Reasons for thanks, even in this business...

If I hated my job as much as you seem to hate yours, I believe I'd quit and find something else to do. Just saying.

 

Fredrick, I used to feel the same way as you. I just barely escaped a layoff earlier this year. I wasn't ready for it to happen, I didn't have shit saved, and my car was on its last wheel.
I was pissed every time management said that bullshit line of "you're lucky to have a job.
Fortunately, after my luck ran out with those fuckin bastards, I was blessed to find a new job very fuckin quick.
Now, I really do feel lucky to have a job. Doesn't mean I don't hate the pricks, but I still feel lucky.
Anyone with a job should consider it a blessing. Doesn't mean you can't hate the fuckers you work for or the way you're treated, but still consider yourself lucky.

 

I consider myself in a pretty decent situation right now. I get to write about sports ... and I get paid for it! It's not a job to me; it's something I've wanted to do since I was in high school. yes, there are plenty of times when I get irritated and frustrated, but I don't work for my company, I work for the spirit of sports journalism and the fact that there are atleast a few people who appreciate what we do.

 

The paycheck isn't as big as it should be considering they are getting 60 hours of work and paying me for 40. If your shop doesn't have the wink/wink work 60 and get paid for 40 system in the sports department, good for you and your shop. Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

And yes I think it's bad form for newspapers to not recognize those who put out the product on the holiday. But quite frankly nobody outside of the sports department has a fucking clue about how hard sports reporters and reporter/copy editors/paginators work. Oh I forgot. I'm lucky to have a job.

 

Fred,

If you are an hourly (non-exempt) employee and are truly routinely working 60 hours and getting paid for 40 then you are a coward for putting up with it.

You could sic the feds on your paper and clean up on back pay if you had any cojones.

 

Fredrick and I share some of the same anger and disgust with this profession, so I'm not bothered by the threadjack. Though I see where others might be. Now I'll be semi-guilty too...

I just can't get all soft and gooey over a few benevolent or even just well-mannered sports editors along the way. That ought to be the norm rather than the exceptions who wind up getting thanked for giving back and growing the profession a little. Ought to be part of the job.

What I am thankful for are the many good years I've had in this business, even when -- in my impatience to move along in the career -- I didn't necessarily think they were good years at the time. Looking back on a stint in Podunk or a couple of seasons pounding the beat of a sub-sub-sub-.500 team full of surly bastards somewhere is something I now can appreciate. Made me better at my craft for having gone through it, and provides good tales to share even now. As for the really great years, of which I've been blessed to have many, those inspire no-brain gratitude.

What I cannot appreciate or be thankful for are the last five years in the newspaper business. Nor for the bosses who fiddled while Rome was igniting then, nor for those who trample so many of us now while claiming in a phony, high-minded way to care only so deeply about "survival" of our industry -- Yeah, well, let's see you take the layoff or the buyout or a pay cut back to what the troops make. Most treated those troops shoddily in the good times and now are pouncing on bad times as backdrop and justification to treat us worse.

Thankful, too, for editors who put the quality of reporting and writing first and actually know how to motivate and cultivate their staffs, rather than just pushing people around and impressing themselves and each other with big-fish or trendy hirings. (Well, hirings back in the day, for those unacquainted with the concept in the current economy.)

Damn few of those folks around, though.

 

While I am thankful that I have a job. I desperately miss the days when I loved my job.

 

Well said, Joe.

I'm thankful for my over 10 years that I've spent in this business, even though I'm not in it anymore. I got to experience different parts of the world, and meet many people who I would not have ever met if I hadn't been in the newspaper business.

At the same time, I understand Freddie's angst. While any job can drive you nuts, it just seems like the newspaper industry has more than its share of frustrations.

 

It's been almost a year-and-a-half since I was laid off after 22 years in the business. I've made about one-third of my former annual salary in freelance since then.

I'm thankful for that one-third.

 

Yes, that is how I feel, too.

Recently, I went to a meeting of a couple dozen newspaper sports writers. During the meeting, somebody said, "I just looked around the room and the only guys who are smiling are retired."

 

I see nothing wrong with the post. He speaks a hell of a lot of truth.
On the other hand, it's nice on occasion to find the things to be thankful for, which every year in this business, becomes the person in the trench with you, like an Army buddy. You're under fire and you know he like you is giving his all. Or her all.

 

I'm sure there was a crew member from the Titanic clinging to a liferaft going, "I better be paid overtime for this crap."
What's the point of making yourself miserable? That said, I'm thankful every single morning for my job and sad that not everyone in the business is so fortunate, because of circumstance rather than skill or work ethic.