Gotta love corporate America
Everyone knows the economy is in a sorry state at the moment, and layoffs are becoming all too common across many industries. But I don't think any have been hit quite as hard as my lifeblood, the newspaper industry. My 401(k), with its lovely employee stock sharing plan, has lost so much money I don't even bother looking at the balance anymore.
And now, my employer is laying off 600 people, with the ever-present threat of more job cuts to come. There are some people who say newspapers are dying – that this is their last gasp, and some of my colleagues are desperate to jump off the sinking ship.
I don't know if I'm ready to do that yet. For one thing, I absolutely love my job, and I honestly can't imagine finding that kind of fulfillment in any other career path. For another thing, I don't think there are any other career paths open to me unless I go back to school, which would be a significant and financially painful undertaking.
So what's a potentially unemployed journalist to do? For now, I'm sticking with waiting, praying and hoping for the best – not just for me, but for my co-workers, all of whom have been doing this far longer than I have and therefore have even more limited post-newspaper career options.