In a comment on my note about Courier-Post Publisher Walt Lafferty's new Poopgate memo, a reader writes:"Non-exempt workers are as much to blame for this as anyone. Work your 37.5 hours. Charge them for overtime or take off the extra time. No one stands over us to count our hours. No one makes us punch a time clock. That's partly why we do this work. Sure, management loves it when a reporter piles on the bylines, appearing oblivious to the extra hours all that output must have taken, and rewarding the worker with accolades, better beats, stories, etc. But, really, who can we blame but ourselves? Unlike Wal-Mart, Gannett hasn't locked us in the newsroom. Our own ambition has."
[Image: Time Clocks USA, via this post]
Who is really to blame for the mess those Courier-Post folks are in. I agree with the person who say to work your hours and no more. Insist on overtime when your allotted time is up. If they say no, smile and say good evening and go home.
ReplyDeleteYou are protected by the laws of this country. This is America, land of the free. You are not a slave to the Courier-Post. Stand up for yourself. Tell your editor you want to be paid for the time you work.
When pushed to the wall, they will pay the overtime or get some other sucker to work for free. Don't you be the sucker.
Sure, as journalists, we all feel the need to get the story out there. If it takes you 30 minutes of your own time to get it do, go for it. It's important to you. But when a half hour turns into one or two or seven hours, demand your payment.
Do you think the cashiers at Sears are working on their own time? Do you think your doctor would put in extra time with you without pay?
Get off you high horse. Stop thinking of journalism as some noble task you have taken on. It's a job like any other job. You are a hired hand. You report, you write. Then you get paid for it. It's as simple as that.
Don't allow Gannett to play on your passions. If you write for the love of writing, then write a novel, write your spouse a poem, write an article for your kids school newspaper. But don't give your employer something they are supposed to be paying for. Your time is your time. They get 40 hours. If they want more, tell them it costs time and a half.
Grow a set people and take a stand.
Good to see management reading AND posting on this blog.
ReplyDeleteGrow a brain and open your eyes. Clearly you have no idea what’s going on. This isn't an issue of reporters laboring for hours to get a story for the sake of solid journalism. The C-P newsroom gave up on getting the story a long time ago. It's not a priority, and it's not the issue at hand here. Some days there aren't enough stories to fill 1A, let alone any inside pages, and the corner offices wouldn’t know actual journalism if it smacked them in the face. (No, overblown obits and Extreme Home Makeover don’t count.)
ReplyDeleteThe issue is the expectation that one person should be able to handle the responsibilities once split between two, three, even four people. The issue is a management team that is unfamiliar with and unwilling to learn the C-P’s computer system, and thus has no understanding of what it takes to put the paper or a special section together, and thus has unrealistic expectations for the staff.
The issue is an executive editor and managing editor so incapable of giving up their power struggle, they give conflicting direction to the staff, causing more confusion and chaos and less productivity.
The issue is a company mentality that values the bottom line over quality of life. The issue is an atmosphere so stressful, staff members have been forced out because of work-related health issues. The issue is staffers losing the paid time off they’re entitled to because staffing is so poor supervisors won’t approve vacation time and because that comp time is never convenient. We’ve had days with no reporters, nights with no metro editors, weekends with neither, because there aren’t enough people to go around.
The issue is the Courier-Post continuing to add new non-daily products, Web projects, special sections, ad supplements, etc., and lumping that work onto staffers responsible for a daily product that’s barely surviving.
Of course there’s nobody holding you down, forcing you to work overtime. The pressure isn’t that overt – as hard as it is to believe, Joyce and EJ aren’t that stupid. But, when you try to stand up for yourself and discuss your workload, management does its best to convince you you’re to blame. It’s easy to tell someone to stand up and walk out at 37.5 hours, but in real life, that’s not how it always works. What about non-reporters – the copy editors, page designers, etc., who don’t have a choice but to get it all done? Stand up and leave, leave half the paper unfinished, and tomorrow you’ll be lucky if you have a job. And this industry isn’t exactly overflowing with new opportunities. Management doesn’t back down when confronted, they tell you you’re inefficient and somehow to blame. The result is people who stay late or come in early to get a head start, because it’s not worth the ulcer come deadline. Of course management will tell you you’re supposed to leave at 37.5, but when it comes down to it, they have no problem turning a blind eye. If you adjust hours and come in late because you’ll be staying late, it doesn’t get done, and you’re pulled into an office and told that you’re on the brink of being fired because you’re incompetent.
No, we’re not slaves, but if Gannett thought for one second they could get away with making us slaves, they would. This is just the next best thing. We’re not on any kind of high horse – we’re trying to keep our pathetic excuse for a paycheck and get through to the next day. This is Gannett’s America – land of the almighty shareholder, not the free.
37.5 hours??? Please explain. My Gannett tblowork week is 40 hours (and 'no overtime').
ReplyDeleteanonymous from the c-p has it right. that could be written about indianapolis, louisville, cincy or any other paper gannett has bought and ruined.
ReplyDeletethe good people who were in management when those papers were bought have been driven out and replaced by drones, clones and lackeys. trying to please two layers of big g management is like trying to serve god and mammon simultaneously.
mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be gannettoids.
and by the way, elect democrats and maybe we can get a labor department and a supreme (and lower courts) on the side of labor, or at least impartial, not just corporate tools.
Ambition? You make me laugh. Most veteran Gannett workers have had their ambition beaten out of them -- years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe staffing shortages are so bad that if one person is sick, has a death in the family or, God forbid, wants to take a vacation day, three or more people have to take on the added workload. It's not easy to walk back into the office and get the cold shoulder from co-workers after adding to their stress.
Of course each worker is free to leave. How many have enough savings to live on if they walk out that door? How many have job opportunities knocking on their doors? Very few.
This slave labor (call it what it is) is shocking in modern America. And yes, it's not just in the newsroom. Employees in other departments (that haven't been outsourced to "Centers of Excellence" -- excuse me while I vomit -- or India) have similarly hellish existences.
As Gannett's stock continues to plummet, there's no wonder why. Readers ain't as stupid as the copy we dumb down for them.
Get a job with Gannett, get an express pass to the Third World!
Well, then you get paid for more time than we do. 7.5 hours a day, 37.5 hours a week.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock 10 years ago, there was a timeclock in the newsroom we had to punch. I'm guessing it is still there.
ReplyDeleteThe C-P work week is 37.5 hours. That's 7.5 hours a day.
ReplyDeleteIf it is so bad, are there other non-Gannett newsrooms you can work at.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall my geography there are a lot of other newspaper near Cherry Hill. How about the wonderfully privately owned Philadelphia papers, Burlington? Atlantic city?, Bergen Record?
yeah, those "wonderful" philadelphia papers ain't so wonderful. alot of us c-p staffers came to the c-p after those "wonderful" philly papers laid them off. and with more layoffs looming - who in their right mind would want to work for tierney? not me. it's time to learn a new trade ...
ReplyDeleteThe Inquirer? Daily News? You've go to be kidding me. If every single person who sent their resume across the river recently was hired today, the Courier Post would literally have no reporters left. To date, no reporter has left for Philly in five years and dozens have tried. There's been dozens of heavy packets, filled with clips and cover letters, slapping on editors desk there for a year and more than a few are coming from G-folk in South Jersey.
ReplyDeleteIt's become a pipe dream, for those with talent and the others who think they have it. Some reporters bragged about getting interviews there, only to be left standing with their dice in their hands .
Any other paper you mention, like counties or Atlantic City, would require a drop in salary and a kick to the ego, something no reporter can bear.
Uggh, to the person who said you "don't have a choice but to get it all done"--you do have a choice.
ReplyDeleteDon't do it.
Don't come in an hour early. Don't stay longer than you have to --by law--i might add.
Don't work from home, updating web pages or what not.
It's simple. If you do it, you're only feeding your own ego. Are you going to get a raise? No, you're not.
Ah, yes, the Dem-Gaz time clock. Yes, we still have two of them: one in the third-floor newsroom, one on the first floor. It has made an appearance in at least one I'm-leaving e-mail in the last few years.
ReplyDelete