Nothing productive is happening when a daily newspaper reporter’s phone stops ringing. It means that you aren’t wanted for anything, which should hurt because that in turn means that you so obviously haven’t been roaring loud nor leaping far enough in your articles. Somebody entrenched on at least some remote tentacle of a particular story should have felt challenged or pleased.

So you know it’s time to leave the job when hearing a dial tone in the morning instantly reverses your body’s sympathetic nervous system, and you welcome it. For most of the past nine years, my morning office routine played out like this: flip up light switch, toss purse, tap on desk lamp, turn on computer, hang up coat, sit down, click three icons and, finally, (wait for it) pick up the phone. Dial tone? Ahhh. Beep, beep, beep (message indicator)? Cringe.