Is it worth it?

I was fine with the pay. I feel like I did pretty well as far as that was concerned. I could even deal with the hours, constantly being on call and the travel. It got tougher as I got married and had kids, but I was in for the long haul.

But when layoffs started to happen, it sucked every ounce of enjoyment I had out of the job. Knowing that I could work my ass off, do a good job, do everything that was asked of me and more and that it might not be enough was insane to deal with. I spent almost two years (and five rounds of layoffs) wondering when it was going to be my turn to go.

It sucks the life out of you. Watching friends and co-workers get let go was just brutal. I remember being in the office once, and they tapped a photo editor on the shoulder and said, "They need to see you in HR." and just feeling sick to my stomach.

 

You ever see the movie "Rollerball" (or read the short story "Roller Ball Murder," which is infinitely better)? How they keep constantly changing the rules of the game and every change makes it more and more difficult to succeed and less and less likely you'll survive?

That's what the past 10 or so years have been like in the newspaper business.

 

What? The pay, hours and travel didn't kill you? Now we're throwing social media, furloughs and layoffs at you? Plus, we're taking away your copy editors!

 

At one time, this job was fun.

I was paid a decent amount of money for working 40-50 hours a week for nine months of the year, and 30-40 during the summer.

Things changed.

• The industry began dying.
• Photographers were let go, and we were forced to take our own pictures.
• Reporters and editors quit, and were not replaced, forcing us to do more for the same wages.
• Computers that said "Bumblefuck Elementary School" on the copyright because yes, even elementary-school students are using better equipment than we are.
• No raise in six years.
• Those who moved on were replaced with low-experienced (and oftentimes high-maintenance) people who were ill-equipped to have the position, but were willing to work for peanuts.
• Then douchebags just out of high school began bitching because I'm salaried and good, and get my pages designed faster than them.
• Then management began listening to the little bastards, and I had even more work dumped on me.
• Then I had rods screwed into my back, making sitting on plastic and aluminum benches unbearable, and making toting a seat cushion along with a notebook and camera, almost impossible.
• Then parents began bitching because they think their kid and four others are the best on the team and should be All-Area. They began calling the house with their complaints.
• Then, every time some bumblefuck jock was arrested, nobody at the school would talk and everybody at home blamed the sports guy.
• Then, every time you covered a team that was actually pretty good, they made it to regionals, where they had their ass handed to them by the rich kids from country clubs at the private schools.

Yeah, this job used to be fun.

 

Sorry for the above rant, but damn, I feel better.

 

I wouldn't do it again had I the choice.

 

Anyone can cover a high-profile event. It's the other stuff that separates the wheat from the chaff.

It is good you are frustrated now. You have time to find something you'll enjoy.

 

Let's not overlook the fact that other industries have layoffs, too. Hardly unique. There are no guarantees in life.

 

On top of that, the diminishing respect, from both the general public and the suits signing the checks. Quality becoming less and less important by the day. Dwindling sense of pride in our profession. Plus, as jobs are eliminated, it lowers the chance for young or young-ish workers to move up, leaving those of us way too young to retire but too old to start over in a never-ending purgatory of mediocrity.

 

No doubt. But it seems journalism is a one-trick pony. When I was laid off, the only industry that would return my phone calls were other newspapers.

 

For those saying get out while you still can, do other industries even want those of us with newspaper backgrounds? Genuinely curious.

 

Absofuckinglutely.

Writing scares the hell out of people. I'm not talking about any kind of creative writing, I'm talking about putting together a 500-word letter.

Grant/proposal writing is very fertile ground (and a place where you can build a resume by doing some kind of volunteer grant assignment, maybe for your kids' school or something). Anything else in communications, whether media or corporate. The mechanics of language are elusive to many people. That's your marketable skill.