Your Recession

Now that Twitter's been back up and we've been able to sample your posts for a bit longer, here's a "more accurate" (remember, none of this is scientific) look at what MediaJobsDaily followers are Tweeting about:

(c)Wordle.net

Our colleague at FBNY, Amanda Ernst, lost her job last November when Condé Nast closed DNR, where she had been working.

Now she offers her own tips to support the 180 folks who are losing their jobs thanks to Condé's closing of four titles, and the many more who will likely be cut as the weeks go on.

Ernst writes:

I'm still working as a journalist, I'm not homeless and, most of the time, I can pay my bills. And the panic attacks and a paralyzing sense of self-doubt have subsided over time. I managed somehow. And so can you.

So how did I do it? I accepted help from family and friends -- emotional and monetary -- whenever they offered. I changed my expectations. I tried new things, talked to new people and sent my resume to everyone who I thought could help. The first six months were the most difficult, but during that time I learned more than I ever wanted to know about unemployment insurance, COBRA and writing cover letters.

Read her three must-do tips at FBNY.

The suddenly-idle hands blamed themselves, rather than society. True, there were hunger marches and protestations to City Hall and Washington, but the millions experienced a private kind of shame when the pink slip came. No matter that others suffered the same fate, the inner voice whispered, 'I'm a failure.'

Dot-com bubble? Great Recession?

No. This is a quote from Studs Terkel's Hard Times, written about the Great Depression.

Terkel interviewed hundreds of people for the book, and later aired some of the interviews on WFMT Radio in Chicago. Those recordings are available here.

Nothing like a little perspective...

Library of Congress

Note: This week, we're doing something a little different; this essay was sent in by a reader, and we thought we'd just give it to you unfiltered. The author tells us she's "not bitter, just sad" about the decline of newspapers, and even has a few opinions on what went wrong.

Newspapers are dying. It's like watching a terminally ill loved one wither away to nothing before your eyes. You are simultaneously filled with dread even as you wish they would just go, already, and end the suffering.

I entered journalism all earnest and idealistic. A child of two social workers, I was determined to save the world and believed fervently that the pen was, indeed, mightier than the sword. I would shine a light on injustice, stand up for the little guy, balance out the negative stereotypes of people of color, find the humanity in a sometimes inhuman world. I would be a griot. A storyteller. A historian.

continued...

When Travis Rogers was laid off from Safeco in May 2008, he was wearing "so many 'hats' it wasn't funny." In addition to event planning, project management, training employees, and co-managing all audio/visual services, he was working on audio and video production, lent his voice to podcasts, and more.

Travis was "quite literally underpaid and overworked," he says. "What I wouldn't give to have that back now."

It's been almost a year. He says he applies to ten or more jobs a week.
"I have made it my 8a.m.-4p.m. job to look for work, five days a week...I have rewritten my resume countless times, heeded all the advice, done tons of research..." Travis has been to just three in-person interviews in all this time.

Today, his last unemployment check arrives. He'll continue to get a small ($230/month) check for a minor military disability, but that's it. Travis plans to sell his car and as many of his possessions as he can and move into a friend's spare room.

"The hardest part is fighting off the inevitable depression that comes along with all the stress and worry," he told us. "I have been humbled by the realization of how short the fall is to homelessness...if I didn't have friends and a little government money coming in, the streets is where I would be in just a week or two. Thank goodness I don't have a family to support."

To share your story with us, send us an e-mail.

We asked you to send us stories of how you're coping with the recession. Here's the first of what will be a new series focusing on you guys.

Ellen* worked in California as a marketer for a major publisher. In November, she was told she'd lose her job in January. Yet when January came and went, she was still waiting for the axe to fall.

Ellen had been underemployed the past year, and before that had dipped into her 401(k) to go to school to study graphic design. "I did not think there was going to be another publishing job for me," Ellen says, but she was hoping to stay with her current company at least long enough to rebuild her 401(k).

Instead, two weeks after the January deadline, she was laid off.

"It could not have come at a worse time...My child is off to college next year," she says, and because she had to raid her 401(k), "now I have no savings and a big tax bill...Unemployment does not make a dent in the cost of living."

Two weeks after being laid off, her employer asked her to come back part time, which Ellen says she's grateful for. But, she says, it's only a matter of time before the money runs out, so she's looking for a job. She's looking outside of publishing ("The field is just too unstable") but hasn't found anything yet."I have put in at least 30 resumes with no response to date...it's hard not to get depressed.

"I do bite my nails and get jittery at night. I check the cabinets to see how much canned food I have."

It's not the first time Ellen has been in this situation—she was laid off after the dot-com bust—but had money saved to back her up that time. This time, there's no safety net. "I feel like I am living on the edge this time," she says.

*Name changed at employee's request.
Send us your stories of your recession. mediajobsdaily@mediabistro.com