Many of us who work at small news companies have stories of taking time off but never really being able to take time off from work.
“We travel, but we don’t really go on vacation.” Wausau Pilot and ReviewThe company is made up of 4 full-time employees and 1 part-time employee. Last month, I wrote about the financial and emotional damage suffered by Mr. Siebert and his team from online news defamation lawsuits against his site.
“I’ve worked from trains, planes, cars, airports, the New York City subway, funeral home parking lots, and hospital beds after knee replacement surgery,” Siebert says, adding, “I’ve posted articles from my cell phone. ” while kayaking on the Wisconsin River. (Waterproof cell phone bags are a blessing!) I was staying at her house and working in the dining room while her sister was dying. Readers would never know the difference. ”
Like Siebert, I’ve written and edited stories in airports, planes, trains, hotel rooms, and cars. Just recently, I edited an article from a rented cabin up north. isthmus Associate Editor Linda Falkenstein recalls a trip to Iowa where she “drove looking for a receptionist and parked on the side of the road in a cornfield.”
steal time from isthmus It was always a challenge, even when the editorial department was three to five times the size it is now. There was pressure to always look ahead. But our company is currently very small (6.5 full-time sales, editorial, and design staff), and the real problem is that there is little backup for certain tasks, such as managing an extensive calendar. is.
I thought I’d crowdsource the question of how other journalists in Wisconsin take, or don’t take, breaks. Several people said that stores have controls in place to make sure they are unplugged. Some suggested that those who can’t stop following stories or go offline are their own worst enemies. Others say it’s not worth ignoring emails because if they come back, you’ll end up with a lot of emails.
Joel Patenaude, producer the morning show On Wisconsin Public Radio’s Idea Network: “The executive producers at WPR are very careful to not work after hours. That may mean working together to prepare a person for broadcast, but I also do the same for colleagues who are unable to do everything they need to do before taking vacation or personal time. In this respect, WPR is the healthiest news organization I’ve worked for in my 25-plus year career.”
Logan Rude, Assignment Editor and Digital Producer for WISC-TV News 3 Now and Channel3000.com: “Over the past year, I have found myself checking email more and more frequently during my downtime… Post I wish I had/While I was emailing, some of my colleagues called me and told me to sign up and enjoy my vacation.”
Natalie Eilbert, USA TODAY NETWORK (Wisconsin) reporter: “No, I don’t really feel like I get time off. My newsroom is spread thin, so it feels very thin.” Even though I’m a mental health journalist. I feel like I have to expose myself to other breaking news stories as well. And since my beat is specifically mental health, I completely turn my brain off from thinking about the truly horrifying and traumatic stories. The constant fear of being fired is also “tiring,” she added.
“If I have to travel, I often work around the time of the trip, whether it’s on a plane, on a train, or in the passenger seat of a car.”
Barry Adams, reporter and columnist; wisconsin state journal: “I think our bosses would like us to completely sever ties, but I think it’s difficult. As a journalist you’re always ‘on’ and the ideation and exploration of ideas never goes away.” . In fact, I ended up reporting and photographing a few stories from the Wisconsin angle as I got inspired and had ideas while on vacation. I was waiting to write the story until I got back. ”
Joy Powers, host and producer lake effect On WUWM-FM (89.7): “I’m a little nervous at the office, but when I’m out I definitely pay attention to the news. But if I don’t, it just adds more work on the back end.”
TJ Dysart, Marquette University Journalism major: As part of the Marquette Wire program, Dysart gained hands-on experience working in radio, television, newspapers, and magazines. Even as a student journalist, he knows how difficult it is to keep the demands of reporting and writing separate. “In class, I often find myself doing more journalism work than teaching.” He wasn’t discouraged by this, though, as he worked as an expert at the local TV station where he interned last summer. He said he observed burnout among staff members and recalled one staff member trying to take time off. I can feel it. ”
What is burnout? defined by the World Health OrganizationIt is recognized as “chronic, poorly managed workplace stress.” This results in feelings of exhaustion and negative feelings toward work, which reduces occupational effectiveness. This is a syndrome that many working people, and especially journalists, experience today.
Researchers at the Center for Local Media Innovation and Sustainability at the University of North Carolina School of Journalism recently conducted a survey of 500 local journalists to assess the level of burnout across the industry, and the results were published in April. It was announced at the end of the month. The results were sobering: 70% reported experiencing work-related burnout.
The researchers said in the introduction that the results come after “a tumultuous decade for the local news industry,” including layoffs, consolidation, and the COVID-19 pandemic, for “news organizations that have been demanding full-time performance from their employees. “This highlights the looming talent crisis in the United States.” It is well documented that industry revenues and viewership are declining. ”
The study found that journalists under 45 experience more burnout than those over 45. Women and non-binary people experience more burnout than men. Somewhat surprisingly, journalists were less affected by online trolling and harassment than expected. The number of journalists who experienced source-related burnout was less than half (31%) of those who experienced personal or work-related burnout.
And in a statistic that is not only personally important to journalists, but also has implications for all news consumers and the public, 72% of respondents said they had considered quitting their current job . Thirty-nine percent said they would be able to stay with their company if they were paid more, and 17% said they would be better off with more flexible work hours or more vacation time.
Those who write on the topic say it’s important to define burnout as a systemic rather than an individual problem. In other words, the culprit is the workplace, not the employee.
So while it would certainly be helpful if journalists were able to completely unplug from work during their vacation, that respite does not necessarily mean that when they return to their desks, they will have to deal with the realities of work (too much work and too few people to do it). (too much).
Christina Maslach, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, has been studying burnout for more than 40 years. “All the self-care in the world can be done by yourself,” Maslach says in an interview about her latest book. Burnout Challenge“But if the stressors are the same, then at some level it will remain a problem.”
More often than I would like, I hear people ridiculing local media for lack of coverage, for missing the point, for lacking depth, etc. I think there are a lot of people who don’t know the current state of the industry and the reality of the working conditions for those of us who are still in the field.