In a comment about employees pressured to work off the clock, a Gannett Blog reader recalls life as a non-exempt copy editor at a 55,000-circulation paper. There were "stern, formally worded notices once or twice a year saying Gannett does NOT authorize comp time or unpaid overtime, and that all overtime will be paid, and that all overtime should be approved before being worked,'' the reader says. "Of course, there was no way in hell the paper would get out unless we worked 45-50 hours apiece. Everybody knew it. Just another one of the ways Gannett fools itself."Been there, suffered through that: Those notices give management cover if anyone complains. ("I'm shocked -- shocked -- that you've worked overtime without getting paid. We told you not to do that!") If management was serious about eliminating off-the-clock work, publishers and other operating committee members would pay surprise visits to newsrooms and other departments to see who's working late and on weekends. Of course, technology makes such spot checks difficult, since BlackBerries, Web-based software and other tools mean there's no excuse to not work after getting home -- extending the work day to a full 24 hours.
I think your latest poll says it all. If managers, especially in this do-more-with-less climate think employees aren't working unauthorized OT they are simply fooling themselves. Of course it'll take a labor-related lawsuit before Gannett takes any actual notice. Until then, the don't ask, don't tell policies will remain no matter how many memos are sent out.
ReplyDeletehow do we -- non-unionized workers -- organize a labor-related lawsuit?
ReplyDeleteI know the company is trying to save itself, but it seems the philosphy of making cuts has gone bizerk (at the expense of the employees and the product). There has to be a certain degree of substance in a newspaper and a degree of customer service (along with some community service thrown in for good measure) for a newspaper to be successful -- no matter what size community it serves. To continue making the cuts the company is currently asking may be the nail in the coffin.
Another problem GCI has in this area is that it has improperly designated some reporters as exempt and this has gone on for years as a money saving initiative. At my paper, a lot of the more experienced reporters were magically classified as exempt. We were specifically told the paper would not pay us any overtime or give us comp time and if you worked 60 hours a week, it was just part of your employment experience. It was odd, because the other half of the newsroom had to fill out time sheets and got overtime or got sent home. How they get away with this is beyond me.
ReplyDelete