Traci Tong with her daughter, Siena.
By Sherene Tagharaboi
Voices
Traci Tong put her busy work life on hold when her daughter, Siena, was born prematurely six years ago.
She left her position directing and producing BBC’s “The World” to give her daughter her undivided attention and to keep her healthy.
“When you’re faced with a life and death situation, you realize everything else is manini,” Tong said, using the Hawaiian word for insignificant. “You just realize, OK, what’s really important here? My life, my child, my sanity.”
Increasingly, the idea of taking care of oneself, of striking a balance between the professional and the personal life, is finding the way into programs at journalism conferences, including those of AAJA.
This year, sessions like “Eating on Deadline” and “Balancing Act: Working Parents” underscore the continued emphasis on “enriching the whole person,” said Frank Witsil, a copy editor for the Detroit Free Press and a co-chair for programming for this year’s convention.
Witsil can relate. He is still healing from a debilitating car accident a few years ago — one that occurred, he said, when he was “trying to work, pick up my son and drive at the same time.”
He said his experience is an extreme example of the danger in multitasking and neglecting personal well-being.
Witsil says the idea behind the sessions was to help attendees find ways to cope with the everyday stresses that come with being a journalist — stresses that have been compounded by ongoing changes and layoffs in the industry.
Tong, now back at her post as producer of “The World,” said taking time off helped her achieve a work/life balance.
Tong’s colleagues and boss understood her decision, she said, and valued her enough to offer her a job again when she was ready.
“Now, I’m so happy. I’ve carved a perfect life for myself,” said Tong, who now has a job-share with another producer so she can spend more time with her family. “I was supposed to keep [my daughter] illness-free for two years, and I did.”
Maggie Jackson, who writes a “Balancing Act” column for The Boston Globe and is presenting at one of the panels, recognizes that many journalists face job insecurity and that the workplace is creating more anxiety and stress than ever. But it’s important to realize that “a time of flux is a time of opportunity,” she said.
“Although the work world might be very difficult and pressured and insecure,” Jackson said, “this is a possible opportunity for closer family relations, a good time to emphasize simple pleasures.”
Judy Shen-Filerman, founder of Dreambridge Partners, is offering a “balance” session on Friday. She’s a self-described life and cross-cultural leadership development coach, and believes her message about “work/life integration” is especially relevant to an Asian demographic.
“I think for the Asian population, many who are still first generation or have lived part of their lives in another country, there really is an underlying context of needing to succeed and making it,” Shen-Filerman said.
She said she was floored by the convention schedule.
“Even looking at the agenda, I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, these people have got to breathe,’” Shen-Filerman said. “If you’re in a hyper state all the time, how do you find even a moment where you’re in yourself?”
Taking time for yourself every once in a while, stepping back and remembering why you’re chasing a journalism career, she said, will empower you.
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