you, due to the whining of parents and self-consumed coaches - I think is beginning to take its toll. I don't know what I'd do next, but I love challenges, which is why the new magazine has rejuvenated me for the time being. I love newspapers and I love sportswriting, but, as others have said, I'm begging to reap its effect on my quality of life, or lack thereof.

It will take a lot to pry me away from the biz. But the fact I'm even considering it tells me a lot.

 

It's been almost 2 years since I was laid off for the second time. After that happened I was faced with the decision of either picking up the pieces and trying to catch on somewhere else or just saying "fuck it" and finding something else to do with my life.

I said "fuck it."

I haven't really found another career niche yet. There are many things that interest me but I've mostly just been working odd jobs and searching for direction, searching for something that strikes a chord in me like writing does. I'm incredibly passionate about the business and there are many times when I reflect back and I tell myself that I miss it. I feel like there is a void in my life without it.

HOWEVER....

Despite missing the business, the logistics of my life are so much better now. I have nights and weekends free and actually get to go out and do social things like normal people. I don't have to put 3,000 miles a month on my car. For the first time in my life, I make "decent" money (despite just working idle jobs and not really having a career to speak of). I have gotten engaged and will be getting married in the spring and buying a home shortly after. A few years down the road we are planning on starting a family. These are all things I want and are all things I had trouble visualizing while living the sports writer lifestyle. The quality of my life is most definitely better now. No question about it. I try to still keep one foot in the business with a little freelancing and occasional stringing to get my fix. But I no longer rely on it to put food on the table. And that's a good feeling.

Sometimes, just for a second, I will wonder what it would be like if I hadn't said "fuck it." If I had soldiered on and picked up somewhere else and continued on in the business. And for a split second I feel some regret. But then I remind myself that if I'm placing a career ahead of love, family and happiness than my priorities are all fucked up. And I feel much better.

I sometimes regret having spent 4 years in my mid 20's living in the middle of bumblefuck nowhere simply because of a job while all my good friends were hours away raising hell in the big city (where I secretly wanted to be). But I chose career over life. Now I'm going back on that decision and choosing life over career.