Elizabeth Flood Morrow - Dear Betty…
<– I took this with my cell phone (when she wasn’t looking, of course).
(There is a really long, gruesome story behind the job I refer to in this letter. In my entire life, I have never encountered such a miserable, mean person as Betty Flood. She is famous in Albany for her outrageous behavior. I thought everyone who warned me was joking. Little did I know… At 75 years old, you would think all the ‘getting ready to meet your maker’ would temper her attitude. I guess that would all depend on who you defined her Maker as… I quit before she could fire me because I could see that things were about to get very, very ugly…)
To: Elizabeth Flood Morrow - Cuyler News Service
Sept. 15, 2006
Betty,
Today, I am handing in my letter of resignation to terminate my employment with Cuyler News Service. As a result of your abusive behavior verbally, physically and emotionally, I feel I can no longer work for you.
I enjoyed working at this job, however, your behavior has driven me and a number of other employees from this position. Working for you, despite any opportunities it may have afforded, is not worth being subject to your personal attacks on my dignity, my talent or my physical appearance. I will leave this job with my confidence in tact, knowing that I worked hard, did the best I could to help you and treated you with respect, despite your cruelty. What your hostility does is breed disloyalty and resentment among all who work for you, which is a shame, because now, at the end of your life, what you are left with is nothing more than friends who keep you at arms length, a dog and your few, meager investments. Sadly, you have driven everyone away with your bitterness and anger.
I have spent my life investing in people - with love, faithfulness and kindness, and one day, when I am am the end of my life, as you are, my return will be a significant gain. Unfortunately, Betty, you have made poor investments, choosing to put all that you have into money, stocks and business ventures and you can’t take that with you.
You have my pity, for you are truly alone at a time in your life when you should be surrounded with those who love you.
I will hand in my keys as soon as I receive my final paycheck. Also, I expect all publications that I wrote for, still pending print, to be forwarded to me, otherwise I will simply contact your clients myself.
Sincerely,
Alicia
Kristen Said:
on March 30, 2007 at 10:40 am
Alicia - I read your letter of resignation with interest. I, too, worked for Betty Flood at Cuyler News Service, wayyyy back in the early 90’s. Funny how I came across your blog. I was thinking of Betty Flood (and googled her name) last night and the reason I was thinking of her was that my nail polish was chipped. I remember her telling me once that the way that your nails look is a sign of how you keep yourself and how polished you look. Sounds like she is up to the same antics and age has not softened her. While I also found working for her to be a challenge, I also learned quite a bit while I was there. I am a killer typist - are you still using typewriters instead of computers for “disos?”, I have a ton of confidence in my work because she always sent you right into the fire, I always know how to dress professionally for my career and I am a tough nut of an editor myself. Now in the field of public relations for over 15 years, I am able to laugh at my experiences there and did take some valuable tools with me. Hope you can do the same. Good luck !
Lauren Darman Said:
on June 22, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Dear Alicia, I was hired by Betty in 2003 and then when I did the try out she fired me! Told me I was a bad writer ( this after I graduated with an English degree and Phi Beta Kappa). I was hoping that Cuyler News had folded due to her inability to find someone to work for her in that dingy, crowded office she calls home. Wish you the very best after what you went through….Lauren
Bright Said:
on August 2, 2007 at 2:46 pm
dear alicia, kristen and lauren
i, too, worked for betty flood (who also used the name elizabeth morrow) nearly 20 years ago in that little quirky office in the new york state capitol third floor. she fired me, too, although i was called an “independent contractor” but was really an employee according to IRS regulations.
it was such a miserable job in such a fascinating place.
one of my chores was to visit the dept. of state every week and pick up the new business/corporation filings on computer printouts. betty gave (sold?) these to some woman who came to pick them up. it was summer, and i liked the walk down to the dept. of state which was across from the albany institute of art, where i would take a few minutes to visit one gallery at a time. my favorite was the hudson river gallery, and frederic church’s work.
we used to have to call the governor’s press secretary every day to get Gov. Cuomo’s schedule. we would fax it to a lobbyist in new york city, and then betty would take one copy down the hall. i followed her one day to see what she did with it. she went into the office of state senate secretary steve sloan’s office, and i guess gave it to him. (it would have been losing face, i guess, for the republican senate to call up the democratic governor’s office to see what the governor was up to).
this was not “news gathering” but rather “information selling,” which while not illegal, certainly raised my eyebrows when i considered that her office was in a public building where she paid no rent or utilities. we even used the senate’s copy machine at no charge. this was unlike other news offices in the capitol (albany tu, schenectady gazette, buff news) where their business functions such as billing was done at another location.
we used old selectric ibm typewriters, while everyone else used computers. we had a computer - a laptop - which was located in a locked room in the basement of the legislative office building. i liked going there for the quiet (it was summer and the legislature was out of session). that is where i discovered i could write, on that little laptop. (before then, i could type, but needed to compose in longhand). when i started writing using the keyboard, it was a great awakening.
when betty fired me, she said that i made her uncomfortable and mean-feeling, and no one who had ever worked for her before made her feel that way. she promised me two weeks severance pay. i am still waiitng for it.
after this job ended, i decided on the bus home that very day to go back to school and finish my degree. i graduated cum laude from suny albany a couple of years later with a degree in political science. i have had better jobs since then as a journalist and writer, but never again in such a beautiful and fascinating place as the state capitol. i have a photograph of the legislative press office with pictures of cuomo and dewey and those old leather chairs hanging in my house.
good luck to all of you. i enjoyed sharing these memories with you, because even though i can tell my friends about working for betty flood, they were not there, but you were.
Sheila Said:
on September 8, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Add me to the support group! I worked there from January 1988 to September 1989. This was, quite possibly, the most bizarre job I have ever, ever had. And to offer some context, I worked for a local TV station 10+ years (both before, during, and after my tenure at Cuyler), during which I was once pushed up against a wall by the sportscaster with an electric shaver to my throat while being asked “who’s your buddy, who’s your pal?” Betty beat that one.
Somehow, I seemed to be on her good side (though I saw her abuse of others), and I kept quiet most of the time, which meant I (over)heard — and learned — a lot. I think I learned more that way than through any practical experience (though it was a thrill to receive my first bylines there). But, I’ll echo everyone else — it was just weird. I remember the runs for those computer printouts, all the tunnels around there, and that basement room.. Not to mention trying to remember how to answer each of the phones that were in the office, none of which could be answered in the same way. Morrow & Flood? Cuyler? Flood Associates? Gibbons & Flood? I think I once answered the wrong one the wrong way…and incurred the wrath. But, I do have to say that when she told you “good job”, you knew you had done some really spectacular work.
I also remember doing a lot of personal work for her (during “work” hours) and work for her charitable committees, especially during July when things were monotonously slow. Ten Broeck Mansion, anyone? The Country Club? Though I have to say that there are worse things than spending summers working in the Saratoga Springs “office” during “the season”.
I can’t believe she’s still there! Really, I half expected her to be in a cell. And I can’t believe she’s 75. I thought she was at least that old when *I* worked there!! Is Muriel still around?
If nothing else, I learned there never to lean on elevator buttons (are the elevators still manned?).
Gail Said:
on October 2, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I worked for Betty thirty years ago, as a twenty-something, poised that summer on the brink of the rest of my life. I had been trying to break into TV broadcasting, and had landed a weekend gig as a cameraperson at a local TV affiliate, in part due to EEO laws and because I was physically able-bodied, being pretty much man-sized. The Cuyler job filled in my income. Betty was a great mentor and friend to me. She took me with her to political events, and she gave me the opportunity to write, which I did fairly well. I also took photographs for her, which were then published and which I added to my portfolio. I did lots of chores, mainly in connection with the Women’s Press Club bashes held during August in the thoroughbred racing season, but I looked at it as paying my dues, and it was fun. I learned a heck of a lot from the opportunities Betty gave me, and it was very exciting for me to walk into the press room, where Betty and I were pretty nearly the only women with the right to be there (1976 or 77). I especially liked being on the lookout for legislation that might have some importance to the news service’s business clients. I would go somewhere in the Capitol building to fish out various scraps of paper on which were the latest drafts of this or that law to be passed. I could have made much more of the opportunity Betty gave me, especially in combination with the videography and photography I was doing at the time.
I can’t remember Betty being mean to me or to others. She had a smart mouth and was not going to let anyone put anything over on her. She had to be that way because she was alone with many battles to fight. I laughed a lot with her.
Betty once loaned me a gorgeous gown for one of the parties she threw up in Saratoga. I guess I could have felt like I was wearing a cast off. Instead, I felt like a million dollars, and the beautiful dress (black with a mother of pearl belt) helped make it a perfect evening that my husband and I will always remember. We also enjoyed generous hospitality at Betty’s lovely home.
Things happen to people in their lives, and we all cope with these events in vastly different ways. Over time, our best traits can become our worst ones. A spunky sense of humor permitting survival sours into invective. Good faith and trust one day permits personal ruin or creates a sense of victimhood. Human beings are dynamic, adaptable entities. Our adaptations often shape us into forms quite unlike our ideals.
My faith and trust in goodness allows me to live happily in a world in which people take joy in exposing each other’s worst flaws, making us do and say mean things and making each other feel paranoid. Such a trait could also make me feel like a victim or make me a victim of an unscrupulous person. Which am I? Which are you?
bright Said:
on November 7, 2007 at 6:02 pm
laura:
have you decided whether you will take the job with betty flood?
if you are interested in working in the capitol or legislature, covering the state agencies and commissions, plus the various legislator’s offices would be worth the experience. you’d get an overview via the press room releases. you would be near the LOB and the capitol is a fun place to work. however, my only word of caution (besides what you can gather here about how mean and cruel she is) is that we were never allowed to take lunch hours. we were supposedly independent contractors, but that was an irs and labor law violation - but my point is, it is a good place to find another better job. I had several internships in the legislature after i left there while i was finishing my degree (see my earlier posting). my only other word of advice is to have a good support network.
Anonymous Said:
on December 3, 2007 at 3:46 pm
I have been reading this blog with interest for almost two months now and I just need to put in my input. I realized a year ago that I wanted to get into journalism. I applied to that little ad in the newspaper and was so excited when I got an interview with Betty Flood and Cuyler News Service. She handed me the job, basically on the spot, without another word. The night before I was to begin I decided to google her name, just for fun and to see if I could score some brownie points if I knew things about her. Unfortunately, this blog popped up and I had an entirely new perspective on the woman I knew as Betty Flood.
I still went to work with my head held high, hoping that it was not as bad as it seemed. I arrived to the young woman I was replacing, about my age and build. I immediately asked if Betty Flood was that bad and she tiredly shook her head and said, yes, it’s that bad. I decided I would stay anyway even after my fears were justified. I wouldn’t let Betty Flood get the best of me.
I was hired under the impression I would be paid $500 no matter what. At the time I worked at a restaurant and Betty had hired me so fast I didn’t have time to give them a proper notice so I was working for her during the day and then rushing to the restaurant to work until 1 am, everyday. Later in the week she began docking my paycheck according to the hours I worked, which was not something she had told me would happen.
She lied to me often and would stare at me as if I were the lowest scum on earth. She even compared my intelligence to her poor dog, although I’m sure Mazie is the only living thing she has any respect for, which is very sad. I would be so tired and spent, try and tell her, and she would blow me off, as if working 80 hours a week was not a hard a feat at all.
Betty went on vacation for a number of weeks. I would spend days faxing things to different locations, which was all very shady. I would rewrite press releases over and over again, never actually honing any journalism skills. Finally, right before she returned I discovered I had mono.
When I informed her of this, she immediately told me to go home and wipe the phones, which by the way, hadn’t been wiped in a while and were disgusting. After this she repeatedly sent me money which I sent back with very nice notes. She kept pestering me to come back but at that point I knew that I could do better than woman who made me feel terrible about myself and helped me contract mono.
I know work for a great newspaper and laugh at myself for ever thinking that Betty Flood was worth a second chance. I write only because I know that only the select few of you know what I went through. My friend and family will never understand her crazy behavior, because I just cannot do it justice, but you guys remember.
S Said:
on February 29, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I interviewed with her this morning and to be honest, I wish I’d seen this page and googled her last night beforehand.
She was insulting and self-righteous throughout the entire interview. Before it even began, she told me that I would never get a job if I was dressed the way I was: black dress pants, black heels, button down dress shirt. She questioned why I was unemployed for so long and did not have a job since my previous employer. When I advised that I did not want to settle for a job for which I was overqualified, she said that it was not acceptable to sit around and accept unemployment checks because she too had been unemployed at one point but never lowered herself to take assistance in that way.
I am SO glad I took the time to google her name because I cannot imagine myself working for another disrespectful employer. Thank you for being honest!
Carrie Said:
on April 24, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I lasted at Cuyler for 3.5 days in March 2006. I was sitting in front of the typewriter and realized there was no way I could write for this woman.
She hired me without looking at my writing samples for the trial period of one week at min. wage. She said she liked to give the girls a fair chance. We were to wear our “uniforms” of skirts M-W and trousers Th and Fri. I thought this was the norm until I saw a woman at TU’s office wearing a pants suit on Wednesday. It was horrible weather for a skirt that day too!
To be honest, I was fresh out of college (grad. Dec 05) and didn’t know a lot about the working world and knew nothing of journalism. I expected to do a lot of work in order to learn. But I didn’t want to work for her in that tiny little office where you have to suck in your stomach in order for the person sitting behind you to get by. The senate’s public info site being down was a sign of my incompetance (I’m sorry, I broke the internet!). I was expected to call every office to fax sponser memos, more easily obtained online (the staff was so confused by my request). Betty had no grasp of the internet and did not expect anyone else to have a use for it. I won’t keep going, but the general idea that I was an idiot was my reason to leave.
Her assistant was very sweet, the exact oppisite of Betty in personality, she took so much abuse from her just because she lost her keys. But I heard she is doing quite well now, which is wonderful.
I felt I could have learned a lot there from both of them but couldn’t handle the treatment.
W2 came back as an ‘idependant contractor’ too.
I found your blog from a friend, she told me about it yesterday and added that she liked to hire young girls of the same build and look. Good to know what I was hired for.