Missing It

I live outside D.C. too, and the rush hours are awful but at least they're predictable (i.e., when the breakaways are, where to avoid). Disclaimer: I don't commute downtown, and if I did, I live close enough to public transportation that I'd certainly never drive.

It's when there's an accident or 100, or, God forbid, a single flake of snow and every road within a 50-mile radius is gridlocked that just sucks the soul right out of you.

The main thing I miss is doing grocery shopping at off-peak hours. Standing in a 12-deep line at Safeway is infinitely worse than most Beltway stop-and-go I encounter.

 

Right there with you. For the first time in my 19 years in the business, I am truly fearful that it may be coming to an end in the very near future. I have been fortunate that I have made a pretty fair living, having gotten into it at just the right time, I guess, and I don't feel like I can make the same money doing anything else right off the bat. And I have always been a night person. I am worried about how I will adapt to a day job if it comes to that, as well. I do look forward to enjoying sports without work looming over everything I read/hear, but I don't know how I will adapt when the time comes. And it's coming quickly.

 

Had a day job in 1994-99 and you know what I did?
Worked as stringer on night games.
I'd probably do the same again.

 

Can't you freelance in your spare time? Weekends? You'll get the same rush and not have to deal with the bullshit. Furloughs, layoffs, no raises, no respect, 10 a.m. meetings, clueless management people, Gannett's influence on the industry?

 

I thought I'd end up freelancing a little bit more than I do when I made the switch ... but when I started weighing the benefits of making an extra $75-125 here or there versus free time and not burning out, not burning out won out. I still do some work for football and basketball preseason mags and may help out with the odd golf tournament since I'm probably staffing it anyway, but I think my days of picking up random college games at night on weekdays are done. Could be talked into picking up a Saturday day game, I suppose, but then again, I found I really liked being a fan on Saturdays this past fall, so who knows.

We talk a lot about the grind and the process here, and I enjoyed it to a certain extent. But toward the end, when I started doing more and more for the paper (including picking up a non-sports beat of sorts), asked for a raise and got kindly told none were coming, it was really the last straw. Who the hell wants to work 24/7 essentially for mid-size newspaper pay, especially when friends who were younger and in more normal working hour jobs were making close to twice what you were making? People kept telling me I was doing a great job, yada yada. Nice to hear, but I knew deep down that I was half assing it because there's only so much you can give to a job that gives little back and leads you into financial peril.

 

On my last night, the prep editor told me that come September he was sure he could find me a game to cover near where I live. I said thanks, but no thanks. I told him he would probably get in trouble when he sent the pay voucher to the Deputy Editor, since I told the guy off when he informed me my "buyout request" had been approved. Yes, there were witnesses since the dickwad delivered the news to me right in the middle of our department within easy earshot of at least a half-dozen people. That DE was axed at the next layoff a few months later.

 

I'm very close to leaving and I sure as hell won't miss it. I'm fucking sick of all the bullshit rules, bullshit managers, bullshit pay and bullshit bullshit. Fuck newspapers. I'll never read or buy another one the day I walk out that door and that day is coming soon.

 

I also thought I'd be doing more freelancing once I got out than I actually am. I figured that would be a great way to scratch the itch, but I haven't done any in about a year. The times I did were fun, and I didn't mind the extra money, but I just didn't feel as invested in producing a great story. I guess that's because I wasn't at all worried about the success/failure of the section or trying to build up a clip portfolio. It was just something to do on a Friday night.

 

I have done some of that, but Ty understands why it isn't so satisfying anymore:

Stringing now just feels like a part-time weekend job, no different than working anywhere else.

 

Lots of good posts on this thread ... especially for those of us in a mid-career crisis.

When the day comes for me, I won't miss the lack of decent sleep. I'm not asking for much, just 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleeping. No more 4-5 hours, waking up with everyone else in the household, trying to sneak in an hour nap midday, then going to work.

I mentioned this during a recent performance review with my boss: the copy desk schedule is literally bad for my health. The 3/3:30 to midnight schedule once worked great for me — but at this point, with my wife working regular hours and kids needing a car/rides at 7 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., the appeal of working "second shift" is wearing thin.

 

Moonlight, I worried I was going to be like that when I left after 20 years (10 as an SE and hosting a radio talk show during most of it too).

But then I realized all the bullshit I had to deal with over the years had destroyed the pure moments of joy in the journalism itself. The rush of hitting deadline was a great drug. But didn't make up for six-day, 70-hour workweeks. BSing with colleagues in the pressbox at State U games didn't make up for the emptiness of the newsroom as I looked around where there had once been eight fulltime writers and now there were just three. The thrill of scooping the competition or nailing a feature story didn't make up for sweating over budget cuts (Can we afford to pay mileage to cover Podunkville? What do you mean we have to buy our own pens and reporter's notebooks!?!) and laying off good people just so the billionaire owner could see the yearly profit margin go from 15 percent to 15.001 percent.

I thought I'd do some stringing for my old paper. The guy who replaced me asked me to cover a game about a month after I left. When I asked about the pay, he said "Oh, we can't afford to pay you. I just thought you'd do it as a favor." After I declined, I felt bad for a few days. The reporting and writing itch was still there. But I wasn't going to work for free. He hasn't called back and each week since, the itch has been salved by having nights and weekends free to spend with my family and better pay for fewer hours.