Emily Spicer had a bad day Tuesday. Three days — and 300 journalists later — she’s in a much different place, literally.
After starting the “Where I’m writing from” group on Facebook, Spicer and the group’s members connect while getting a glimpse of journalists’ real-life, work-from-home spaces. Members share a photo of their home “offices,” which range from the artfully curated to space carved out in a child’s closet. All show the WFH reality journalists face, and members have found support along the way.
Spicer, features editor for the San Antonio (TX) Express-News, told us how the idea and growing community came about.
“I started the group because I was having a bad day. I had just hit a kind of wall emotionally with work. I had been looking at the ‘View from my Window’ Facebook page, and it was starting to make me feel bad — like the fashion magazine effect on women.
All these places on the page were starting to look like a travel magazine, and I started thinking, ‘Why don’t I live in a beachside house in Oahu? Why don’t I have a home overlooking a UNESCO World Heritage fjord in whatever country it was instead of a small 1950s rock ranch house overlooking a lawn?’ I started to feel bad about my house, and I love my house and my little office.
So, at some point that morning, I just decided, ‘You know, what I really want is a Facebook group where I can see the reality of where journalists are working now.’ I wanted to see something real and have people share positivity about that. I want to create a space, a community, where stressed-out, hardworking journalists of all stripes could safely share photos and stories of their spaces as a way to illustrate and remind others that they’re not alone, that everyone in journalism is struggling and trying.
But you’re still working, you’re still writing or editing or photographing or whatever you do and that’s important and that’s necessary. And that’s awesome. I just love, love, love how people have responded and how the group is growing.”
Visit Where I’m writing from.
