Earlier this month I learned that The Times had decided to discontinue this blog. Suddenly, so many of the things I report and write about have been thrown right onto my own doorstep.
When I started Shifting Careers as a column in May 2007, one of the things I wanted to explore was the fluid relationship between employment and entrepreneurship. Increasingly, people are building careers that mix up periods of working for themselves with periods of working for others. And like me, many of the self-employed create situations that involve affiliations — like what I have with The Times — that marry elements of both employment and free agency. So I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that when those situations end, it feels in some ways like the loss of a big client and in others like a layoff.
It is hard to call this a layoff since I’m not an employee of the Times and I will likely still contribute to the paper occasionally. Yet I have been feeling a lot like someone who has been laid off. For starters, I have tried to build a narrative based on the little information that was shared with me by my editors, who have told me they were nearly as surprised as I was about this decision. As in a layoff, the decision was made in response to the economic realities of the media industry, which is a polite way of saying that newspapers are in difficult financial shape.
Unlike many people who have been laid off, I have not completely lost my livelihood. I have other clients and other income (or as I like to say, other slashes to fall back on). The Times doesn’t pay my health insurance, and I can still afford the mortgage. That said, The Times was my biggest client, a big part of my work identity, and this blog represented a healthy chunk of this year’s income.
It provides comfort to know that I’m not alone, as my Times colleague David Carr wrote in his recent column taking newspapers to task for trimming the fat by cutting experienced and often well-regarded employees. Similarly, after I read this interview with a recently laid off political cartoonist, Steve Greenberg, I felt that he was channeling my thoughts when he said that he felt that his was one of the safest positions in the industry. As an online journalist focusing on work and careers, and as someone who fervently believes that embracing new technology is crucial to surviving as a journalist, I too felt like one of the safe ones.
Friends said I’d go through stages. And I have.
The morning I got the call giving me the news, I was shocked. A mere few weeks before, I received a very favorable “review” (inasmuch as a non-employee can be reviewed) and an increase in pay. Many of my articles had hit the most-e-mailed list and generated lively discussion in the comments. I was told my traffic was looking good (though I’d also been told not to be too concerned about my traffic). People at The Times seemed pleased that television and radio shows were calling regularly to book me for appearances.
By later that morning, I felt angry and frustrated. As I started making calls to share the news, many people were asking me why The Times had decided to cut a feature with so much relevance in people’s everyday lives. If I couldn’t answer that question for myself, how could I answer it for others?
Next I felt free. I would welcome the time to reflect, step out of the frenetic pace of daily journalism for a bit, perhaps work on meatier magazine articles or that book proposal I’d been putting off. Perhaps I’d start saying “yes” to the kinds of projects I’d been saying “no” to because weekly and daily deadlines made it hard to take on other writing assignments.
I wondered briefly if I’d be able to keep my virtual technology assistant, and quickly decided that I’d need her more than ever since I was going back to an even more entrepreneurial style of work. I was thankful that I’d recently invested in redesigning my personal Web site, against the advice of several of my peer advisers who told me not to bother since this blog could easily serve as a résumé.
By mid-afternoon, I realized that I’d not yet read that day’s New York Times. I felt slightly strange reading it, but within moments I stumbled onto several outstanding stories that reminded me why I’ve been so proud to be affiliated with this paper. I thought about the legions of people who must be coping with feelings of rejection while at the same time feeling the tug of being a loyal fan or customer of the very institution that had bid them farewell.
Later that day news started getting around at The Times. Several people — some I have met with only a handful of times, others I’d worked with every day — called or e-mailed to express their support. Ironically, they were following the very advice I had just given to people who hear that others have lost a job.
By the end of the day I decided it was time to read and follow some of my own advice, which is when I started writing the first of my thank-you notes. Yes, thank-you notes to people who have helped me get to where I am in my career, like the ones I suggested people write when they’ve been laid off. As I wrote a few of these and encouraging responses rolled in, I realized that tip was one of the smartest pieces of advice I have ever given.
Now that I’ve shared my tale, I’d like to hear from you, especially those of you who have had firsthand experiences with layoffs, the loss of a major client, or other events that have evoked similar feelings. I’m sure there is a lot you can all teach me, as you always do. Use the comments section, or e-mail me if there’s something you’d rather say in private.
I expect to return for another post to wrap things up.
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