Life after sports

Agree with this view, although it can be awfully hard. Let's not overlook the possibility that management is trying to thin the herd without paying severance or offering a buyout. If you "quit" (when your career, your dreams and major parts of your life have been suddenly, unilaterally and arbitrarily changed on you), then they don't owe you anything beyond accrued vacation, etc. Traditionally, this is how slimeball managers have shed themselves of people, flexing their rights to "re-assign."

This is one more reason why this business seems unworthy of so many of us: Re-assigning someone in our business doesn't just mean the change of a title, the loss of promotion possibilities or a new cubicle. It means, most likely, new working hours, new schedule, possibly new work location (office vs. stadium, for instance) and tangible difference in work itself (byline-no byline, for defrocked writers anyway). Most jobs, you get screwed over to this degree, you still commute to the same place, still keep the same M-F schedule and work hours. This business, you might go from never working in the office to always working in the office, from having some schedule flexibility to working Wednesday-through-Sunday evenings, and so on.

As I see it, they don't pay us enough to deal with that sort of upheaval, just because management decrees a change is needed (assuming you haven't earned it by being fireable in the first place).

 

Be fortunate you weren't put on the junior high school girls field hockey beat. Sounds like you were kicked upstairs.

Sorry man. I can't say I know how you feel. You're getting moved into a position that at least on paper has more prestige than your previous gig. The closest I can come to understanding your feelings is when I was considering leaving my current shop for another position. The new gig promised more money and less responsibility. And I still had a tough time with that decision.

 

It may be sad, but consider this a step up. Because it is.

 

I, too, heard the rumblings of "you make too much to work in sports," but I quit before they could act on it.