This time last year, I didn’t think I would be writing my senior goodbye for the Daily Forty-Niner in November 2007. In fact, I hadn’t given the next year much thought at all.
I was the opinion editor at the time and every day I stepped into the Forty-Niner‘s newsroom I was excited. I would usually get in about two hours before anyone else, put on some jazz, do some copy editing and send out e-mails. If time allowed, I would read The New York Times.
Every day, I was eager to be there. I was in a room full of people I loved, doing something I loved and getting paid for it. The same was true of the year before, but to a lesser extent and without pay. Every day, I would spend time with my friends and put together a brand new product. It was grand.
This year though, things changed. I was a victim of the Peter Principle. I had been a decent widget maker and had been promoted to a managerial position. But, as happens with the Peter Principle (which says an employee is promoted until he or she is deemed to have reached a suitable level of incompetence), I wasn’t cut from the managerial cloth.
I like to write and I like talking to writers. But the dynamic of the newsroom had changed and those elements weren’t what my job consisted of anymore.
I write this because, like many students, I had been working a job that I hated. I went from writing a staff editorial twice a week, recruiting, editing and talking with writers, to managing a newsroom. It was a whole new ball game.
It was an incredibly difficult decision to take a position at the ‘Niner that didn’t require me to live in the newsroom. Despite all of the “this is character building” pep talks about how I committed to something that I should follow through with, I realized I was very, very unhappy.
I’ve learned a lot at the Forty-Niner and most of the time I was ecstatic. I don’t think I would have a passion for journalism or current affairs if I hadn’t been part of the newsroom of yore, but my time in the newsroom has passed. No matter how it looks on my résumé, I would rather give up my title as managing editor than stay.
That is what is so amazing about being an adult. You decide what is best for you. Even when there are people kibitzing about how to live your life, the decision ultimately resides with you. You need to be able to decide what’s best for you, even with the staunchest adversity or naysaying.
In my case, that meant taking an unpaid position as the investigations editor at the Forty-Niner and doing off-campus circulation so I could have a little purse money. I’m stoked.
For those of you struggling with whether or not to stay at a job you dislike, my advice is to ignore all advice. Think seriously about what is right for you and whether your happiness is worth the number attached to your paycheck. If it’s not, quit.
If you don’t have a choice, and are struggling at a job you hate because you have to go to school and need money, take solace in the fact that your presence here at a university nearly guarantees you more job flexibility in the future.
In any case, do what is best for you and give all major decisions a lot of thought. It took me five months to reach my decision. My only regret is that I didn’t make it sooner.
Lauren Williams is a senior journalism and political science major, the investigations editor for the Daily Forty-Niner and a weekly columnist.
