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

There are jobs out there, for people desperate to stay in the business. It just depends how much you want it, how much you are willing to sacrifice in terms of money, time, freedom, etc. No, you're not going to make enough to support a family, buy a house, take fancy vacations, etc.

But if covering sports --- particularly preps in small towns --- is really what one wants to do, there ARE opportunities out there, as evidenced on the SJ job board and elsewhere.

 

here is a different perspective. as journalists, we grew accustomed to having the career define us, probably because the business is so unique as compare with most careers. most people are not defined by their career - or if they are, they shouldn't be. work is a necessity in our society. get out, do whatever pays the bills and find other sources of satisfaction.

 

Guess I was fine being defined by the career when it actually was a career, with room to grow and advance and have respect flow up and down the ladder, etc. Shoot, I even was fine being defined by the work, never mind "career." But I'm not so fine being defined by the job, now that the job has been so diminished and can be pulled from under you like a chair in the high school cafeteria. Not when the majority of the public either dislikes us or ignores us and even our managers resent us for the cost to them that we represent.

The worst part of all this is that so many of us hardly ever thought about the paycheck or the perks, as long as we were allowed to just do what we do well, with a minimum of interruption and a modicum of ambition. Now we're constantly interrupted by managers whose ambitions are shrinking down to mere survival, and we end up fretting all the time about our shrinking paychecks and vanishing perks. Or jobs.

This was a bad deal in the best of times, compared to lots of other jobs, but I loved it. Now it's just a bad deal getting worse.

 

Had a good friend and roommate try to teach me this lesson when we were 20 years old. It didn't sink in, then. It has now.

 

The super regionals started Friday.

The Baton Rouge Super Regional started Friday.

The NCAA added super regionals in 1999.

Arkansas won the Tallahassee Super Regional.

That's my contribution, which should answer the question in the subject line.

 

It's hard because I don't want to tear away from it. I love what I do too much to want to give it up. Could I be happy doing something else? Yes, I could. But as long as sportswriting jobs exist, I don't want to do something else.

 

My significant other and I are both in the business. It's hard to imagine leaving when the business is what brought us together (we worked on the school paper in college). But at the same time, we want to have a family, and we're not sure if we can do it when we both work nights. Also, my pay got cut, and my SO often works 60- to 70-hour weeks and doesn't get overtime (he's salaried, but he often makes less than the people under him because they get overtime).

What bothers me most is that everyone at my job is miserable, and it's affecting me off the clock because I dread the moment I have to go back. I don't have friends here except for those who work at the paper, and every conversation tends to turn into a bitchfest because we're frustrated at work.

Lately, I've been struggling with the idea of making a difference. Some of you do when you write stories about high school kids who have worked hard to get a college scholarship or athletes who've come back from a harrowing injury. But I've been on the desk my entire (albeit brief) career, and I don't feel like I make a difference, certainly not when editing wire copy.

 

I hate our business right now (and the wage freeze the most; fucking greedy assholes), but I don't know if you or anybody should worry about making a difference.
I don't think many jobs "make a difference" unless you are a counselor, a religious, maybe a devoted medical personnel person. Making a difference isn't really part of our business and I'm sure you knew that going in. Now be a volunteer in Africa and you make a difference maybe.

 

I've written those kinds of stories, and I've also worked the news and sports desk. In my experience, the more rewarding job has ben a grass-is-greener-type thing. If you're improving stories that make a difference, that's being part of the difference, too.

 

Fredrick: You don't think that journalists who report on neglected children or shed light on government improprieties are making a difference?

jlee: I often wonder how I would feel if I weren't just whacking and stacking wire copy all the time.

Teaching is a career I have considered. I know the salary is usually piddly when measured against what teachers actually do, and it can be a tough, thankless job, but I wonder if that would matter as long as I'm doing something that's a) affecting lives, hopefully for the better, and b) personally fulfilling. I've thought about a teaching program at a CC just to test the waters.

 

I'm talking about the person who posted it. A regular high school sports reporter. The basic sports writer doesn't make much of a difference, maybe make some kids and their parents happy once in a while, but that's about it.

 

Agreed. Work to live, not the other way.

I was forced out of the business and would not go back ever. There would just be another paper waiting to force me out the door and I will be a few years older with even less options.