The Latest: WaPo adding 41 editors; CNN delays newsroom return; 8 ways managers make teams feel unimportant

September 20, 2021

■ Bully pulpit no more: Jen Psaki’s turn at the lectern (New York Times) / The mysterious reporter on the Biden beat (Politico)

■ How journalist Errin Haines is documenting the political influence of Black women (Forbes)

■ Ten political journalists reflect on starting their careers during the Trump era and look ahead to what comes next (CJR) / For one Capitol reporter, Jan. 6 was the final straw — but he had watched a crisis brew for years (Washington Post)

■ What does 'off the record' mean? The latest journalism dustup between political reporters (Poynter) / What is political writing for? (Columbia Journalism Review)

■ The New York Daily News gets an ‘as-needed’ editor in Connecticut until new one is hired (New York Times)

■ ‘In a memo to staff, CNN President Jeff Zucker says the company has "come to the conclusion that a full return to the office in October does not feel right." "As a result,” Zucker says, "we have decided to move our full return date to January 10, 2022 .” ’ (Oliver Darcy)

■ Michigan meteorologist fired for not being vaccinated (Washington Post) / These four words are helping spread vaccine misinformation (CNN)

■ 'A little under half (48%) of U.S. adults say they get news from social media “often” or “sometimes,” a 5 percentage point decline compared with 2020, according to a Pew Research Center survey’ (Pew Research Center) / As Facebook tries to knock the journalism off its platform , its users are doing the same (Nieman Lab)

■ ‘Quit your f – king job’: How the pandemic has pushed journalists to exit the industry (Digiday)

■ Miss Manners: Is it rude to ignore a reporter's questions? (Mercury News)

Press Freedom

■ An American journalist sits in prison as Myanmar suppresses dissent (New York Times) / Lawyer says Danny Fenster, U.S. journalist in Myanmar jail , seems disheartened (AP)

■ How the U.S. helped, and hampered, the escape of Afghan journalists (New York Times) / 'I am so appreciative Ireland has accepted us': Afghan refugee arrives in Ireland at same time as war photo exhibition he helped create (Irish Times)

■ As an Afghan newspaper struggles to survive , a brutal beating — and a Taliban apology (Washington Post)

“A little bit of personal narrative can inject a whole sense of richness to a piece, because you start to feel like the author actually cares about why this is happening. But a lot of times, you can just get in the way and it comes off as self absorbed.”

-- Jaed Coffin, journalist and professor of creative writing at the University of New Hampshire, said in The GroundTruth Project's Navigator newsletter

8 ways managers make people feel unimportant

Advice from Jill Geisler, Bill Plante Chair in Leadership & Media Integrity, Loyola University Chicago, Freedom Forum Fellow in Women’s Leadership

There are important conversations going on in workplaces today about employee engagement.

What does — or doesn’t — cause people to give their best efforts, brainstorm solutions, and look out for others? What makes them feel they truly belong on the team and are proud to be there?

Fair pay is important, of course. But there are plenty of people who leave good-paying jobs because they don’t feel they are valued in other ways that truly matter. They don’t feel trusted. They don’t feel supported.They don’t feel respected. It’s not that they need to feel supremely important at work. They just don’t want to feel unimportant.

Managers play a key role in whether people feel that their contributions matter; whether they are seen as valuable or dispensable. It happens in everyday interactions, which ultimately add up.

Here are 8 ways managers make people feel unimportant:

Frequently cancel our meetings, arrive late, or unprepared
Re-do my work without explaining why
Talk over me in meetings; cut me off
Routinely ask others for input before asking me
Fail to follow up on an issue we discussed
Postpone my review or let a renewable assignment or contract run down to the very last minute before talking with me about my status
Create change that affects me negatively without discussing it with me before or after implementing it
Assign me a role, ostensibly to help solve a problem, but then neglect to give me adequate resources or support to do it well

Please note that I didn’t write about obvious nefarious things like lying, harassment, or wage theft. I shared examples of behaviors that routinely happen in organizations. They take place when managers lack the emotional intelligence to see the world through the eyes of their employees.

Those managers may assume that their workload, their desire for efficiency, or their perfectionistic streak justifies those behaviors. Their actions inevitably continue if employees don’t feel empowered to tell them how small they can make people feel.

So let me speak for the staffers: Please give that list of eight behaviors a second read. Make sure I haven’t described you in any way. But don’t stop there, because you don’t make the ultimate decision on that. Your employees do.

If they’re truly important to you, you’ll find out if they see you there. And if you make it safe for them to tell you that they do, you’ll apologize and improve.

It’s more than important. It’s essential for everyone’s success.

Get more career advice: Read Jill's columns | Watch Manager's Minute videos

Resources

This newsletter is written & edited by the National Press Club Journalism Institute staff: Beth Francesco, Holly Butcher Grant and Julie Moos. Send us your questions and suggestions for topics to cover.

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