Getting out ... just to get out

[Hey Diaz!]

New(ish) handle, long-time poster here.

Not sure how many of you have reached this point. Or are slowly getting there. Or have been there and come out immeasurably better for it, but I want out of this business.

And not in a "let's wait it out until I find something better" way. This is more a let's find something -- hell, anything, even retail -- to get my foot out the door for good.

I'm just tired of the hours. The nights and weekends. The downsizing. Taking your work home. The feeling that no matter what you do and how well you do it, many readers still won't be happy. Having my job from 23 to today in my mid-30s be the center of my life, rather than the other way around. I feel when you lose the enjoyment of being in this profession, there's no point in continuing on unless the pay is (somehow) too much pass up. And I haven't even gotten to the idiot callers.

OK, enough rambling. I'm just curious what you have done if in the same position.

Did you cut ties as soon as these feelings began creeping up? Did you stick it out for a good while and wait to find the right opportunity? Did you take lesser pay -- and a blow to the ego -- by working at a job you were overqualified for as a means to permanently head for the exit?

 

[Shoeless Joe]

I made the jump, as I have said in another thread, off the Titanic last year. Well into my 19th year, I'd just had enough: hours, no such thing as holidays, sorry pay, more and more work being piled on you because the staff had been cut to about a third of what it once was. I took an incredible leap of faith and just handed in a two-weeks notice. I didn't have a job lined up or even a concrete plan the day I decided to quit.

Now, I couldn't be happier. Getting out of the newspaper business and getting a pretty sizable bump up in pay really isn't that hard. I don't work nights or weekends. I get holidays. I get to spend more time with my family and do things in the evenings that I want to do. Perfect example: for all those years working as sports writer, my typical Friday was no less than a 14-hour day. Today, because we have a short day on Fridays, I work from 8-2:15.

I was fortunate that I have a wife who supported and even encouraged me just leaving, and we could financially absorb a short-term loss of income. Everybody can't do that, I know. But to say that getting out was the best thing I ever did is a pretty fair statement.

 

[FileNotFound]

I left under my own power, 18 years to the day after I started, nine years ago. I've never made a better decision in my life.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I stuck it out for a while because I carefully crafted my exit. I would recommend doing the same. Start constructing that light at the end of the tunnel for yourself. Don't rush into something just to get out. At least that's my take, and I feel like it worked out beautifully, even though it wasn't always easy.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I have yet to meet a single person who, a year after the fact, was unhappy about leaving. Not a one. This holds true whether the departure was their choice or forced on them. The most I've gotten was that the short-term income was lower while they were in transition.

Especially at the lower rungs of the business, the job is depressing as hell and not good for your physical well-being.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I have yet to meet a single person who, a year after the fact, was unhappy about leaving. Not a one.

I'm unhappy about some of the choices I made during my journalism career, and would have liked to have seen what I could have done pursuing different paths.

But I'm definitely not unhappy about leaving from where I was actually situated in the journalism world, at the time I exited.

As odd as it is, I'm pretty sure that getting out actually helped my journalism career, should I ever choose to resume it, because I'll have more varied experiences and a resume that stands out a little bit more. Just something else to think about, for those pondering the choice.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I survived four rounds of layoffs over two years before my time was up... That two years just sucked any desire to stay in journalism out of me. I woke up every morning wondering if that was going to be the day where I got the call, and I knew that there was nothing I could do about it and this was a couple years before people started leaving for team websites and radio stations and stuff like that.

If you're willing to move around to prolong your career, great...

I liked the travel less and less as my kids were being born, but I would have put up with it. I could deal with the hours and the travel and working holidays and weekends, but when job security became such a huge issue, that pushed it over the top for me.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I have yet to meet a single person who, a year after the fact, was unhappy about leaving. Not a one. This holds true whether the departure was their choice or forced on them. The most I've gotten was that the short-term income was lower while they were in transition.

Especially at the lower rungs of the business, the job is depressing as hell and not good for your physical well-being.

This is really true.

I make more money now than I did when I was in journalism. I work between 45-50 hours a week, and only travel a couple times a year, usually for conferences or training, or to visit a big client. I think I took three trips last year and was gone a total of 12 days. When I was covering the NFL, I was usually gone 80-90 days and when I was covering colleges that number was frequently over 100.

Basically, the only bad thing about being gone is that people who have nothing to do with journalism all assume you want to go back. You can tell them over and over and over again how that's not true, and they'll never believe you... I don't know if it's like that for deskers, but I've been out almost five years now and I'm still asked constantly if I'm trying to go back to it.

 

[FileNotFound]

For the right opportunity, I would consider going back. But there are so many conditions that comprise said "right opportunity" that the likelihood of it happening is minuscule.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I have yet to meet a single person who, a year after the fact, was unhappy about leaving. Not a one. This holds true whether the departure was their choice or forced on them. The most I've gotten was that the short-term income was lower while they were in transition.

Especially at the lower rungs of the business, the job is depressing as hell and not good for your physical well-being.

This is really true.

I make more money now than I did when I was in journalism. I work between 45-50 hours a week, and only travel a couple times a year, usually for conferences or training, or to visit a big client. I think I took three trips last year and was gone a total of 12 days. When I was covering the NFL, I was usually gone 80-90 days and when I was covering colleges that number was frequently over 100.

Basically, the only bad thing about being gone is that people who have nothing to do with journalism all assume you want to go back. You can tell them over and over and over again how that's not true, and they'll never believe you... I don't know if it's like that for deskers, but I've been out almost five years now and I'm still asked constantly if I'm trying to go back to it.

I get that a lot too. Then I tell people what newspaper employees make and they wonder why in the blue **** any self-respecting adult would do that job.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I have yet to meet a single person who, a year after the fact, was unhappy about leaving. Not a one. This holds true whether the departure was their choice or forced on them. The most I've gotten was that the short-term income was lower while they were in transition.

Especially at the lower rungs of the business, the job is depressing as hell and not good for your physical well-being.

This is really true.

I make more money now than I did when I was in journalism. I work between 45-50 hours a week, and only travel a couple times a year, usually for conferences or training, or to visit a big client. I think I took three trips last year and was gone a total of 12 days. When I was covering the NFL, I was usually gone 80-90 days and when I was covering colleges that number was frequently over 100.

Basically, the only bad thing about being gone is that people who have nothing to do with journalism all assume you want to go back. You can tell them over and over and over again how that's not true, and they'll never believe you... I don't know if it's like that for deskers, but I've been out almost five years now and I'm still asked constantly if I'm trying to go back to it.

I get that a lot too. Then I tell people what newspaper employees make and they wonder why in the blue **** any self-respecting adult would do that job.

I remember my brother - he was giving me a hard time about getting out because I was so lucky to have this job, people would kill for it, yada, yada, yada - was floored when I told him that I made $38K when I left. He was dumbfounded. People find it hard to believe that educated, experienced individuals work for that, particularly since I had a job that probably drew 300 resumes when I left it. And that's probably a relatively high-percentile salary in the business.

 

[writingump]

Low pay, management who doesn't give a damn about you and believes writers are fungible, readers who use you as a punching bag, earlier deadlines ... glad I'm not in the newspaper gig any more.

 

[Hey Diaz!]

Appreciate the responses.

I likely won't do something rash such as putting in my notice without having something else lined up, but that route becomes more and more appealing with each passing day.

And yeah, I'm in the lower rung of newspapers. SE in a mid-sized town, in the business full-time for nine years ... and have a buddy who's a fast food manager and cleared $3K more than me on last year's W-2. Awesome.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

From 1996 to 2006, working the hours that you do and the holidays and travel and stuff like that, it rarely bothered me... Sure, there would be the last days of the season where you would feel like you were going to collapse, but I can probably count on one hand how many times I was truly upset over something job-related... Whiny, tired? Sure, but truly upset? Very rarely...

The layoffs changed that almost overnight... I knew I wasn't a target early on, but when I saw people getting bounced when it was clear they weren't getting rid of people based on merit, that destroyed my morale. An editor I worked very closely with was let go after being there for 20+ years because he made more money than the kid who replaced him who couldn't do anything on his own.

Rock bottom for me came after a road trip. I covered a Sunday night game, got back to the hotel after 1, had a 4 a.m. wakeup call for a 6 a.m. flight that got us home with just enough time to race over to the coach's Monday press conference... Then, we got called into the office so we could sit there and wait to see who was going to be let go during that round. That round they got rid of our best online person because she made more money than the 24-year-old who they kept. I remember as she walked past us and gave us goodbye hugs, one of the other NFL writers said, "There's part of me that is jealous that she doesn't have to deal with this **** anymore..."

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I miss my old job, but I also realize that that job and the newspaper business it was part of don't exist anymore and I wouldn't much care for the business as it is now.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Been out for just over two years and there has not been one single day I missed the newspaper business. Not one day. Get out while you still have your sanity, and find some semblance of a life.

Friday happy hours! Tailgating! Weekends at home! Weeknights at home! No idiotic coaching search stories! Watching my kid grow up! Who knew?

 

[amraeder]

Diaz - any ideas what you'd like to do outside of newspapers?

 

[I Should Coco]

I was ready to leave in early 2005, mainly because I had gone from a guy who would have dropped anything to get a story and beat the competition in 1994 to someone who had two young kids and felt like he was writing the same stories, different day. (I was covering a mix of news and sports throughout that time).

Instead ... I ended up switching from reporting/photography to the universal copy desk at a 40K daily in the Midwest. The late shift (and especially the steady schedule) worked well for my family situation, as my wife was able to return to teaching and I stayed with the kids during the day. We've never had to use day care for them, which is great.

Now I'm in a leadership position on the desk of a paper about half that circulation size in the Northwest, and although the pay still isn't very good, it allows our two-income household to live in an area we've always wanted to live.

Moving to the copy desk (and at my paper, that means copy editing and page layout) has prolonged my career and it turned out to be something I have enjoyed. Sure, there's a lot of crap filling those pages some days, but once or twice a month somebody busts out a strong investigative story or kick-ass feature, and it's nice to help the writers and photographers put that out there in print and online.

And I still scratch the writing itch once in a while with a prep/college gamer or feature story.

It sounds like you are stuck in a rut, Diaz, and need a new job, whether it's in newspapers or some other field. For me, I was able to change yet still stay in the journalism field.

Good luck discerning what you need to do.

 

[da man]

I miss my old job, but I also realize that that job and the newspaper business it was part of don't exist anymore and I wouldn't much care for the business as it is now.

This is where I'm at also. I would love to get back into the sports journalism business somehow, but there is no way I will ever work for a newspaper again -- and from what I've seen and heard lately, the web route isn't so stable, either, even among the big players. I realize from now on I'll probably have to be content getting my sportwriting fix from freelancing only.

Thing is, I'm making more money in my current (9-5) job than I ever made in my entire 25-plus-year newspaper career. And in the past six weeks I've received two things I hadn't seen in my last five or six years (maybe more) in newspapers -- a bonus and a raise.

 

[Captain Obvious]

Don't miss it at all. I like going to sleep at a normal time, and eating meals at a normal pace.