Ron Charles, the former editor of the Washington Post Book World, has a delightful essay on Substack about getting laid off after 20 years doing a job he loved. “Delightful” because, as depressing as the subject is, the piece has moments of humor.
I’ve seen a few pieces by former Post writers, and I’ve read them with sympathy – I too was laid off (after 19 years doing a job I loved) – and envy (I got none of the attention and support that they are getting). I worked for a smaller, much less acclaimed newspaper in Florida, and I didn’t write about books, or sports – I wrote about travel. To most people, even probably some in the newsroom, my layoff simply meant an end to my ridiculously sublime gig of being paid to take vacations. To me, it meant the demise of the section that informed readers about the world. But this was 2008, and I had no Substack to turn to with my thoughts on my dismissal. And of course no media reported on my departure. I simply cleaned out my desk – I was given an afternoon – and filled a shopping cart with the contents, atop which I placed the Green Eyeshade award I had received a few weeks earlier.
