Saturday, June 13, 2009

Saturday | June 13 | Your News & Comments

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2 comments:

  1. Este lugar se ha convertido en una broma. Jim ha perdido su mente. Él es un tonto lala en la tierra y ha hecho una burla de la Gannett blog. Gannett El blog es inútil y ahora extinta.

    Adiós a todos, voy a algún lugar real.

    Despedida,

    Adriano de Armado
    Un arrogante español braggart

    ReplyDelete
  2. Found this on a blog, stillanewspaperman. It is very true.

    A little humanity, please

    Good morning,

    I’m hearing more horror stories from newspaper people (journalists and non-journalists) about the cruel, inhumane ways they are being fired or laid off.

    Romenesko has reported on numerous occasions that journalists at this paper or that have been notified of their layoff by phone or e-mail or through some other indirect way. Sometimes the news comes from an HR staffer, sometimes the top editor or even publisher. Still, there is no face-to-face communication. The person delivering the bad news is insulated from the painful and emotional reactions while the employee is denied the opportunity to ask questions, voice frustration or simply unload about the unfairness of it all.

    It’s a chickenshit approach, and there is no other word for it.

    In the last few weeks, I’ve heard about newspaper people showing up at their offices only to find the door locked and the windows dark. Only when they try to discover the reason do they learn they have been terminated.

    I have heard of a senior editor notified of his firing at noon while most of his staff was at lunch and then given 30 minutes to leave the building, under guard, as if he posed some sort of going-postal threat.

    Recently, a former colleague told me of a round of layoffs announced via group e-mail.

    What the hell is going on here? Times may be tough. Newspapers may be in the crapper and maybe for the long haul. But in such tough times, don’t we need to exercise more humanity, not less?

    In the forced downsizings I implemented while in Salem and Spokane, I tried to deliver the news myself or if multiple messages had to be delivered simultaneously, have one of our other senior editors help break the news.

    One of my first editors taught me that bad news of all sorts needs to be communicated face-to-face, straight up like a strong shot of Scotch. It is the only honest way to handle a difficult personnel problem. And nothing is as difficult as a layoff announcement.

    It sure isn’t fun, not for the person losing the job or the person delivering the news. But I can’t remember an employee ever reacting to the news unprofessionally, though there were cases where emotions were high and all involved, including me, we crying.

    Now, in the end, the editor who goes face-to-face with layoff news is no more appreciated than the editor who hides behind a phone. When you implement a layoff, even if it is not of your doing, you are an instant villain. That’s one price of senior leadership. The rank-and-file never will know how their boss might have gone to the wall for them or the sorts of back-room dealings that might have reduced the number of lost jobs. All editors understand that dynamic.

    But I don’t know how the bosses who deliver the bad news from behind a phone line, via e-mail or with a locked and darkened office can look themselves in the mirror.

    steve

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