SHOW ME THE MONEY! (click on the words to get to the link)
Another famous quote comes to mind in my circumstances - "Do what you love and the money will follow."
In April I asked the newspaper for which I freelance if they would consider an increase in pay. For two solid years, over 110 realty sections, with little direction and no "vacations" or time away from my work, I have committed my time and resources to provide outstanding materials.
About three weeks ago I was called in for some meetings, new staff had been hired and some changes were being made to the section I edit, write and layout each week. Finally! Working as a team, more direction, more communication, building a better resource for realtors and homebuyers to utilize for their needs (because up until now I didn't think the changes were mine to make).
While the meetings have felt productive, there has been little movement following. Instead I am confused by the talking heads and the sides they are taking. One side wants this, the other wants something different. The something different side has more power but has rescheduled our most recent meeting four different times, leaving me to scramble to find a babysitter and then cancel, three times over.
My time is valuable. My kids, my family, taking care of my home and my sanity is much more important than working this job. This last week I crafted my letter of resignation and have been very close to pressing "send" many times this weekend.
And then I found this.
When one son of the farmer and his wife built this new home just down the road, he asked the masons to look on the old property for stones to use to build this landscape wall. They turned up with this from the old tanning barn...to skin animals for their hides, not the tanning we know today...a cornerstone with the carving of the year the barn was built, 1815.
I love my job. My father's passion for history has enveloped me and I love to write about historical homes in this part of the country. To stumble upon this gem makes me daydream about what life was like for all of the people that passed through the doors of this home.
When the family decided to put a central heating system in the home, the installers found some of the insulation to be grain. A natural spring running down from the local mountain ran right to the house for fresh water, and then not only for this home, but three others and the local school. The wide planked wood floors were hand cut from trees on the property and with a little finishing will be stunning.
So my heart tugs to keep doing what I love, because I really do love this. But the money isn't following. I have been asked for more of my time and handed more responsibility with no sign of an increase in pay. Make no mistake, money is not everything. But I am beginning to feel of little value and that is disheartening.
It's such a shame, when you have devoted so much time to learning about the restoration of old houses. Although I wouldn't want to live in one myself, some of my happiest memories as a kid on field trips involve visiting restored houses from the past. As a history and literature buff, they really gave me a sense of what it was like to live in another era.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand what you are saying as a freelancer. It makes me so mad that editors try to squeeze the maximum amount of productivity from writers for the minimum salary possible. And, from an organizational standpoint, paying writers a fair price isn't that much of an additional expense for a publication, relative to the value generated of having really high-quality prose from experienced writers. Readers CAN tell when a writer is experienced in the subject matter.
I hope you find an outlet where you can share all of your knowledge and be fairly compensated. No one likes to feel taken advantage of...