We're taking a personal approach to the interview series this time. We're talking with current employees who have worked at The News-Gazette the longest to find out what it has been like to work at The News-Gazette.
This week, I sat down with Lori Hamilton who is our financial officer and has worked at The News-Gazette for almost 42 years. She is, unfortunately, retiring next month. We will miss her immensely!
Why did you come to work at The News-Gazette?
I worked at the Natural Bridge of Virginia [the state park] for five years. Actually, my five-year anniversary is when Mr. Humphreys called me and told me I had the job here. So I was eager. I had a not-so-kind boss and would wake up, on a lot of days, to go to work and wonder 'why am I going?' because he really kind of made you feel worthless. So I just wasn't really happy where I was. I liked doing the work that I was doing but it just wasn't a good fit, I guess. So when I saw this job open, I thought 'would that be interesting?' and so I came here. Got the job about a week or two later. I came in as, what was then, combined circulation and classified manager. So I did both the classifieds and the circulation. I wanted to become the financial officer.
Right now, financial officer is the title, I do accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll. Anything that the front office does, I help out with. Anything from taking classifieds, taking phone calls, sorting the mail, doing the deposit, and anything else that arises that somebody wants me to help them with. I get the supplies for The News-Gazette.
What made you stay here instead of looking for anther job?
I guess I just love the challenge of finding and and helping somebody. That kind of thing. When I was offered my position that I'm in now, I was really happy about that. I love my job. I love doing what I do and the family atmosphere that is here. It's always been just really great working with the people that are here. You know, conversation and interaction, the different people that have come and gone and their experiences. You get to kind of learn some of that and see that. Me, being a Navy brat, I had many different experiences living in different places, and stuff that I could share with different people like that.
I did get an offer once. Somebody called me and wanted me to come and work for them. I just said no. I'm loyal here. It was in the banking industry, so I probably, you know, maybe could have climbed the ladder a little bit. But I was satisfied. I was content here and I felt like, as long as I could do my job I think I had a job. That was very comforting
What kind of education or work background do you have that helps you do your job?
I finished the 12 years [of school] and about a year, maybe two years, after being out of school I went to National Business School. I went at night. I was actually looking at doing legal business. I only went one year. I got married, never went back. At the Natural Bridge, I actually did the different jobs in the office there which really is my job now. I did some accounts payable, I did some accounts receivable, and I did payroll. I worked with the different people that did that. We all were supposed to learn each other's jobs. So I had a bit of a background working in it for five years. To come here and be able to do that; I think Mr. Humphreys kind of had that in the back of his mind. Knowing that I had done those jobs - he would bring me in for the job that was open.
What are 3 things you love about working at The News-Gazette?
I love the challenge of doing the job. I love the camaraderie here, you know? And the boss. He's flexible, reasonable, and understanding of situations that anybody's going through. You might not have that at lot of jobs.
Do you have a favorite funny story from working here?
It was definitely an embarrassing one: Here, we had a system for people to know they had a phone call. It was kind of like Morse code. You might be three shorts, somebody else might be two longs and a short. Where my desk was, is where the bell was. So you would ring it, except Mr. Humphrey's office, who was just right in front of my desk. You would have to go to him or knock on his door and let him know. He had a call most of the time and his door was shut. So one morning, he had several calls and every time I knocked on the door and opened it up, he was on a call. And I felt like I interrupted him. So finally I got a call again, and this time I decided to go up to the door and listen to see if I could hear him talking. That way I wouldn't interrupt him. However, I hear a voice saying, "Can I help you?" I turn around and it's Mr. Humphries! So he sees me, like, trying to listen in. So yeah, that was a bit a bit embarrassing.
How do you feel about newspapers and journalism?
The newspaper - They always say things kind of go in circles, you know? I do feel that even with all the digital and everything, I don't think it's ever going to go away. I kind of have a feeling that it may even come back a bit stronger. I would say journalism, I think, there's a lot of good journalism out there. I think that maybe people get into it to maybe push something that they want, more so than just doing a job. But I think that on the most part, you do have people out there that just want to get the story. And that's a good thing because that's what we need. We need to just know the story. I don't like any of the 'gotcha' things. I don't like it when people are doing that. I just want to be told what's going on. I don't want to know what they think about it, I don't want to know their view of it. I just want to know what's going on. I think that we've kind of lost some of that. And in many aspects of any job now, I think we've lost a little bit of just doing our job.
*Because Lori is retiring, I asked one last question*
What is next for you?
For me, probably first of all just getting some things done at home that I've not been able to do. I think being able to just go visit my mom, visit my daughter, maybe even just us [Lori and her husband] doing some traveling ourselves. Looking around, you know, just seeing things - probably without having to feel bad about leaving my job for someone else to do. I think, with being retired, that frees you up a little bit without feeling bad about not getting your job done, or trying to get your job done so that you can go. For me, it's just being able to spend more time now with my husband, with my home, with my animals. Now I think my business will be 'The Hamilton' business. Us, you know, us at home.
