For the next few weeks I'm going to provide you with short excerpts from my new handbook, Writing and Editing the Internal Publication. I'll do this once a week, and I'll also continue to write new posts.
Editors and writers of employee publications are usually younger communicators who are at the beginning of their careers, and they are often ill equipped to deal with the Kafkaesque bureaucracy, creepy internal politics and stifling controls of the organization they’re hired to serve. The editor’s position is viewed by many as a burnout job—akin to social work or bomb disposal. People rarely stay in it for more than three or four years, and they’re usually relieved and excited to be leaving employee communication to enter the big, glamorous world of public relations or marketing or whatever.
But not everyone burns out and leaves. In my travels I’ve met a few people who have managed to stay in the editor’s saddle for their entire career. One charming gentleman I know has been a corporate editor with the same company for over 20 years and he still enjoys coming to work every morning. His colleagues and bosses have come to rely on him as the institutional memory of the company.
If you stick with it, working as a writer or editor of an employee publication can be an enormously satisfying job. You get to be in the heat of the action, living behind the façade that your organization builds for the outside world. You’re exposed to everything that’s right and wrong about your workplace, all of the time. The warts are showing, and you, more than anyone, know where they are.
Because you live in the real world, there is more of a chance you will be able to make positive change happen. Every day you have to deal with the absurd reality of your organization, which typically is like a giant Rube Goldberg device that squeaks and whirs and does a whole lot of strange and useless things, and in the end, survives. As an employee communicator you are a sort of Rube Goldberg device repairman. The things you do can actually make the machine run more smoothly, or go in a straighter line, or at least throw off a few less sparks. You can make a difference. By constantly communicating what is really going on in your company, and where its leaders want it to go, you can help everyone get there a little faster, with a little less pain.
The job of employee writer and editor is never boring. Irritating, yes. Frustrating, guaranteed. Exhausting, no question. But putting together an employee publication is always an interesting challenge, and if you are patient, the rewards are there.
Thank your Ron for the insightful post. As one who has been around for a bit, but is fairly new to employee communications, I am just starting to see the "fruits of my labor." I do believe that we can make a meaningful difference if we have “patience” as you said, and we allow our roles to evolve with the organization. I have felt like throwing in the towel a number of times. But I am glad I stuck with it.
Posted by: Mark | March 30, 2006 at 10:38 AM
Good on ya, Mark. It does take some stamina to get through the early years, though. And, even today, I am sometimes frustrated by corporate bureaucracy. The important thing is to not take things personally and stick to you principles. And savour every piece of positive feedback you get. I don't know if you do this, but I keep a "Sunshine File" in which I put every nice thing anyone ever said about me, even if it's just little things like a one-line e-mail saying I did a good job on a story. Then, when I'm really down and want to just scream, "Forget it, what's the use," I open up the file and enjoy a bit of concentrated praise. It works wonders.
Posted by: Ron Shewchuk | March 30, 2006 at 10:56 AM
He said, printing out Mark's comment and tucking it into the "Sunshine File."
Posted by: david Murray | March 30, 2006 at 02:44 PM
My career is reverse from your story Ron, I was start as PR consultant and now stuck very happy as employee relations & communications:) Yes, it's more genuine than pr life. It's more colorful since i also need to understand about human resources practices, and above of all, need to understand what my fellow employee need as a human being...
Posted by: landy | January 15, 2008 at 09:25 PM
Good for you, landy. It's so true that employee communciations is where the humanity is in big organizations. Sometimes you have to dig to get at it, but it's there, it's worth caring about, and it can be a source of great fulfillment when it gets done right.
Posted by: Ron Shewchuk | January 16, 2008 at 07:59 AM
I can alerday tell that's gonna be super helpful.
Posted by: Jessie | February 27, 2013 at 04:57 PM