Thread by @deepusebastian

Journalism, I think we need to have a conversation about bad bosses and toxic newsrooms.

Journalism, I think you need to stop promoting reporters to editors just because they've been good reporters. For starters, most reporters - including me - carry around a massive ego. Rarely makes for good managers.

Journalism, you need to stop hiring bad managers repeatedly. Hire egoistic reporters who do excellent stories, yes. But please don't put them in charge of a team?

For a change, why don't we promote the meek, journalism? Those rare individuals in newsrooms who don't mind others being in the spotlight? Even better, those who help others be in the spotlight?

(Friend pings to ask if I'm drunk. No, I'm just angry. For a profession that's full of holier-than-thou tones, we have quite a lot of shitty managers)

It's just a bad business model. Promoting pushy-but-excellent reporters as editors, chaining them to a desk & asking them to manage a team. Then watch them wreck careers because they're insecure about cub reporters out-doing them one day

But yeah, no one accused us journalists of having good business sense anyway. Our IT filings, full of deductions we don't understand, are proof.

If you think you're gonna make a point by confronting a bad boss tomorrow morning, don't. Bad bosses win; there's a reason why journalists don't write scripts for SRK. I'd like to hear stories of how you stood up to a bad boss and won, cause I'm yet to hear any

Oh, another bad business model. Bad bosses need their coterie & that often ends up being a club of incompetent subordinates falling over each other to flatter & ensure a good appraisal. That's just a very efficient system of weeding out the good ones

To those from outside newsrooms: yes, we journalists crib too much. We crib even about good bosses. But this is about something systemic & pervasive. I'm able to draw inspiration from so many bad apples & yet sketch a fair picture of the broken applecart

(Friend sends hugs. Worries some people will be too happy to see me have a mental breakdown on a Tuesday night. I've had my bad days with bad bosses, yes. Not today, though. This is on behalf of two individuals who reached out with some frustrating stories today)

So, yeah. What can be done? Nothing much bottom-up, I'm afraid. Often, most of us journalists end up working for editors knowing their toxic nature, because we are desperate for a job. We hope they will be better with us, but always end up disappointed

Two solutions spring to mind, both top-down. 1. Here's wishing bad bosses were honest during job interviews. To the bad bosses reading this: you know you're a mean person; just own it. Be open about your meanness during job interviews....

....Tell your recruits they're gonna be shouted at. That they'll be asked to spend their off days tracking tweets from disgruntled Uber riders. That you'll humiliate them during team meetings. Tell them you want people who won't dare to disagree with you....

.... and you'll be surprised. You'll get exactly the kind of people you're looking for, because we keep producing too many journalism graduates in this country. You won't find the odd fellow who thinks you're an amazing boss who'll be a mentor....

....It frees you from the pressure of finding excuses to fire one more person or give their stories to your chamcha. More time to expand your fiefdom. Win-win. So, next time you interview someone, please don't sell them a pipedream about fearless journalism?

And 2. Media owners: You are people with shitloads of money. Then why'd you make choices that make no business sense at all? Now, don't go the TOI route and hire MBAs as newsroom managers, but can't we find a middle ground?

Owners: serious question. Why do you keep hiring horrible people as bosses? Do you think shouting & screaming & ranting works in newsrooms anymore?

(Wait, does it?! That'd be depressing)

For all the talk of standing with the underdog and standing up for the meek, don't we have any space for such individuals in our newsrooms? Does this profession only reward those who enjoy being in the limelight - that too, at the cost of others?

Fin.

I've been inundated with responses all day. I knew it was bad, yet the number of people reaching out has shaken me. There are individual accounts, too. This, by @FuschiaScribe, for instance

medium.com/@aparnnahajirn…

The messages & calls about bad managers keep coming. Individuals write detailing their harrowing experiences, then swear me to secrecy. Which isn't needed: the secrecy is implied. I wish I could find the lever to get something started about this problem.

Some learnings from the last two days.

1 More women than men have reached out; clearly there's a sexual element at play here (duh, you say. But sometimes, stating the obvious is important).

2 Multiple individuals have told me their bad bosses have interacted with my tweets. As someone mentioned here earlier, some bad managers could be living in a bubble. So, if you're someone handling a team, pl take the time out to reflect?

3 I didn't explicitly say this earlier, but there's a power element to all this. There's something about power that makes good people turn nasty. Newsrooms aren't designed to be democratic spaces. That doesn't mean autocracy is the alternative.

4 The nature of power & the character of newsrooms also mean that your good friend can be a horrible manager. So, when a friend/ colleague reaches out, pl listen? You may be able to reach out to the bad boss as a friend & do something about it

5 Reporters who don't want to handle a team should just say so. Reporters who are unable to cope when given the charge of a team should just say so. Reporters who suffered under a bad boss should resist the temptation to do the same to their subordinates.

6 We need training for managers, asap. Too many good people have quit, even more have had to seek help because of this rot. Owners, industry associations & journalism institutues need to design modules & roll compulsory programmes out. We can't afford to lose good people anymore.

7 We need a whisper network. Young journalists should be actively discouraged from working for bad bosses, even if offered good pay packets. I was lucky cause I started out under some excellent people. Alumni could inform journalism institutues of their experiences

Fin, for now