On Friday the 5pm newscast producer put together her last show. She is moving up to a larger market and WAAAY up the east coast. Several of us were taking a coffee break in the Green Room across from the control room about 3pm and she came by getting things ready for her last show. We called her in and told her how we would miss her and don't forget the little people and oh yeah, come around occasionally. She said she would and I don't think ANYONE believed she would be coming back. She might THINK she will, but it will NEVER happen.
It isn't that she doesn't WANT to. It is just life doesn't move like that. She isn't from around here. She has no family here. She came to college here and that is what brought her here in the first place and this was her first job out of school. No real reason to come back except to see former co-workers who may or may not even be working here then. I mean, it isn't like we are FRIENDS or anything. Why would she or why should she want to come back? Nothing personal. Honest. Circle of life, Simba.
I speak from a certain first hand knowledge of such situations. I have seen it a thousand times in my career. I have even been in that very position myself a couple of times before believing life would go on as before with worker-friends, just that I would be a little farther down the road, that is all. But the truth is I was moving on to a new job in a new town and any ties I had were being cut in two with all the precision a surgeons scalpel. I just wouldn't acknowledge it.
The first time it happen to me it was in the town I grew up in. But by the time I moved on, family had moved away and all my growing up friends had moved on and it was only co-workers I associated with. A couple of them I even considered good friends, but in the post move era, I have only talked to one of them twice on the phone and have never seen the other one in over 20 years. I do feel bad about that, but the 2 times I have been back that way, I was passing through going somewhere else with no time to spare it seemed and my hometown was on the route. In all honesty, the one who I haven't seen since I left, I did go by his "house" to see him one time, but found out he had moved somewhere else in town, but I didn't know where and didn't have the time to find out where. People just don't stay at a job like they used to. Normally.
My station is unique in that many people stay for 10's of years. That isn't the case anywhere else anymore. My immediate supervisor has been there for 30 years and my department head for 31 years. The General Manager has 34 years of tenure there! Some are on their second time around! Some have never worked anywhere else in their lives! Me? I am a newbie. A rookie. Only 18 years of service to the station. People cross town? If they make it 5 years, they consider themselves lucky.
Now adays those being hired don't plan on staying. This is a stepping stone to bigger and better things so I really expect we who have the tenure of decades are the last of a dying breed. To be honest, I never expected to still be working at the same place after 18 years and counting either. Bright lights are always over the horizon.
Have I had other offers? Yep! You bet! More money too! But not only what you make, but the environment you make it in is just as important to me and so far I haven't found anything better, yet.
So Jen, enjoy Connecticut and be as successful as you want to be! Nice knowing you and working with you! But we shall never see each other again. Blame the Gods of life.
