Endangered species list: Newspaper staff photographer

I used to care about the products, along with a considerable amount of my coworkers, until it was made pretty clear to all of us that we were just a number.

That doesn't mean I go out of my way to make the product look shitty, unlike Starman. But if the product gets screwed up because we don't have enough people, I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

I sleep a lot better just worrying about myself and the people important to me than worrying about myself, the people important to me, and the product that I was helping to put out. When ownership starts showing some real commitment to their product (i.e. money), then maybe I'll care again.

 

If you loaf and do half-assed work, you're making it easier for them to make sure the next axe finds you.

 

They'll do it anyways. I've seen award-winning journalists who spent a lot of days kicking ass get handed the cardboard box.

 

If you do a half-assed job, you are only sabotaging yourself.

For many reasons:

1. The owner/publisher sees everyone as an expense at this point in cut-throat print journalism. If you half ass a job and a superior notices, it could leave you (even more) open for a layoff. That happened to many a former co-worker of mine.
2. If you get laid off, it becomes harder to find alternate employment.
3. If you half-ass your job and manage to keep it, it could keep you from being passed over for other assignments.

My advice, as someone who thought he was underpaid and overworked:
1. Work as hard as you can at your current job.
2. Learn as many skills as possible. If they want you to take photos, great. Do your best.
3. Show that you can do all kinds of work.
4. Apply for dozens of jobs in your spare time.
5. Network.
6. Get hired outside journalism.

If that's your end game, you will one day get there, even if it takes several years (it took me four years). But once you make that switch, EVERYTHING about life is better. Trust me on that one.

 

So you be less than you can be in response, with your name attached to it?
If they've robbed you of your desire to produce quality then they've taken everything.

 

I consider it pacing myself for my next challenge.

 

Is this a union shop?

 

Also endangered, newspaper buildings.


I've had the pleasure of working in some great newspaper buildings, knowing you were walking through the same doors as the writers you idolized as a kid, hearing the sound of the press running and getting the first run to take home at the end of a shift, having people come in off the street with a story (because everyone knew where the newspaper was, it was right downtown keeping an eye on the major institutions) and had been there for decades....I know what Rudy felt like running onto the field with the Irish.

 

Actually, they like me a lot because I do what they need me to do. Like I said, unlike Starman, I don't intentionally sabotage anything. I do my required work, and I'm always willing to help my coworkers.

At the same time, I don't go out of my way to get stressed out for them either. It used to be if a style question came up, I would look in the stylebook about it. Now I don't, because 1. I don't have the time, and 2. I don't care. I'm not going to waste time worrying if something is hyphenated or not.

It's the little things. Whereas before, I'd look for opportunities to put up photo galleries, and I'd put up 15 shots. Now, maybe I'll put up 10 or 12. Part of that, like I said, is having the time to do it. We've had layoffs, like everyone else, and I'm doing more as part of my duties. But that doesn't mean I'm going to get upset because I only put 12 photos in the gallery instead of 15.

It used to be if I made a mistake, I'd agonize over it. No longer. I don't have the time, nor the inclination. Life is too short.

 

Fuck that shit. None of those fuckers were professionally or intellectually qualified to pass judgment on my work. None of them were worthy of sniffing my nutsack. They were corporate-drone bean counters sent in to cut throats.

None of them ever said they had any problem with it anyway, so even half-assing it, what I was turning out was "good enough."

 

They go for the top of the pay scale. Performance has nothing to do with it.

 

Seen exceptions.
They're coming for all the jobs eventually.