If you get laid off or bought out what will you do?

Baltimore is advertising for people who want to teach, but don't have teaching credentials -- you get paid the regular rate, including bennies, and get up to 75 percent off your tuition as you get your credentials.

 

I don't think I'm in any real danger at all, for now. Yet I've set up two lunch meetings over the next few weeks with a couple of very high-up PR people I've dealt with over the years. I didn't tell them exactly what I wanted to discuss, but my guess is they have a hunch. I just can't take the chance that our shop will prevail when so many have not, and I intend to be prepared if the axe falls.

And I like where I live a lot. I'm not going to move for the sake of remaining a newspaper person, particularly since doing so would likely require a huge sacrifice in salary that is impossible to reconcile against being married with two kids.

 

That's interesting sportschick. Thanks for the facts on Baltimore.
Sounds like a pretty fair deal.
It's an option for some people I'd think.

 

For the record, that's what my mother told me the Monster ad said about Baltimore, so it's second hand, but from a trustworthy source.

 

Well, first, I'll find another job. Or two, if that's what it takes to pay the bills.

The more important thing would be to find another career, which is high on my list even now. Doing agate is nice, earning a decent paycheck and being able to save for retirement is of the utmost importance to me. I put about as much trust in Uncle Sam as I do in my employer to be around in a few decades.

 

Joe Williams has the right idea. With that, I submit...

Go West, young man... yurt... organic vegetable growth... wide-open spaces... bookstore... riding bike... no cable or 'net... boobies... teach me to fish... no personal hygeine... mountains... clean air... big, hard sun...

 

If I get the ax, I'm blowing out of the state I've lived my whole life in and hoof it to the West Coast, probably Seattle, and take one more crack at rebooting. I'd stop in sportschick's fabric store on the way, natch.

 

Sportschick, if your mother hears about other states, lemme know.
Thanks.
I'll have to do some investigating myself on Vegas, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque,
Omaha.

 

Don't go back to the yurt. Serveitup's stinking up the joint. Man won't shower. He's lucky he grows a mean organic tomato.

 

I plan to follow in the footsteps of Brenda Leigh Johnson.

 

I'd really like to stay in journalism. I've been a journalist in some form for more than half my life. I love my job and I really can't picture myself doing anything else. I also really *really* don't want to have to go back to school.

I know I have job security right now and if I were to get laid off, it wouldn't be a big deal for me to pick up and move, being single and without so much as a fish to be dependent on my monetary income. (Plus, even though this is a LAST resort and I really hate doing it, my parents are financially well off and can help me through any monetary shortcomings that may come down the pike.)

I would look for another job in journalism. A few other ideas I've been having include going and working for a sports information department and/or (even though this is completely out there), going to law school.

 

I'd think twice about Omaha if I were you (assuming you're still on the teaching track). OPS is a nuthouse.

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If I get the gas:

1) Go see my folks. They haven't seen me in a year, and my grandma on my mother's side hasn't seen me since February of 2006.

2) String for the hometown daily as I:

3) Look for another newspaper gig. I'm not giving up — not yet.