job update

Well, what's next appears to be a promotion to the manager of a different office, a little further up the Parkway from where I work, overseeing a staff of three editors and their reporters, a copy editor and a receptionist/typist type.

I had remarked to Tim about a month ago that I'm feeling burnt out where I am right now. The work is essentially what I've been doing for a few years, with the result that I've been spinning my wheels and beginning to stagnate. Even before that conversation, I had started working with some of my co-workers from a mentor position, going over papers, layouts, headlines and stories with them with an eye toward what could have been done to make the paper better.

It appears that Tim has decided I'd be a good choice to engage in some of that on a formal basis in one of our other offices. What that would mean in terms of pay I don't know. Obviously, and as I told him, I'd like to get more money. I'm making about $35K now; I had been making $40K at The Times, and that was the first time Natasha and I were able to live moderately comfortably on my salary. It's been tight on what I'm making at WCN, and to be honest, we wouldn't be making it at all without the money Natasha pulls in from some free-lance work she does for Rutgers University. Now that we have Rachel as well as Evangeline, we really could use a bit more. I didn't name the figure, but $45K would be nice. (I actually said $60K would be nice, which it would, but I really don't think that's even in the realm of possibility.)

From what Tim told me, I'm already one of the three highest-paid managing editors, which is about what I had figured, so he's not sure how much more they could give me as a regional or associate editor, whatever my title would be.

Mixed feelings. It's a step up and it's a chance to develop new skills, and although I'm not wild about staying with a company as notoriously cheap as this one, I'm also not wild about changing jobs AGAIN. I've been with this one only a year, and before that it was unemployment for eight months, The Times for eight months, The Packet for three years, Forbes Newspapers for 18 months, various piddly jobs like gas station attendant and pizza guy over a 12-month period, teacher in Bethlehem, Pa., for a year, teacher in Port-au-Prince for a year, missionary for a year, and college student.

In other words, my work history has been marked by a lot of jumping, and I wouldn't mind a little stability and a natural progression through the ranks for a while before I leave the workforce for stay-at-home dadhood or to a job I really enjoy.

Another nice thing is that the job theoretically could be 9-to-5, which is what I'd like right now anyway, with the kids the age they are. The niggling suspicion there is that while Tim might not be consciously lying to me, he also said this current, 50-hour-a-week job only takes 40 hours, back when he hired me. We editors call that the big lie.

On top of that, the office where I would be working has two bits of its reputation that I don't like: 1) It's where they send people when they want them to quit; and 2) It has its own Reporter from Hell, and I've already had one of those in this job. Her replacement has been great -- the epitome of professional behavior, and I've tremendously enjoyed working with him. I'm really not eager to trade him in for someone who's been doing the job for so long he knows everything already and won't be taught. I've also seen a couple of the editors in action whom I would be dealing with, and I'm not terribly impressed.

I didn't tell Tim yea or nay, and he didn't push me for an answer either, which suggests it's not his plan to send me there to get rid of me. I told him I am interested, but would like to know more about what I would be doing (responsibilities and authorities), and how much I'd be making.

The implication I picked up was that the job is mine if I want it, and that he wants to have me moved in there by the end of next month. So we'll see.