Secret Rules

At my now-former newsroom, we had a reporter who bragged all the time about her out-of-town boyfriend (he would come to visit her every weekend) and how he came from a rich family, how in love they were, etc. It wasn't long after she left we found out she was screwing our married circulation director (twice her age) who lived across the street from her. She broke up with her boyfriend after she left, then started screwing the lead anchor (also married) at the TV station where she went to work. When her contract was up there, the station didn't renew it.

 

We had a couple of newsroom romances that worked out into highly successful marriages. There were a couple, too, that were pretty destructive to everyone involved.

 

Work twice as hard as everyone else your first 2 years on the job. Volunteer to do other assignments. You can live off this reputation for 20 years even if you slack for the last 18.

 

People work in the same place for 20 years still?

 

19 years, left for 7, came back and have been there for 7 and counting. I’ve essentially had 3 full time jobs since I graduated from college. Bunch of p/t clerkships and the like. Lots of jobs from middle school through college.

 

Nice. I worked with some "old-timers" at my last newspaper gig (one guy started when he was 17 and retired from there at 64), but I have bounced around a lot since college. Longest place I have worked is right now ... and I work for myself (6-plus years and loving it!).

 

I was my last stop for seven and a half years. I really should've left after 18 months.

Stop before that was three and a half years and if not for family reasons, there's a chance I'd still be there — if I avoided mass layoffs.

Before that I had four full-time jobs in three and a half years after college. I made some bad decisions in the jobs I left and in the jobs I took.

Been here two and a half. I've repeatedly told everyone they'll need to carry me out in a pine box. It isn't perfect, but I have a great boss who always has our backs. Some folks on our team are jaded, and I'm the one reminding them that we have it pretty good.

 

In my journalism career, I made six different stops (for nine different jobs) in a shade less than a decade.

Post-journalism, I’ve had one (1) job for going on 13 years.

 

26.5 years at my third and final stop. Got out just at the right time.

 

Been at my one and only stop for 24 years.
The first couple of years, I wasn't good enough to get another decent job.
Then I was good enough, but we had a great crew I enjoyed working with for the next couple of years.
When that crew broke up I was about to get married and didn't want to make a major move.
When I did think about making a major move, it wasn't the right one and I passed — which turned out to be a good decision, since the industry tanked about a year later and that position was eliminated soon after I would have taken it.
When our paper was sold a few years later I survived the layoff purge and an ensuing newsroom power struggle.

Now, after all of that, I'm a made man here. I keep the trains running smoothly and on time, and get a lot of schedule flexibility and creative freedom in return. Since our print schedule was reduced during the pandemic, I even get a lot of weekends off.
We've all seen how that sort of situation can turn on a dime, but why would I leave at this point? Other than the pay, it's a pretty cushy gig. Almost a dream job.

 

This tangent also brings to mind a secret rule — an astonishing number of people are bad at their jobs. The secret to long-term success isn't necessarily to be exceptional at what you do, but rather to be reliable and competent. If you show up on time, get your work done on time, and don't make stupid mistakes, you'll soon find yourself ahead of the overwhelming majority of people in whatever industry you're in.
I'll never be the greatest reporter or the greatest writer ever. I won't innovate much. There are a lot of new skills I've been slow to pick up. But by mastering those traits I feel like I'm still ahead of at least 75 percent of the people working in this business even on my worst day.

 

That's a secret rule: Fly under the radar. Don't say much. Do your job. Even if you don't do it spectacularly, do it. Reliability is underrated.