Missing It

Hope it works out! Let us know from time to time how it's going. I had an opportunity to interview for an editing position with a newsletter publisher a year or so ago and turned it down because of a few other things that were going on at the time. If something like that comes along again, I won't pass it up.

 

If you were good at reporting and writing, you'll be good at Internet marketing. I did it for a few years in between sportswriting careers. It actually rebuilt my self-esteem. I was glad to find out that my skills translated to another type of writing. I found writing SEO copy to be a lot like writing a story. Blocks of quotes kill a story and blocks of keywords will drop you in the Google rankings. You have to be a good enough writer to come up with decent prose around judicious use of the quotes (and keywords).

The irony was I got paid less and more sporadically in that awful job than I ever did in any journalism-related endeavor, which is why that awful job is my former job. But I didn't hate the work and would have no problem pursuing that type of job if the fates dictate another career shift.

 

I miss the people, and talking to them -- all the former colleagues, and even competitors, as well as many sources, and some subjects.

Beyond that, I don't miss anything.

But that one thing? It's a biggie, and the reason I still hang out around here at all.

 

This is why I despise newspapers, bean counters, publishers, mid level editors who drank the koolaide to keep a job. People are not valued in this business. Nobody at your company gives a shit about you, evidenced by never getting a raise. You are a commodity and if you are making over a certain amount of money you better believe it's been discussed getting rid of you. Sad sad business to treat people this way. No raises equals NO RESPECT. You are worthless in the eyes of the company as am I and all of us.

 

Pro tip, sir Fredrick ... the bulk of us are worthless to all companies.

 

Well, I was starting to feel better about my lot in life ...

 

I think what keeps most of us in, despite our frequent misery, is how afraid we are of change, or the fear that the grass isn't greener on the other side. For me? I don't want to be my friends or my parents, who do the exact same shit every single day of their lives and live for the weekends. But the reality is that the grass is sometime greener for those who get out.

 

I may be in the business only another month or so (more layoffs coming down the pike soon), but the things I will miss have been gone for quite a while now anyway.

We're so isolated in our new building that you have to get up and walk over to someone's desk to say something to them. There's no "energy" in our budget meetings --- only resignful decisions about what will get left out because of space and what won't make the print edition because of time. There's just no feeling that anything we're doing "matters" anymore. And that's what I miss most.

 

Do I miss it? Definitely not.

Not the hours. Not the deadline pressure. Not the lousy pay.

I miss seeing my journalism friends every day, but that's what social media is for.

 

Bingo. My sister-in-law was laid off on Sunday, after 36 years with her company. On the way out the door as she finished her shift, she was stopped, told her job had been eliminated, and made to hand in her employee badge. This was in the transportation industry.

As much as most of us think the people in newspaper management are complete weasels, weaselhood is pretty much the standard in all forms of business these days.

 

Bingo. I'm not a "what's wrong with our youth these days" type, but there is something seriously wrong with our economy. I mean, when did it become normal to not give raises for solid performance? Better yet, when did it become customary to treat employees like garbage?

 

True, but I do believe newspapers OWN this award as being the worst. Sorry for your sister in law, though. She was treated by scum on her last day.