Never Going Back Again

First, I would be remiss if I didn't express how blessed I am to have found a company and leader that is everything (and more) that I could have ever hoped for... it's precisely the change that I needed and I'm looking forward to many years forward along this new path.

In the end, it was my health that drove me to leave, but so much of what I witnessed, transferred, and dealt with contributed to a dramatic decline in my physical well-being. And, wouldn't you know it; in a matter of weeks after hitting the exit my health improved dramatically.

It was in July of this year that I left TV News for good, after a career that spanned more than two decades, from reporting on air, to managing assignment desks, to managing entire newsrooms; I've experienced the joy, and often contributed to the frustrations that are currently pushing so many good journalists out of the business.

It's been nearly five months now for me, and more and more I'm getting that question that so many of us get after leaving: "Do you miss working in news?" The answer is always a resounding "no"...

Since it's becoming somewhat tiresome answering this question, I'm putting it here, in writing, for posterity, and for my own reminder should I ever consider going back.

And as I share this with you, I should also be clear on a couple of points. More than anything I miss the journalism and the people. Frankly, I started missing the journalism long before I departed the newsroom for good. The people that I had the pleasure of working with as co-workers and then on "my team" across three different newsrooms are truly what I miss the most. I miss being there for them, but in the end, it became too much.

So, since you didn’t ask, here are the reasons why I don’t miss news even the slightest little bit…

I don’t miss…

• Offering job candidates low-ball offers, that are unlivable, and frankly embarrassing to offer on behalf of a multi-billion-dollar corporation.
• Presenting job candidates with a purely one-sided employment contract that does nothing other than protect the company.
• Being encouraged to make staff believe they’re “replaceable.” That one seems to have blown up in their faces of late. Sorry, but no one is “replaceable.” We are all individuals and bring different strengths to the table.?
• Getting the 2am call that there is breaking news and we need to bring in more staff.
• Finding coverage for sick calls.
• Creating multi-million-dollar budgets with a focus on “efficiencies” rather than investment and growth.
• Coordinating holiday schedules and denying time-off requests.
• Working 24/7/365.
• Being an active participant in the constant hyping of normal weather situations. Keep in mind that in some way, just about every weather scenario falls onto the “normal” spectrum.
• Being driven by consultants, operating as nothing more than a puppet.
• Towing the old “we care about work-life balance” line while being given no choice but to drive people into the ground because of corporate expectations.
• Dealing with third world equipment in a business where every single tool should be world-class.
• Hitting a wall nearly every time I put up the good fight for investment in the right tools.
• Lobbying with too limited success for respectable wages, with endless promises that never turn into action.
• Expecting employees to drive vehicles that should be in the junkyard, or worse yet, expecting them to drive their own vehicles to assignments.
• Being sidelined when arguing for better investment in the fleet.
• Being prohibited from granting team members “flex time” when they are feeling overworked, stressed, or just plain burned out from the work.
• Asking employees for copies of obituaries to prove their loved one died.
• Being belittled in budget meetings when presenting well-reasoned, ROI supported plans for growing staff.
• Having sponsored content shoved down my throat, despite pleading that it hurts our credibility and damages real journalism.
• Being “talked to” about a story that involves a client, yeah, I’m sure that you can figure out the rest.
• Constantly asking more and more of my team with little to no reciprocity for them because, you know, “other duties as assigned.”
• Being encouraged to not trust employees, because, well, “they can’t be trusted.”
• Being encouraged to not share information with the team, because, well, “it’s none of their business.”
• Making what were in the end empty statements and promises to my staff (not that this is what I wanted) with nothing ever changing because of a lack of support and true committment at the very top.
• Being strung along, made to believe that I would be listened to and given the freedom, tools, and investment needed to make a difference.
• The serious lack of respect for experience and loyalty that so many companies show to their employees and being the one that was expected to transfer it for them. Cowards.
• Being pulled off the air and suspended from reporting because my delivery was "too effeminate." Yes, this really happened.
• And having top corporate executives from my former employer call my new employer (at the time) to defame me "because they believed I was involved in a harrassment suit against them."

I mean, I could easily add another 20 bullets to this list, but I think that’ll do it.

I've never been one to share my own experiences in such a public forum, but as more and more good journalists leave, something has to give. Something has to change. Change never happens when we stay silent. We have to tell our stories and hope that this business fixes itself from the inside out, or it will never recover.

There are alot of people left in the upper echelons of management at the station and corporate levels that really need to do some soul searching, take a good, hard look at themselves in the mirror and come to terms with their role in creating the toxicity that has destroyed so many venerable news operations, driving good people away. Then make change, before it's too late.