I’m not as heartless as the headline of this piece suggests. I was very sad when speculations of the sack of editorial and other staff of a national newspaper were officially confirmed on Wednesday with the announcement of new appointments in the company.
With the economic situation in the country, this is one of the worst times to lose one’s job without commensurate financial entitlements and compensation.
After investing years of working and helping to build the conglomerates their former media organisations have become, summary sacking is not the way to reward the affected journalists.
No journalist who is still employed in any other media organisation should mock those who have been sacked. If the prevailing situation in the media industry persists, “sooner or later”, more journalists will be sacked.
Like a Yoruba proverb states, the death of one’s contemporaries is a warning that it may soon be your turn.
I’m sad that my “prophesy” of last February when I spoke at the Lagos Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ meeting has come to pass.
“The retrenchment of many journalists will come sooner or later and there is nothing even the union can do about it,” I said, noting that media organisations have to take painful business decisions if they are to continue to publish.
As much as I’m pained by the sacking of journalists and wish I can reverse their “disengagement”, I suggest that their response should not be to indulge in any pity party or crying over spilled milk.
I’m more concerned about how soon the sacked journalists can come to terms with their “hard luck” and start thinking and taking concrete steps to move on with their media career.
It’s going to be tough finding new jobs as other media houses are barely managing to survive. Chances are that others may take a cue from the ones that have sacked their staff and throw more journalists into the labour market soon.
Better late than never, this is the time for those sacked to take stock of their work experience and find out where their various media and non-media skills can be needed. You never know how much you can do until you find yourself in make or mar situations like this.
Good luck if they are able to find another job soon, but if not, they should put on their thinking cap, think outside the box like it is usually said, and they may just be able to turn their situations around for good.
This is the time to concretise some of those projects they have always had in mind but never had time to work on due to their former hectic job schedule. About a year before she was recently sacked, Kemi Ashefon formerly of The Punch had wanted to resign her job to run her Relationship blog but she hesitated.
Her sack has forced her to take her professional destiny in her hands and she is grateful she was kicked out.
When life kicks you, like when you suddenly get sacked, let it kick you forward.
For those sacked and others still lucky to be employed, collaboration and partnership on project ideas may be necessary. We all have different skills and connections that are better harnessed instead of playing small alone when working together we can be major players in whatever we decide to do.
I urge media associations to organise brainstorming sessions, training and retraining for members to be able to cope with changes in the industry which require new knowledge and skills more than what many of us have.
I congratulate those who have been sacked. Why? They have the opportunity of starting earlier on a journey others who are still currently employed will embark on later.
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