All Episodes
Previous Next
May 16, 2017 - Sean Hannity Show
27:06
On The Job: From Hired to Retired, Episode 1. Dream Job: Journalist to children’s librarian.

On The Job: From Hired to Retired, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. Watergate got Karen MacPherson interested in journalism. 9/11 made her rethink her priorities. Now she's doing the work she loves, as children's librarian in a small Maryland town. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
This is an iHeart podcast.
The day of 9-11, I was actually off and had to go in.
My husband was also a reporter.
We were both working in the National Press Building.
The rumors were that the press building was also under attack, and so that was pretty scary thinking, you know, we could be leaving our kids orphans.
Imagine having the kind of job where you always have to run toward, rather than away from, danger.
That's the kind of job Karen McPherson had on 9-11.
But that day changed everything for Karen.
Her story in a moment.
First, here's Sean Hannity to introduce you to our new podcast, On the Job, From Hired to Retired, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
Hey, jobs connect us to our community and allow our families to thrive.
And jobs reward us, of course, with a sense of meaning and help establish our identity.
There are multiple milestones in our employment lives and many types of jobs that we have in the course of a career.
Now, look, I've done so many jobs in my life, and each one has contributed to the person I am today.
Now, in this podcast, we'll dig into the stories of men and women at work.
This podcast is brought to you by our friends at Express Employment Professionals, who over the past 34 years have put millions of people to work in meaningful and fulfilling jobs and careers.
If you're looking for work or want to grow your workforce, just go to expresspros.com.
Look, the bottom line is most businesses are too busy just trying to get over gulping water every day and competing, especially with big government taxes, bureaucracy, regulation.
Well, the important thing is when you need great employees, well, that's where Express Pros can always help.
At any given time, there are 5.5 million jobs open in America.
So let Express Pros help connect you to your next job.
Now, there are never any fees with Express Employment Professionals, not to help you find the work you want or while you're working for us.
Now, Express is locally owned, connected to the top employers in the community.
You're listening to On the Job, From Hired to Retired, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
I'm Steve Mencher.
Karen McPherson wanted to be a journalist her whole life, and she had found steady and meaningful work in that profession until the day she realized there was one thing more important than her success in the newspaper business.
But we're getting ahead of the story, which starts, ironically, as you'll see, with a children's book called Harriet the Spy.
Harriet the Spy had a very interesting life taking notes and spying on her neighbors and friends and then sort of writing things up.
And she, at one point, ends up being part of the newspaper at her school.
And I thought, wow, that's so interesting.
And I had thought that I wanted to be a writer.
And my mother, Ever Practical, would say, you know, you need to think of something, a kind of writing if you are interested in writing that you can make a living from.
And I thought, well, in this book, there's this newspaper.
Now, she's just, it's just a school newspaper, but that started me thinking about newspapers in general.
So it was about then that I started thinking that I might want to be a newspaper reporter.
Talking about her work got Karen thinking about her dad's career.
She imagined that his parents had a path picked out for him.
He was a rather wild and crazy person.
He went to Catholic high school and was destined by his parents.
They decided he would be the priest.
His older brother was going to be the doctor.
To be a priest, he'd have to get through seminary.
And it wasn't very long.
Before he was kicked out for drinking and women.
So I think the Army and the paratroops particularly was a good place for my dad because you can do that kind of sort of wild and crazy stuff, but it's for the army and it's sanctioned.
My dad died very young at age 52.
And toward the end of his life, he really came to the conclusion that he really wanted to be doing something different.
So he actually changed careers at the end of his life, and he became a teacher, a high school teacher.
Now, tell me about your mom.
Did she work outside the home?
Did she have a profession?
Did she go to school for something in particular?
Yes, my mom actually was one of the original people working, at least in my neighborhood, working outside the home.
At one time, she was the only one working outside, the only mom working outside the home.
My mother had taken one year off when I was born, and my father basically said, You need to go back to work.
My mother was a teacher, and she started, she loved teaching high school, but as she had me and then later my sister, she ended up teaching kindergarten for a while because there was really no daycare near us because most moms were home.
If your mom was the only one working outside the home, did the other wives look at her askance?
Or do you have any sense of any of that?
Oh, yeah, definitely.
My mom was regarded as sort of an oddity, and she was a little hard for, I think it was hard for her, it was a little hard for me.
And then later, some of the women in that neighborhood started going out to work for pay and things.
It wasn't like they weren't working.
They just were working in the house.
And certainly that was regarded as what women should do at that time.
As Karen went through school, first high school, then college, she was on the path to becoming a journalist, something she'd longed for since her Harriet the Spy days.
Her path was clear.
From Trinity College in Washington, D.C., she'd go to the most respected journalism school in the country, Columbia University.
But there was one small problem.
There was a lot of competition to get in.
And in fact, I missed sort of one step.
And then when I was in college, that's when the Watergate hearings were held.
And there was Bernstein and Woodward.
And everybody wanted to be a reporter.
Carl and I were on the Metropolitan staff.
And when we were first told that it looks like the dimensions of this are greater, that there'd been wiretapping, maybe lives were in danger, Carl said, we've got to go see Bradley.
Skipped the chain of command totally.
And you called him at 2.18 a.m. at home.
We have to come see you.
That's Bob Woodward in 2011 talking about Watergate and his work with Carl Bernstein at an event commemorating the 35th anniversary of the film All the President's Men.
The discussion took place at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.
Bradley is Ben Bradley, at the time the executive editor of the Washington Post.
And so we go to his house and he comes to the door in his jammies or bathrobe or something.
And then we say, you can't, we can't talk in the house.
We have to come out on the lawn.
Like we're totally crazy.
Right.
And it was, you know, what?
In the middle of the night, you know, you're going to take me out on a lawn in my underwear?
And, you know, you kind of think, is he going to call the guys with the white coats to have these guys hauled off?
And we start, we tell them that this is all going to explode.
You know the rest.
Ben Bradley and post owner Catherine Graham backed the reporting duo, the Watergate hearings, deep throat.
Suddenly, it was as if everyone was heeding the lessons of Harriet the Spy, wanting to write things down and change the world.
So my little clear path of me going into Columbia was almost disrupted because I remember the dean of students at Columbia saying to me when I interviewed with him that while you certainly would be a perfect candidate, but now we're thinking about letting people who've never had any interest in journalism are suddenly inspired because we feel like that's important too.
And I remember just being crestfallen that that might like somebody like that might take a place for me when I really had wanted this all, you know, for all these years.
But it was competition for sure.
Now, let's talk a little bit more about Watergate because it must have inspired you as well.
There is a generation of reporters, unfortunately, they're getting, well, for better or worse, they're getting a little older now, who were impelled to go into journalism by Watergate.
Right.
I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
Vice President Ford will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office.
You know, kids throw around the word, my kids, awesome, all the time.
Which we began this section.
And I remember feeling this incredible awe that I will not be here in this office.
Bob and I were in the office, and we watched that speech in the council.
We handed out baloney sandwiches for those who wanted to stay that night.
Remember, Catherine, the first thing, Catherine Graham came downstairs and she said there should be no gloating.
Let me tell you, there was no reason to gloat.
It was a moment of such awe that the system had worked and we had been a part of that working.
And the right thing had happened.
You know, Woodward and Bernstein became kind of heroes, but what specifically about what they did do you think made people want to go into the newspaper business?
People found that there was a way of truth-telling that they hadn't really seen before.
I think that for many people, and I would say myself included, it was exciting to see that something you wrote could actually make this kind of thing happen.
And all this drama and some tragedy and all, it's just compelling in that way, the way that the story came about.
And for me, because I was already in Washington, D.C., I could go to some of the hearings.
And in fact, with some teachers' blessings, they would say, yeah, let's just skip class and head off to the hearings.
You could hang out in the back of the room, whatever.
And to see that up close and in person was pretty amazing, frankly.
And then the personalities, for me, the personalities were very interested.
Why did somebody want to do what they did in Watergate?
And then how did somebody like Bernstein Woodward, who in some ways just sort of fell into a lot of this?
It's almost, I don't know, like a Greek drama that was happening right in front of us.
So I think that really helped interest a lot of people.
American 11 and 550.
Watergate brought tons of people into journalism.
The other headline story of Karen's generation happened on September 11th, 2001.
Can you see a guy at about 4,000 feet, about 5 east of your airport right now?
Looks like he's...
Yeah, I see him.
Okay, Foxy.
This is what?
This is what I foresee that we probably need to do.
We need to talk to FAA.
We need to tell them if this stuff's going to keep on going, we need to take those fighters.
Put them over Manhattan.
There is a report of black smoke in the last position I gave you.
Good evening.
15th tomorrow.
Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.
Karen McPherson was on the job that day and on September 12th, too.
My editor said they wanted me to go into the Pentagon and get the story in there.
So the metro into the Pentagon was closed, so we had to take a bus to the outskirts of the Pentagon.
And as I was walking from the bus through the parking lot, people were running, dozens of people running towards me away from the Pentagon because there was a rumor, again, that it was under attack.
And it was sort of like at that moment, I thought, you know, I'm not really sure why I'm doing this.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of journalists who are writing the same story right now about 9-11.
And why is it that I should be jeopardizing my family for this?
And I also, the other part of this is, in fairness to my employers, if you are a reporter and you are really committed, you run toward danger.
That's the nature of the business.
And I decided I just really didn't want to do that anymore.
It wasn't important to me to do that anymore.
So that's when I started thinking about it.
And that day, I'll just say it was a very eerie experience because I did end up, obviously, that was a false rumor.
And I did go into the Pentagon and where I had been, and it's like a city over there.
And I was wandering around corridors where there was no one.
No one.
And it was an eerie feeling.
So that sort of added to my feeling that I'm just, you know, I just don't think I should be here.
Now, let's unpack that just a little bit.
You're off.
It's 9-11.
It's the day you're not working.
How did you first get news that there were these airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center?
Well, my husband was also a reporter, and he was at work, and he called me and said, turn on the television and something awful is happening.
And that's how I first saw.
And then my bureau chief called and said, we need you in here.
You say you didn't really have a choice, but you did have a choice, didn't you?
I mean, obviously you loved your job.
You were used to responding.
You were used to that person telling you what you needed to do.
But you did have a choice.
I guess I had a choice, but I didn't feel like I had a choice because my job was the one that we were all on my job, my health benefits for my job.
And I wasn't sure what would happen if I didn't go in.
And, you know, I think in an emergency like that, you just think, okay, I'll go in.
And I knew that we did have a good friend who would take care of the kids and would make sure that they did not see the things on TV.
And I think, you know, would comfort them and would be with them.
So I wasn't too worried about the kids at that point.
I was worried about the press building thing.
And before I went into the press building, I did understand, I did hear from somebody just outside that that had been a rumor.
So I felt okay about going in, but still.
The adrenaline must have kicked in at some point.
And also, you know, the journalist part of you must have kicked in and said, I have this job to do.
This is obviously the biggest story of my lifetime.
Definitely.
I mean, I think that was definitely part of it.
You're right.
The adrenaline does kick in.
And of course, you know, what was heartbreaking?
I mean, it was so hard to cover because, you know, my story is nothing compared to what people whose loved ones died and what's the suffering that happened that day.
It's incredible to think of, do you know?
And I think, you know, it just, you just, in a way of responding to it as a reporter, you just, your only response is basically to try to bring out the story and maybe hope it doesn't happen again.
What did you write that day?
What was important to the folks that you were writing for that day?
Basically, it was an atmospheric piece.
I talked to people who were still working there.
And then it was also, I remember there was an element, there's a daycare, Pentagon daycare, and there was a, I remember trying to find more information about that.
I don't think I was able to find too much information about that.
But luckily, that wasn't not in the line of attack.
Good morning in different languages and see if you can hear me with your ears.
Okay, here we go.
One, two, three.
Good morning.
So that was English.
Let's try Spanish.
Here we go.
One, two, three.
Buenas dias.
Let's try French, my other language.
We're going to take a short break.
And when we return, Karen's decision to go back to school, her new career, how it meshes with everything she's done up until now, and how this chapter of her life is different from the one that put her in harm's way.
You're listening to On the Job, From Hired to Retired, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
I'm Steve Mencher.
If you are searching for a job, Express Employment Professionals can help.
Access free video training on what skills are in demand in today's job market, resume writing, interview tips, and more.
Visit expressprose.com slash job genius.
You can become a job genius today.
Expressprose.com slash job genius.
Express is on a mission to put a million people to work each year.
Let us help you.
Get informed with the Job Market Forecast, part of the free Job Genius video series from Express Employment Professionals.
Watch it now at expressprose.com slash job genius.
Welcome back to On the Job from Hired to Retired, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
Karen McPherson is now the children's librarian at the Tacoma Park, Maryland Public Library.
Her decision to try a new career was accelerated by the feeling that her job as a reporter put her in danger sometimes and that her role as a member of her family was more important than the glory of continuing to face that potential danger.
In order to make the switch, she needed to go back to school.
It took me five and a half years to get my master's degree, which is a long time.
I had to get permission to go for that last half of a year because you are supposed to have gotten your degree by five years, but they did give me permission because I just needed to take one more class.
Now, what are one or two of the classes that you did take, especially ones that might have been of the highest interest for you?
Right.
Okay.
Well, I have to tell you, when I first, and like many people who go to a library school at first, you're thinking, oh, books and all that.
But these days it's mostly technology.
It's called Information Studies, Information Science.
But the classes I like the best, of course, were I took a class in children's literature.
That was an elective.
I took a class in young adult literature, another elective.
And then the one that I, when I switched tracks partway through, it was children's services in the public library.
And that was probably the most important class I took because it really related directly to what I do now.
Whenever you're the milkshake, here we go.
You take a little milk, pour some milk, and you take a little cream, pour some cream, you stir it.
Eventually, Karen figured out where her main interests were, and she headed down the path she's on now.
Guys, ready?
One, two, three, four.
Milkshake, milkshake, shake up, shake up, milkshake, milkshake.
Now, just to look backwards over your shoulder a little bit, the years in which this is happening, and starting with your interest in 1990, going through 9-11 up to the current time, approximately, I've read 60% of newspaper jobs in the country went away.
Yes.
And so was that any part of your decision-making process that looking around and thinking that this is not a growth opportunity here?
It was starting to be as I was continuing through school, but more toward the end of it, because I guess I always felt that, well, I could get a job because of all the experience I had as a newspaper reporter.
But, you know, it turned out that, you know, my job did go away.
and the jobs were not that easy to, as a journalist, and they're not that easy to get.
Running, running, running, running, running, running, now we stop, stop.
Circle time is a very different thing than story time.
Circle time is when you have a group of kids, usually a pretty large group of kids and adults, and the kids are anywhere from birth through age five.
So you don't, there's no way, if you're having 50 or 60 kids and adults in a space, there's no way that you can have everybody sit and quietly read books, a book that's going to work for everybody.
It's just not going to happen.
So the idea of circle time is that you are doing a lot of kinesthetic learning with your body.
And you're learning rhymes and you're doing finger plays and songs.
And that is all very valid ways to learn early literacy concepts and sort of building on that.
Even a baby, you're doing this and they are getting, you're getting your baby ready to read.
We know that now from the brain research.
It's all about left foot.
You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out, you put your left foot in, and you shake it all about.
You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself right out.
That's why this corner, you put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in.
So Circle Town becomes a very community building thing, but we are also learning and helping our kids get ready for reading.
And it's not just the kids who are learning.
The adults are learning how to do this kind of thing with their child or the children they care for.
We have a number of caregivers who come to Circle Time as well.
When I first started this job, I really didn't quite understand how much of a performer I had to be.
I mean, I sing, I dance.
You put your right hip in and you shake it all out.
You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around.
I speak, you know.
It's a whole thing.
I was used to being a reporter and asking people questions, and they were the performer, basically, in that sense.
And here I am now up on the stage, whatever.
And I've become a public persona because as children's librarians are everywhere in any community, you walk down the street and you see little kids and they're like, oh, there's Miss So-and-so.
Yeah, you are a public persona.
When you're most philosophical, how do you see your role?
Well, I guess I see my role as sort of a guide or a shepherd, perhaps, maybe, sort of shepherding both the kids and at first kids and they're adults, they're grown-ups, and then later on, more the kids, you know, into sort of the world of books, the world of ideas, and then sort of empowering them to sort of become their best person out in the world and to grow.
I feel like it's a gift and a huge responsibility that to be, if you do it right, I mean, you can really have an impact on the next generation.
But to Tiger!
Over there!
Is he following me?
Oh my goodness.
Well, who else are we going to see on this wall?
Okay, now do you have a timeline about retiring from this role?
I know you live in this community nine miles from the White House where we're sitting, where all of the people in town who have government jobs are starting to retire.
Lots of friends, I'm sure, and other people that you know.
What does all of that look like for you?
Well, you know, I haven't, I have thought about it a little bit, but I love my job so much.
It's hard.
You know, I still have a few years before turning 65, and I feel like I feel that I really enjoy it so much that I don't want to stop.
I do see a lot of my friends who've worked in the same career for so many years, they're tired and they're ready to retire.
But I actually had that sort of 10 years ago, I got to change careers, and that has given sort of new life to my interest in my, you know, in what I'm doing.
At the same time, I realized, you know, we all have this finite amount of time here on the earth, and it's like, well, I don't want to miss my opportunity to have some time totally to myself with my husband and family and travel and do things like that.
So I'm still, it's still in the future.
I'm still very much weighing, you know, what I would do.
But I feel like I have to be smart and think about some kind of an end date at some point because I do feel like I might run out of time before that.
What would you do if the boss came in today and said, geez, we've gotten some bad news from the city council.
We're not really able to have a children's librarian anymore.
What would you do?
Wow.
I guess I would say, let's figure out how we can convince them otherwise.
Give me some advice.
I'm someone who has had a career.
I'm in my 40s, maybe early 50s.
The career I have, I realize, is not the exact thing that I really want to be doing.
How do I get started going toward the light, you know, going toward that place where you are at, where one could say, gosh, she's really doing what she wants to do, and I envy that.
And that's what a great place to be.
Right.
I guess I would think about, start by thinking about what you like to do that gives you happiness and fulfillment that your job currently is not.
And so what's that?
What is that?
So for me, way back when that was children's literature, I was writing that.
I was doing that as a sideline.
So that was what, and I like working with kids.
So, okay, so what careers, what could you do with that?
And start sort of researching things.
You might work with a career coach.
I know some people who've done that recently.
And then I guess I would start, once you decide what you're interested in, then start thinking about, well, okay, how could I do that?
What are the obstacles towards doing it?
For example, you know, having to still work and go to school, and then see how you can get past those obstacles or at least get over those obstacles.
Also, be willing to take help in any form from your friends and family.
Really, it does take a village.
It took a village for me to get to change careers to get this master's degree.
And I, you know, really looking at it, at first, I wasn't sure I could do it.
I was pretty daunted by the idea of having to get another master's, but I, with a family and working.
But you can do it if you, I think you just need to accept help.
And I also do, I think you have to be realistic about how hard it may be.
Very good, very good.
Yay!
Very good, very good, yay!
That's all for this edition of On the Job from Hired to Retired, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
Find out more at expressprose.com.
This podcast is produced by Steve Mencher for Mensch Media and Red Seat Ventures.
Find us on iHeartRadio and iTunes, where we hope you'll leave a nice review.
That helps other folks find us.
And of course, you can listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
See you next time.
▲
Export Selection