After 40-plus years at the StarNews, I've learned a few things | Cheryl Whitaker

In celebrating over four decades at the StarNews (including the Wilmington Morning Star and Sunday StarNews), I want to focus on what I've learned about making mistakes, listening to customers, learning how to take helpful criticism and more.

When I started at the paper in 1980, I began parttime working as a news clerk in the newsroom. Believe it or not, there were over 80 employees in the newsroom. The newsroom had a copydesk, lifestyle/features, sports department, a library and the photo department.

I worked four days a week ― Thursday through Sunday starting at 2 p.m. My job was doing the obituaries, and there were a bunch of obituaries. I also had to do the obituaries over the phone by someone dictating to me as I typed. So, I had to be a fast typer and know how to spell. I am very glad I took typing while at Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn, although it's ironic that I failed typing. I remember the teacher saying you don't look at your hands on the keyboard. And I guess I was a smart mouth student because I answered back real fast, "Do you think my boss is going to watch me type or will he just want to make sure that I'm fast and everything is spelled correctly?"

The typing part went well since I could type about 80 words per minute, but the spelling was a different story. There were words that I didn't use and had to write every day such as "cemetery," "obituary" and "reverend."

My supervisor at the time was Rusty Starr , the copy desk chief. He helped me out by telling me that my you will find that your best friend is going to be the dictionary. That was the best advice to help a young news clerk.

I would eventually become full-time doing obituaries, letters to the editors and other duties as assigned.

I would be on eggshells after the obituaries went to press. You proofread and proofread but sometimes mistakes did happen, which was the worst feeling because you didn't want someone to call you and tell you made a mistake and that the family is very upset. Also, when the obituaries went to having to be paid for instead of being free, that was a big switch. I never wanted to make mistakes, but making a mistake when the obituaries had to be paid for was so much more awful for me. Of course, the obituary will be run again, without charge, but if it couldn't the family had to get reimbursed. That didn't make it any easier. I know that I am not perfect, and mistakes happen, but I always felt bad about the mistakes and some of the mistakes are still so vivid in my mind today.

Another hard part of the job was learning how not to get upset when you had an upset customer yelling at you. This was when I thought to myself, pray and just listen Cheryl. On the phone was fine, but when a customer comes in person, it was not so good. I've learned just to let them talk. Apologize for any wrongdoing and also remember whether it was my fault or someone else's, to the customer it didn't matter. Just listen, apologize and most of all thank the customer for being a loyal reader.

Another practice that the paper taught me was using "CQ,"which means the facts have been checked. Making sure that I double- or triple-checked facts, such as names, dates, places, numbers and more, before I turned my work to an editor.

Some other things that I had an issue with was learning how to ask for help. My how times does fly, because in my new position as the community reporter, I ask for help in a heartbeat. Also, I needed help on how to take constructive criticism and praise. This is still a learning process for me. I'm improving on both.

So to sum things up, I've learned to ask for help, give help, not to beat myself up about mistakes, apologize and the most important thing is to really listen to the person.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: After 40-plus years at the StarNews, I've learned a few things | Cheryl Whitaker