Last year I left a national newspaper with great fanfare. I had a leaving do and a leaving lunch. I gave a speech and received a generous present as well as a mock-up of a front page. I was also banged out (the old Fleet Street tradition in which printers would bang metal hammers and rulers against the desks as a long-standing member of staff left for the last time). Nowadays we use hands on desks and when it happens to you, it’s incredibly moving.
I was also given a year’s money as I’d volunteered for redundancy. That funded me to train as a teacher – an odd year in which I went back to university and had my placement in a Sixth Form college. Both environments couldn’t have been more different from a newspaper office and while interesting, I missed the buzz and the laughter. Believe me, laughs are thin on the ground on a PGCE course.
I kept in touch with old friends but it was odd to consign that part of my life to history. And then this week, I was back! I was asked in to do some shifts. And it was like I never went away. It was just like the old times but with people looking pleased to see me. Most stopped for a chat. We laughed a lot. There are some new faces there – younger people – and they told me what twerking was.
It’s not that I haven’t moved on (I am one of the few people I know who loves change). And I don’t want to work there full time, but it was just great to be back. It really was. I like to think I left on good terms and it made me realise how important it is to never flounce off in a huff. Or to treat colleagues badly. Or to behave like a twonk. I've seen a LOT of that in newspapers. Journalists who look down their noses at others and then have a minor coronary when their junior is promoted to editor and has the power to offer them work and fiddle with their copy.
So, never say never. And always be nice. And never look down on younger people as they can teach you new things - such as twerking.
PS: I received a postcard this week that included the postscript: ‘don’t get complacent about your SEO’ so here it is journalist, teacher, author.
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