i don't care

[shotglass]

Strunk, I'm not talking about pride in the paper. I'm talking about pride in your own work.

Yeah, it still gets to me when the section I put out has typos throughout. But I also don't lose sleep over it like I used to (unless I'm the one who made the ****up.) The fact is, we're making quite a few more mistakes than we used to because our staff is about 75 percent of the size it was a month ago. What can I do about that? I bust my ass, I do the best I can and I go home. Still try to make sure I get it right, same as I did before.

I still take pride in my work; I just don't equate MY work with the entire newspaper anymore. It's a waste of energy.

Now, THAT I can get behind. Yeah, I agree there.

 

[strunk_you]

Strunk, I'm not talking about pride in the paper. I'm talking about pride in your own work.

Yeah, it still gets to me when the section I put out has typos throughout. But I also don't lose sleep over it like I used to (unless I'm the one who made the ****up.) The fact is, we're making quite a few more mistakes than we used to because our staff is about 75 percent of the size it was a month ago. What can I do about that? I bust my ass, I do the best I can and I go home. Still try to make sure I get it right, same as I did before.

I still take pride in my work; I just don't equate MY work with the entire newspaper anymore. It's a waste of energy.

Now, THAT I can get behind. Yeah, I agree there.

agreed. no excuses here. do what you can do to the best of your abilities.

the extra mile? no problem. but it's that extra second mile that fewer people are getting up for. it's not all laziness.

 

[Tom Petty]

buck, i have to say i agree with strunk, not only because he doesn't use capital letters, but because he has a point.

i still take pride in my work because my name is at the top of the page. but, when your work becomes bastardized because of space, lack of staff or mandates, and when you wonder if you're going to have a job this time next month, and when you wonder if your ****ing paper will even exist in two years, it's difficult to raise the journalism flag and salute.

i don't understand how you don't see it.

 

[shotglass]

Ah, you changed the word "hard" to "difficult." Well, that's very different. ;)

 

[buckweaver]

buck, i have to say i agree with strunk, not only because he doesn't use capital letters, but because he has a point.

i still take pride in my work because my name is at the top of the page. but, when your work becomes bastardized because of space, lack of staff or mandates, and when you wonder if you're going to have a job this time next month, and when you wonder if your ****ing paper will even exist in two years, it's difficult to raise the journalism flag and salute.

i don't understand how you don't see it.

It's different for SEs, Tomas. You're right about that.

But as an individual worker-bee, whether a writer or desker or something else, you can only do so much. But you can still take pride in your own work -- THAT'S only bastardized if you let it.

 

[strunk_you]

I hesitate to suggest this, because I know it's going to be roundly assailed. But I must.

I hear a lot of "when so-and-so happens, it's hard to remain enthusiastic for your job."

Folks, is it that, or is it that this provides an easier excuse not to remain enthusiastic because you'd really rather spend your time thinking about something else after having lived in journalism for a long time?

If you want to remain enthusiastic about your job, you know what? You just DO. If it's harder, you just TRY harder. Or don't, and I'm not going to judge you for it.

Just understand that you're providing yourself with a built-in reason not to give a ****.

you've got it backwards. we provide ourselves with the reasons to keep going. we have to. there sure aren't many built in.

the crap pile is so high on the other side of the scale, yes, it's becoming harder to keep up. doesn't mean you can't do it. doesn't mean you don't man up.

but it is not fun to know that when you're manning up, sucking it up, doing as much with far less, some higher-up is benefitting most from your own self motivation, not you.

 

[shotglass]

I love this place (SportsJournalists.com). I really do. But what is, uh, difficult sometimes is that I DO still have this love for my job, a passion for what I do, and I feel like I'm some sort of idiot savant for it. (Some of you may even drop the "savant.")

SHOULD I wonder about myself because I sit at my laptop some afternoons and search college rosters for local athletes? Because if I DIDN'T do that, I'd miss it. If I were to retire tomorrow, I'd miss it. If I'm on vacation for two weeks, I miss not doing any crucial pages in my section.

 

[STLIrish]

I can relate. Took a work trip recently and realized midway through that I hadn't read a paper cover to cover. Scanned the USA Today that was at my door every morning, just to make sure I didn't miss anything big, but didn't read any of the locals. A few years ago I would have bought every paper in sight and checked out everyone's wares. On this trip I didn't pick up the major metro until at the airport heading home, and had no feeling of "darn I wished I'd been reading this every day" because it just wasn't that good.

I think I've said this before. There used to be a time when you could comb airports, train and bus stations and find newspapers. Not anymore.
Very depressing.

Funny you say that. The other day, I was in that massive Northwest terminal at the airport in Detroit. My dad was looking for print ads from local banks (long story), so I figured I'd be able to find some papers for him from different cities, or at least Detroit, in that place.
I walked 2/3 of the length of that terminal, which is so big they run a train across it. I saw one Wall Street Journal on a seat. One. That's it, no other papers in an enormous airline hub. And precious few people reading one. They don't even have recycling bins there.

 

[buckweaver]

but it is not fun to know that when you're manning up, sucking it up, doing as much with far less, some higher-up is benefitting most from your own self motivation, not you.

Ehh. That's why it's called "work."

Get out of journalism and you'll find the same thing in other lines of work. It takes a lot to get ahead in this game, and most of us never will. There will always be "higher-ups," there will always be some kind of "manning up" grunt work that you have to force yourself to do, for no benefit of your own.

You have to find the motivation within yourself. You have to find the meaning in it, for you. That's called "life."

 

[strunk_you]

but it is not fun to know that when you're manning up, sucking it up, doing as much with far less, some higher-up is benefitting most from your own self motivation, not you.

Ehh. That's why it's called "work."

Get out of journalism and you'll find the same thing in other lines of work. It takes a lot to get ahead in this game, and most of us never will. There will always be "higher-ups," there will always be some kind of "manning up" grunt work that you have to force yourself to do, for no benefit of your own.

You have to find the motivation within yourself. You have to find the meaning in it, for you. That's called "life."

funny how "life" seemed a lot better when the work of many was not being done by so few. it's not a crime to notice that and make a relevant statement about it.

that's not why it's called work. it's called work because you do it and you get paid. and take away the fun from this job, and there isn't much other incentive.

don't get me wrong. i DO care. i care a lot about what i do and what's it's worth to me. i'm not in the leaving-the-biz line.

but facts are facts. morale is down across the board in a lot of american industries. i have a feeling it has little to do with any one soul's personal ability to stay self-motivated.

 

[strunk_you]

look, i understand what you guys are saying.

still, **** just sucks sometimes. i can vibe with tom.

but since i know nobody likes to hear complaining, i'll shut it now. ;)

 

[Tom Petty]

buck, i have to say i agree with strunk, not only because he doesn't use capital letters, but because he has a point.

i still take pride in my work because my name is at the top of the page. but, when your work becomes bastardized because of space, lack of staff or mandates, and when you wonder if you're going to have a job this time next month, and when you wonder if your ****ing paper will even exist in two years, it's difficult to raise the journalism flag and salute.

i don't understand how you don't see it.

It's different for SEs, Tomas. You're right about that.

But as an individual worker-bee, whether a writer or desker or something else, you can only do so much. But you can still take pride in your own work -- THAT'S only bastardized if you let it.

buck - you're at 70 percent. does that not impede your ability to do good work?

shots - you are a difficult human being. :D

 

[shotglass]

No, babe, I'm hard.

 

[Tom Petty]

No, babe, I'm hard.

you're such a tease.

 

[friend of a friend]

I wouldn't say I don't care, but I care a lot less than I did a year ago. Not about my job, I still bust my ass every day, and I'm passionate about what I do.

But if it doesn't directly affect me, I no longer care. News has a ****up on A1 that needs fixing? Great, call their asses back in and have them fix it. I'm busy.

I'm sure when I see who gets whacked (and who doesn't) in our upcoming layoffs, I'll care even less.

 

[Tom Petty]

foaf - i'm not saying i won't do my job to the best of my ability, because i will. i'm too narcissistic not to. but i just don't care about the profession any longer. you only can love something that doesn't love you back for so long.

 

[The Granny]

foaf - i'm not saying i won't do my job to the best of my ability, because i will. i'm too narcissistic not to. but i just don't care about the profession any longer. you only can love something that doesn't love you back for so long.

I can't wait to get to that point, TP, where I've had enough of not getting the love back.

Wish I were there already.

 

[Joe Williams]

Shot won't believe that I'm not 100 percent negative on this, but here goes anyway: I'm constantly grateful for those days, or parts of days, when I still can lose myself in the work of reporting and writing a complete story. In those moments, I don't feel one bit different about this craft than I did 25 years ago.

But it's when I come up for air and survey the carnage and negativity and lack of vision and panic and disrespect from above and office politics and zero apparent future that my passion flame flickers, dangerously close to going out. Or even when I've had to crank out the busy-work stuff of "early" stories or blog items or running stories -- when it was just dancing as fast as you could because some slack-jawed reader maybe out there somewhere possibly wanted it and, what the hell, my time already was bought and paid for, so why should analysis and thinking time and real writing be important?

I treasure those best moments but they're getting fewer and farther between. And when I am between them, I see this business like it's closing time, with the lights up high.

 

[friend of a friend]

I agree Tomas.

But Byrnes is back, and I'm feeling better already.

 

[shotglass]

Shot won't believe that I'm not 100 percent negative on this, but here goes anyway: I'm constantly grateful for those days, or parts of days, when I still can lose myself in the work of reporting and writing a complete story. In those moments, I don't feel one bit different about this craft than I did 25 years ago.

But it's when I come up for air and survey the carnage and negativity and lack of vision and panic and disrespect from above and office politics and zero apparent future that my passion flame flickers, dangerously close to going out. Or even when I've had to crank out the busy-work stuff of "early" stories or blog items or running stories -- when it was just dancing as fast as you could because some slack-jawed reader maybe out there somewhere possibly wanted it and, what the hell, my time already was bought and paid for, so why should analysis and thinking time and real writing be important?

I treasure those best moments but they're getting fewer and farther between. And when I am between them, I see this business like it's closing time, with the lights up high.

I can appreciate that.