Dealing with praise from the publisher

So does a mid-year merit raise.

 

It's not so much him, it's the parents that can cause me problems in getting a job in the city's leading industry, which isn't journalism.

My fear is that I'll be in a job interview with a parent involved in the city's leading industry and he or she will say, "I heard your leaving the [name of paper] and it is dropping its sports coverage. Because of that, my child won't get a college scholarship."

I want the parents to think well of me when they consider me for a job in the leading industry.

(I also hope they don't figure out that if they hire me, that would be the end of the sports coverage. I could work out a deal that I would cover their child's team on company time.)

Publisher has said if I leave, he will drop sports coverage in part because no one can match the historical perspective I can put into the stories.

It doesn't matter that I only put the historical perspective into 10 percent or less of the roundups I write. (He's big on historical perspective.)

Another problem could be that no one will want to do this, in part because of the pay and low chance of advancement.

You would make as much or more stringing for a daily, which is so much easier (only one game to worry about and when its 10:30 p.m. you don't have to worry about it anymore), combined with the chance of getting a part-time or full-time job with a daily.

My hope is that I can just get a letter of recommendation from the publisher. He wrote one for me in 2003. The same one dated in 2008 would suit me just fine.

 

Graveyards are full of irreplaceable men.

 

My head hurts.

Do what is best for you. What you are worrying about if a bunch of what-ifs and could-happens.

Find a better job, then take it. It's called capitalism. Anyone in the city's leading industry will understand the concept.

 

My hope and plan is to send out e-mails within a week trying to get a new job.

However, these parents can be very, very difficult to deal with.

I am also hoping for a meeting with the publisher soon to discuss my future with the newspaper.

 

When you get praise for a boxer, well, then we're in a whole other territory ...

as for the original question, what moddy said.

Thank you. It's nice to have your work acknowledged.

Don't make it into anything more than it is.

 

[blue]
Dear Pub,
I know I did a great job. I always do. What took you so long to notice? Can't you tell I'm f*&#ing awesome?

Your humble sports writer
[/blue]

 

Mr. X, if you are qualified for a position in 'the city's leading industry' and that's where you want to be, then by all means, apply for the damn job.

If your publisher is telling you he'll drop sports coverage if you leave, that is BLACKMAIL. He's trying to make you feel guilty so you'll stay.

At the risk of sounding mean, get a backbone!

Those parents aren't going to be quite as vicious as you're picturing them to be. All I can say is I know of what I speak.

 

Mr. X,
I really am trying -- and failing -- to understand your problem. You got praise from the publisher? Say thanks. That's all you have to do. It's simple. It doesn't require advice from posters on a message board.
The publisher says he'll drop coverage if you leave? That's his problem. Why do you give a fuck?

 

I got a nice 'thank you' note from a publisher for not drowning her on a 40-mile boat ride. Only one I ever got from a publisher.
A decade earlier, I got nasty notes from most of the staff for not drowning the corporate CEO when I had him on a boat ride in a desolate location.
She was a nice person.
He was not.
He retired with a gigantic golden parachute.
She quit, apparently in disgust.
I took an early buyout and am happy.
Sort of miss her, not him.

 

As someone who left a job and found out that the position wasn't replaced ... that's not your fucking problem. How do you expect to make an impact enough to get a job within this leading industry if you're too scared to quit your shit job? And if you can't get over this irrational fear of parents of people you cover (which it's not your fucking job to get little Johnny a scholarship), then fuck it, you deserve your lousy job. I apologize if I come across as an asshole.

 

You do.
Apology rejected.