From a journalist to a teacher

Anna Macků is a young and talented 25-year-old teacher who used to be a highly regarded journalist at Czech Radio, which is the most thrustworthy media house in the Czech Republic, according to a Digital News Report survay by Reuters Institute. She now teaches at a primary school in Prague and teaches the Czech language and also has reading lessons for talented pupils. “In the future, I would also like to teach media literacy. Overall, I studied journalism and worked in the media for about four years,” says Anna, my friend and former classmate.

The obvious question I asked her was why did she quit her prestigious job at Czech Radio. She sighed and answered after a few seconds. “It is hard to choose just one reason, it was a mixture of reasons,” she began. Anna had wanted to be a teacher since she was a child, but as a teenager she changed her mind and chose journalism. She said that the job was great with a lot of adrenaline and helping people to be informed, etc. But when she wrote down pros and cons, the negatives outweighed the positives.

“Working in a radio means that the radio has to broadcast 24 hours a day, every day, including holidays. It means that someone has to sit in the newsroom all the time. Of course, it was not always me, but this job involved night shifts and getting up very very early, because the prime time of the radio broadcast is 6-8 in the morning and you have to be there sooner to arrange everything.” Anna also describes how this work environment and conditions affected her personal life, she was always tired and did not always feel mentally and also physically great.

During the corona-time it got even worse. “People needed media and information more and more. In that environment, I definitely decided to quit this job and start teaching,” Anna explained. We are now somehow used to coronavirus – there are reports about it on the radio, television or elsewhere. But in the spring of 2020, reports about coronavirus were everywhere, because all cultural activities, sport events and particular political problems had temporarily disappeared. A “perfect” burnout environement that Anna herself think was not far away.

Another obvious question I asked Anna was if she miss anything from working at Czech Radio. Even though I know she has only been working as a teacher for only two month now. I was still wondering if she regrets this decision. “I do not think yout it much, because I am quite busy with teaching,” she dispels doubts about the decision. On the other hand, Anna admits that she misses her collegues. “They were very young and friendly people. We covered domestic affairs and they were really great. And sometimes I also miss a bit of adrenaline, which you have when you cover breaking news, for example,” she added that this type of adrenaline cannot probably be experienced outside of journalism… “But now I have a lot of adrenaline with the pupils in the class,” she laughs.