Two-man staff cut to one, thoughts

Don't cut your coverage area, just cut your coverage. Raise the bar for what is worth your time. These guys are completely right: recognize the limits of what you can do with a (relatively) reasonable workload. You feel like you have to do what two people used to do, but don't make that your expectation. Doing less well is better than doing the same rushed.

 

Don't work off the clock anymore. This is a business. Treat it as such.

When people complain, explain the situation and offer to transfer them to the publisher.

 

This. Work 40 hours a week unless you're on salary or being paid for overtime.

Don't kill yourself for a paper that doesn't give a fuck about you.

 

Even if you're on salary, work the 40. You're getting paid the same either way, so you might as well work just 40.

 

I did the one-man dept. for about eight months.
At first I was told I had an unlimited stringer budget and that helped a lot. I never had a game unstaffed on Friday and used stringers a lot during the week as well. We ended up cutting down on our D-III college coverage, virtually ignoring non-revenue sports until the postseason. Those coaches didn't like it but the SID understood the situation.
I tried to get to one high school event a day and write a gamer and a feature off one trip. I also did a lot of stories strictly by phone.
I drove myself crazy over time working long hours and going without time off, but it still wasn't enough for the publisher or a lot of readers who could never understand why a staff of one couldn't be everywhere at once.

 

I echo what the others have said. They get what they pay for. Decide what YOU consider important and let the rest fall by the wayside. If/when people complain, refer them to the publisher. Even publishers understand wage and hour laws, that one competent person can't do as much as two competent people.

Like others have said, don't feel it is your sacred duty to make up the slack for their incompetence.

 

I can't stress enough what others have said about working your 40 hours. Do not work for free.

If you absolutely must work over 40 hours one week keep track and take a comp day at the nearest opportunity.

If the publisher is only willing to pay for one sports staffer, don't give him a second one for free. You'll only be justifying his/her decision. "See? You didn't really need two people!"

 

I've worked in a two-man department with stringers, never a one-man department, but I imagine I'd feel overwhelmed in your position. We all would.

As others have said, expectations have to be managed here. If you have not done so already, you need to have a serious conversation with your management about what they do and don't expect you to cover. Find out if they can give you a freelance budget. DO NOT go into the meeting angry and put them on the defensive. Even though you ARE angry and WANT to put them on the defensive. If they are reasonable and are willing to plot out some specifics that will make things easier for you to manage, then the situation maybe isn't dire. You will still have pissed off readers, but at least management will have your back.

The problem is, management usually isn't very reasonable in these situations -- at least not in my experience. You may have trouble nailing them down on what they're willing to let go of. They won't literally say the line from The Wire ("We'll just have to do more with less.") but if you don't get firm positions from them about what's OK for you to let slide, then that's pretty much what they're telling you. And it's not worth it to stay there in a one-man shop working for people whose expectations are not realistic. Because it's never going to get any better if that's their attitude. It isn't. Believe it.

And don't be afraid to tell readers that the sports department lost one of its two people to layoffs. They will still be unhappy that something didn't get covered, but most of them will understand that it's not your fault the number of people available to do the work got cut in half.

Good luck. And get that resume ready to go. You don't owe these people anything, especially if they place unrealistic expectations on you.

 

These guys are right ... my first job out of college, I was getting paid for 40 hours but probably putting in 60 with one day "off" a week. It swallowed up my entire 20s because I took pride in this section. Man, that's something I completely regret.

Do what you can within those 40 hours and have a life. And be the first to let your publisher know that you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit.

 

Even if you're salary, you are likely non-exempt as newspapers are good at blurring the line. Also, if you take comp time, you get 1 1/2 hours per hour of overtime worked.

 

My man Tom Petty said it best. They gave it to you without lubrication. Run, very fast, to another job. AND GOOD LUCK.

 

At my first job when I happily would have worked 90 days in a row if they asked me to (and they practically did) one of the vetern writers grabbed me once and said, "Don't love your paper because it won't love you back..."

At the time I thought he was a jaded prick, but those words hung with me later in my career and it's really good advice.