I've been hired recently to serve as an Interim Managing Editor for a regional publication that bills itself as Kansas City's Premier Business Magazine. I have background working for national publications in Hong Kong and New York as well as an MFA in Creative Writing. Because I also developed a love for teaching while pursuing my graduate degree, this opportunity seemed a great one: The job description included managing and mentoring junior staff while also directing the magazine's editorial side, making story assignments, and writing and editing while developing a deeper grasp of issues that face the regional business community. Wow - right?
I've never seen - and never would have imagined - anything quite like it outside of a war zone or a penitentiary. Indeed, my colleague, our Special Sections Editor, has a fiance in Iraq, who has told her that our work environment is more hostile than his. That is - our small office strikes him as a more hostile environment than Iraq. Since arriving, I've learned that the magazine - which employs no more than six people at a time, and now has three full-timers including myself - has lost no less than 20 full-time employees in the last year, including two managing editors, six web editors and at least four or five ad representatives. Of course he screams, he lies, he cheats and accepts no responsibility for the magazine's troubles. And there are many: It's consistently inaccurate (fact-checking is discouraged); its laid out in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish ads from editorial (he brags of selling advertisers disguised 'editorial' as though that were a new and clever business concept); and worst of all it has been last for at least a year. That is, it typically appears on news stands about three weeks AFTER its cover date. We're about half-way finished with the April issue right now. signing on to be the Managing Editor, I seem to have accepted the role of Top Interim Scapegoat. I've begun to think that while Joe, the boss (and the poor wife he's trained to mimic him, Michelle), is not at all smart, he gains his power through acts of random abusiveness - verbal attacks, manipulative strategies, even law suits - and maintains that power precisely by ensuring that none of his staff stays on long enough to hold him accountable. My resume was plucked from hundreds that arrive via his perpetual ads posted on Career Builder. We all need work, and these days, the market in Kansas City and many other places is flooded with underused or laid-off media professionals. Nearly half the jobs at our daily paper, the Star, have been cut lately, which perhaps makes the horrible publication all the more insulting. Joe has no background in journalism — that's fine. But he doesn't appear to have learned much over the years either. A small example: I've asked if we might use a style manual and introduce a proof-reading step so that we can weed out errors and inconsistencies in the magazine. He said that was ridiculous. Michelle said that she'd never heard of such a thing...To be more concise, I have been given all of the responsibility for the magazine (from editing to, well cleaning the bathrooms) and none of the authority. I am not permitted to make assignments without explicit approval. This approval arrives late if at all. I am not permitted to set deadlines. And I was recently called in - and screamed at - because I'd had lunch with a marketing director. No, I don't know why. But it seems interviews are discouraged, too. Our computers are about ten years old; our internet connection thwarted with the most outdated firewall technology; and Michelle's primary job appears to be sitting in her office reading our email and checking on the 'key-stroke' tracking software that is supposed to increase productivity among all three of us - her only remaining full-time employees. Yet, we're supposed to produce some 100-plus pages of copy each month. Most of the past employees have left without notice. They walk out yelling or crying and never return. I'd like to give notice - so as to be, well, a professional and not ditch my coworkers — and for obvious reasons, I'd like to have another job in place before I go. I had been unemployed for several months before this — transitioning from teaching college English back into publishing. It took time, and, as anyone out there is unemployed knows too well, it sucks. Does anyone have a similar experience out there? Does anyone recognize this kind of boss: The small businessman who has found a way to achieve power - despite many inadequacies - without having any accountability? There are no higher ups at there, and, well, I'd at least like to find a way to warn the many others he lures to interview with him each day. Is there a way to hold someone like this accountable for his work - or lack of it?