loungewear is the new workwear
Welcome to the first edition of radio anxiety! This newsletter will focus on the state of the media, a little bit about my mental health and occasionally I’ll throw in some music I’ve been listening to.
All three of these things are incredibly relevant to my life. I work in media. I started seeing a therapist in January. Music has always been a constant in my life to help keep me calm, hence this newsletter’s title.
I’ve been working from home since March 16, and it has been quite a transition for me. I miss the newsroom. I miss being around people that aren’t my boyfriend and our housemate. Weirdly enough, I actually miss being overly stressed out at work sometimes.
I’ve found that my anxiety levels have gone down as I’ve been working from home. It’s a nice change of pace, but when you’ve been anxious for so long and it suddenly starts to ease up? Yeah, it’s strange. My therapist (whom I ADORE! and am thankful I have been able to see via Skype during this strange time!) is proud of the progress I’ve made getting to this point.
Working in media is tough, especially when you work in an industry that’s currently being ravaged by furloughs, paycuts and layoffs. I accepted my “fate” as a broke journalist when I was in high school. I swore to myself I’d never actually work at a newspaper because they were “dying.” I majored in broadcast journalism only to find out that I actually hated it. Radio is still cool, but I’ve found that television can be clique-y and there’s too much pressure to look a certain way. I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for my broadcasting counterparts. I just fell out of love with it.
And now I’m working at a newspaper in a digital capacity.
The thought of furloughs, paycuts and layoffs is constantly on my mind. Not just for myself, but for my colleagues across the country. Newspapers in particular are going through some rough times and now, more than ever, it’s important to support them AND other local media outlets that are trying to fill the gaps created by the losses of newspapers.
Those thoughts are also why I’m thankful our newsroom unionized back in October. We recently voted to ratify our first contract (!!!) and while it’s not perfect, it’s better than what we had. It’s also helped alleviate the anxiety I’ve had for months building up to this point.
Working from home in the midst of a pandemic is strange. It’s not ideal. Getting furloughed in the middle of a pandemic also isn’t ideal. As I type this out, six of the newsroom staffers are out on furlough. Technically we have seven folks out this week, as one deals with a family emergency. Our newsroom is tiny. These furloughs are making it harder for all of us to actually work. It’s terrifying that this could very well be a reality, where our once-robust newsroom gets cut to well…nothing.
My first furlough (ever!) is scheduled for the middle of this month. My second furlough week will be in June. I plan on using the first week to relax, rewind and try to wean myself off of the constant battering of non-stop news my brain has been receiving over the last few months. It’s exhausting. I feel like I’ve been 29 for what seems like an eternity now, even though I turned 29 in the beginning of March.
I’m in a position where I’m a bit more well-off than my peers because my parents have been able to give me extra support when I need it, and I realize I have this privilege that not everyone does. That’s part of the reason why this industry sucks. We don’t make that much working in media, and when our stream of income gets cut off (even if it’s temporary!) it hurts. A lot.
I’m really proud that my colleagues started a GoFundMe for Virginia’s journalists who have been laid off or furloughed. It shouldn’t have to be this way, but here we are, in 2020, where GoFundMes and crowdsourcing have become ways to help people when they need it.
This is gonna be today’s PSA: please help support the journalists across Virginia who’ve been laid off or furloughed. Without journalists, local news would cease to exist and the tales that should be told in communities go unheard.
We’ve also reached the part where loungewear has become the new workwear as we all debate if it’s appropriate to put on pants to go to work (or in ABC’s Will Reeve’s case, go to work sans pants), even when we know nobody will see us. Where staying home is the new normal; where our homes have become more than a sanctuary. They’ve become our gyms, our offices, our newsrooms, our studios, our prisons. That’s why I whipped up the start of a potential series for our newspaper: Quarantunes.
The first playlist is entitled “Don’t Lose Hope.” You can read about it here, or just listen to it on Spotify. It’s in print today. It was also the inspiration for this newsletter, that I impulsively decided to create.
Lastly, I’m gonna end this newsletter with even more shameless self-promotion. I recently interviewed Sadie Dupuis, of Speedy Ortiz and sad13. That interview is also in print today.
The pandemic has been hard on everyone, especially the music industry. Tours have been canceled, album release dates have been pushed and even artists are trying to figure out this new normal. It’s had an impact on our mental health as well, and it’s important to talk about that. What does it mean to take care of yourself in these weird times?