When is it time to get out?

[ewink]

Originally Posted by Spike

Yeah, our office closed at 3 today, and I get a much needed rest Monday.

It's so much better out here.

I have Labor Day off too...

Granted I have to work tomorrow and Sunday.... Then Tuesday and Wednesday...

[FrontierMan]

Get out while you can! The business is in shambles as it is, and it's best to learn something new at this point. Ratings most everywhere are not as high as they used to be. Some predict these layoffs could continue for the next 20 years -- even after the economy gets out of the mess it's in.

If I didn't get laid off a few months ago, I'd roll my eyes at my very own comments. I'm not trying to be cynical, I'm being honest about the business heading into a new direction. Some may call it "survival of the fittest," but I'll tell you now that the bottom dollar is more important than talent these days.

I'm pissed I got the boot, but it gave me the chance to get out of the biz and pursue something else before I get old and wrinkly. Get out while you can. You don't want to get laid off after you've been anchoring for 20 years. The younger you are, the easier it is to try something new.

Try something new on your own terms. Don't do it after 35 newsies at your station (including yourself) get canned.

[Sir Dropham Pants]

I'm a little late to the party, but I'll echo what some said earlier... if you're asking the question, the time is now. Once you leave the newsroom mentally, it's hard to go back. And I'll second or third what others have said about missing it. I have not, and if you leave for a good job, I doubt you will either.

[Sultanosurf]

Whine-whine-whine.

God, please leave. Part of this gig is some people are wound tight. But isn't the old saying something like 'the greatest pressures make the rarest jewels'?

Funny how many people are so-o-o glad to have left the biz, yet spend thousands of posts here pontificating.

To the original poster, try for an investigative unit or special projects. They're rare, but still out there. Then you don't have to spend much time with the crazies.

But to everybody else, please, leave. Now. Go find that safe PR gig where you can have the pics up in your cubicle and that warm Dunder-Mifflin feel. Our hours are weird, people, too . But you see things first, have more insight, and some of us continue to do something we love. So quit messing up our groove and go. Now.

[Spike]

Originally Posted by Sultanosurf

But isn't the old saying something like 'the greatest pressures make the rarest jewels'?

A vat of excrement will never produce jewels, no matter how much pressure you apply to it.

[cobracat]

...when it isn't fun any more.

You'll know when that time comes.

[Sultanosurf]

Originally Posted by Spike

A vat of excrement will never produce jewels, no matter how much pressure you apply to it.

Hey, that was your experience. And you left. Great, if only more malcontents would! Now you're safe to serve up the cynicism from the sidelines. (BTW, I'll add that's probably our industry's loss, since otherwise you seem like a bright guy)

But plenty of others still love their jobs, try to make it enjoyable, and sure find it easier when there are people there who share the same positive attitude.

Enjoy your weekend off.

[Spike]

Originally Posted by Sultanosurf

But plenty of others still love their jobs, try to make it enjoyable, and sure find it easier when there are people there who share the same positive attitude.

Obviously the original poster isn't one of them. Reporter4 specifically asked about getting out. Some of us who have gotten out responded with positive encouragement to do so, to let Reporter4 know that he/she is not alone and to help settle his/her fears of making the wrong move.

It seems to me that you are the one in the wrong place. If you didn't want to read about people getting out of the business, why did you click on a thread entitled "When is it time to get out?"?

[Sultanosurf]

The same as you. If they don't have the love or the fire -- to encourage them to Get Out.

If they wanna stay, as I said before, there are still places like special units or I-teams, and I especially disagree with your acidic statement "It won't get better, even at a "good" station" because there's a reason those stations are good, there are good people there. I'm usually the most supportive and love to mentor, but some places are just toxic, and they're usually the ones with the least viewers.

Spike, on top of your negativism and cynicism, are you now telling us that only you can decide who posts?

[Spike]

Originally Posted by Sultanosurf

If they wanna stay, as I said before, there are still places like special units or I-teams, and I especially disagree with your acidic statement "It won't get better, even at a "good" station" because there's a reason those stations are good, there are good people there.

I went to one of the so-called "good" stations. It still has that reputation, and you would recognize the call letters. We had a documentary unit and an investigative unit, both dropped while I was there. Our documentary reporter, who had actually been doing hour long documentaries in HD, found himself doing live shots in front of single car accidents instead. The news director was a joke, two of our three executive producers were clueless incompetents and the chief photog turned out to be an ******* who blatantly played favorites worse than any other station at which I worked. Sure, we still had a lot of good people working there, trying to do good work under adverse circumstances, but the station sucked because management was full of morons.

The point is that there's no guarantee a shop with a reputation as a good station will actually stay that way, nor even that it will be that way when you get there. All it takes is a change of ND to turn it bad. All it takes is a change of GM to make it even worse. All it takes is a change of ownership to make it a disaster. And with the increased economic pressure on television stations to cut costs and increase revenue, the number of these good stations is shrinking.

It isn't the individual stations that are the problem. It's the industry as a whole that has gone rotten. Why should someone who doesn't enjoy what he's doing stick around and keep wasting time in the hope that he might stumble on a good situation in an industry in which good situations are an endangered species?

Originally Posted by Sultanosurf

Spike, on top of your negativism and cynicism, are you now telling us that only you can decide who posts?

Well, if that's not the pot calling the kettle black, after you criticized people for posting advice to get out in a thread about getting out.

[Sultanosurf]

Originally Posted by Spike

Well, if that's not the pot calling the kettle black, after you criticized people for posting advice to get out in a thread about getting out.

Oh, I didn't criticize anybody for advising to get out. I said Get Out.

And after hearing all of what you've said (And I mean this in the nicest way possible), I'm probably as glad as you are that you're out...

[John M.]

Originally Posted by Reporter4

It's unbelievable how managers seem to handle everything. I just don't get it and I wonder if management is like that in other professions.

Yes, management is like that in most professions. Anywhere there is an office there are office politics. But it's greater in TV where there are so many more applicants than jobs available and where so many of the employees suffer emotional insecurity.

It does not improve as you go up in market size in my experience.

There are people who seem to deal with it better than others. They're able to stay above the pettiness and bitterness that seems to infest many newsrooms. Some of the posters here sound like the type who are determined to be miserable and who thrive on fanning the flames of discontent among their co-workers.

Originally Posted by Reporter4

My question is --- how do you decide if you want to keep doing tv?

First, forget all those who say that just by asking the question you have already decided the answer. It's perfectly natural to have doubts about your career choice -- whatever the profession.

One way to tell if you should stay is to ask yourself whether you see yourself doing this in five years. Presume the conditions are similar to the ones you work under now even if you're in a different market. Does the idea appeal to you?

Another way is to gauge your feelings going into your weekend. Everyone looks forward to getting away from the office. But how do you feel the night before you have to go back? I knew I had a problem in my last full-time TV job when as soon as I finished my shift on Friday I started thinking, "Oh, no. In just two days I have to come back to this place."

But if your days off still refresh and recharge you for the next week, if you finish a workday as often as not thinking you've accomplished something or improved your skills and if the achievements outweigh the aggravations, then don't let the bitterness of others cloud your judgment about something you ultimately must decide for yourself.

[Sir Dropham Pants]

I'm one of those who said, "if you're asking, it's time." That was my experience. I worked in news for many years - and loved it for most of those years. Didn't mind the hours, didn't mind the sometimes unpleasant aspects of the job. At one point, it stopped being an enjoyable way to make a living. I started thinking, "It's time to go..." more and more often. It didn't take long for me to feel like I was dragging myself into the newsroom every day. So I made that point not out of bitterness, but out of personal experience.
I have a lot of good friends still doing the job. Some still love it. And I respect them for that; it can be a hard job to love for years on end. And even hard to do it well.
But if the original poster doesn't feel that love for the craft and the job anymore and is asking himself whether or not it's time to go, my personal experience is - yep.