Regarding whether Gannett can prosper when its employees are so miserable, a reader says: "I know this isn't going to make anyone feel better, but most publishers and operating committee members are as miserable as anyone else. It isn't fun being bludgeoned repeatedly, and constantly being told to do more with less. The company isn't publicizing this, but there is a huge brain drain at the OC and publisher level because of the environment and management style of the anointed at Corporate. Talk to any OC member over 59, and they are counting the days and hoping for an early retirement offer. Disability claims due to stress, overwork and job-induced health issues are increasing. I keep wondering if the newspaper division will change at all with Bob Dickey. I knew we were in trouble with Sue Clark-Johnson when Bobby Collins and the assassins from N.J. were invited to do their dollar drill. From what I'm told, that was hell on earth."Join the debate, in the original post.
Earlier: And the award goes to Robert 'Patton' Collins!
All: Would someone please explain the "dollar drill" -- and how that differed from the old on-site visits?
ReplyDeleteI, too, want to know what the "dollar drill" is.
ReplyDeleteThe dollar drill as it originally started was a review of each and every expense in every department. Individual invoices were scrutinized and the department head was challenged to support the decision to spend the money. Sort of along the lines of "why do you need four copies of Editor and Publisher for the newsroom? Buy one and share it." (Not that anyone subscribes to E&P anymore.
ReplyDeleteIt was a very skeptical look at every expense. And, unfortunately, it wasn't always done in a supportive way but in a very confrontational atmosphere.
The best part about the drill is that folks would come in, give you an insane list of things to be done and cuts to be made, then they jetted off. Usually the drillers were from metros, so they applied a metro approach to every tiny market they visited. (Cincy is soooo like Monroe, for example.) The poor newspaper was left to try and sort through the drive-by audit, which tied everyone up in knots for weeks preparing binders full of information, some of which was actually used. There were some papers that needed to be given this treatment. The smaller papers that already had been bled dry didn't need it. But hey, it was a nice check off on the ol' corporate MBO. "Look Sue, we found $1.2 million in Sheboygan!"
ReplyDeleteI'm former Gannett/OC and not in finance but this is also known as a "zero based" budget process.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Based_Budgeting
If this was zero based budgeting it was of a type developed by terrorists. Zero based budgeting usually starts with what you are going to do, how you are going to do it and how you should staff to accomplish it. This started with we are going to cut everything we can so everyone can work harder and eliminate stuff that will save money over the short term so that we can pump the numbers and to hell with the long term.
ReplyDelete10:20am - Good point to my Zero Based post....the Gannett I left in 2004 still cared about the long term. Although...my experience with it is pretty close to how 9:08 described it.
ReplyDeleteWe need to start a post to hear all the other Gannettisms. After "Dollar Drill" there is the "Gannett 38 Caliber test" for employees. Heard this one? Thats where you hold a hypothetical 38 pistol to an employees head to determine whether a failed task is a result of lack of training or lack of performance.
What is the combined number of OC members? What's the average size of an OC?
ReplyDeleteOC's generally range in size of 8-12, depending on the structure of the organization.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, OC includes each divison head, so it depends on how many pieces the particular site has. At our shop, spin-off publications are a separate department and have a spot on OC, for instance.
ReplyDeleteBut OCs pretty much always include the publisher and VPs from news, production, circulation, advertising, IT, HR, finance and online.
Bigger outfits tend to have more divisions, thus bigger OCs.
A little bit of education is a dangerous thing.
ReplyDeleteGannett has been a cesspool on human relations for decades, good times or bad.
Neuharth trained Watson.
Curley tolerated Watson.
Watson supported Collins even though he thought he was a clown.
Watson hired some of those still remaining nasty bullies.
SCJ was just another shill cut from the same cloth.
One nasty company. Save your health and find the way out.
Panic leadership has been their mainstay. And they actually laugh at dumping good people. Sad.
It was actually first called "the Collins Drill". And having been an OC memeber who actually experienced Bobby the ass himself...it wasn't meant to be a helpful thing. It was meant to do one thing: humilate you. plain and simple that was the goal. Bobby would start these things with: "so you think you are on top of your operation"? If you said no Bob, I'm not then you would be even more stupid then Bob and if you said "yes I am" then he would proceed to prove to you how little you really know...things like, how many part timers do you have? check their hours? yes bob...so you know how many hours they all worked?? he would then proceed down a list of 25 names asking how many hours they worked last week...miss one and you were an ass. Getting too many answers right really pissed him off too...I could go on and on but I try not to think of that piece of crap anymore.
ReplyDeleteI know no one wants to hear this, but ...
ReplyDeleteI actually think the Drills made me a better manager. They forced me to think hard and pay attention. I found the exercise beneficial and helpful. And, yes, I was able to understand my department to the degree that you could roust me from bed in the middle of the night and yell "Why is your average overtime rate 2.67% over budget?!" -- and I could tell you.
OK -- I'm an idiot.
I remember at the Indy Star there was a time some corporate people came in our room and proceeded to obviously and loudly count the number of trashcans and walk out without eye contact or acknowledgment we were there. Don't know if it's related to this but I know at the time I felt like I may be in a cult. Glad I'm out regardless.
ReplyDeleteHey what about the bullet's out of the gun? That's when you knew Bob was getting ready to fire you.
ReplyDeleteIn Sheboygan, the only thing there's 1.2 million of is the cubic footage of the underground gas spill that's under the property.
ReplyDeleteBelow OC level, we just heard rumors about "the drill" and then we had to find a bunch of numbers that ceased being important in our markets years ago.
Give this to Gannett, everyone else says you can't cut to a profit, but we're going to prove them wrong or die trying.
I left before the paper I was at was bought by Gannett but it seems there are two groups left behind:
ReplyDelete1- Incredibly miserable but those were the types that were miserable to begin with. Now they really have something to complain about.
2- Drank the Kool-Aid. Eyes glazed over, zombielike, do-or-die for Gannett. Why? Because their incompetence went undiscovered and they were allowed to keep their jobs.
sorry, 8:20 -- some of us were quite happy in our jobs before being gannetted . . . but were unable for financial/insurance reasons to join the stampede out the doors when gannett too over. but even the president of the optimists' club would be a pessimist by now.
ReplyDeletethe kool-aid drinkers were gannettoids sent in from all over who knew nothing about their newest temporary "home" and cared less. even some of them finally realized that what they were tasting wasn't good for them and left.
as for members of the ocs being miserable, aw, now, ain't that too damn bad? they took their jobs knowing they were going to be enforcing gannett policies. they can't possibly be as miserable as the people they've driven into heart attacks, high blood pressure, depression and violence. and even if they are that miserable, they at least are better paid.
I really couldn't give a rat's-ass about the OC being miserable. If they were the leaders they claim to be and didn't care for that sort of belittling treatment they get, why would they turn around and do the same to others? SHEEZ.
ReplyDeleteHey guys, sorry to digress here, but I have a question for the group. In Montgomery today we found out that our new corporate division president (whatever that means) is coming to visit Friday. I suppose it's probably a routine visit, but with all the buyouts and layoffs at other Gannett locations, the timing seems suspect. Anyone have any thoughts?
ReplyDeleteIf you're an OC member who doesn't belittle your staff and doesn't drink the Kool-aid you find yourself without a staff and without a job. I'm sure the boss in the corner felt I was incompetant. I really didn't care what his opinion was. I'm glad I got laid off. I walked away knowing I had done the right thing, had given it my all, and kept my morals intact. I feel sorry for all the OC members who gave in and gave away their souls...someday they have to look in the mirror and realize who they gave their soul away for. It's just not worth it.
ReplyDeleteI'm an OC member and I've been through a ton of zero-based budgets. I have learned a lot and know the insides and outsides of the business, and it's part of how we can be so efficient.
ReplyDeleteIt's important to separate zero-based budgeting, a valued and viable modern management practice, from the abusive, bullying tactics of the Watson-Collins types.
Both were a-holes, plain and simple. Collins was so rude and vile he insisted on smoking wherever he went, even in the "dollar drill" meetings, oblivious to no-smoking policies and the needs and feelings of the people he would spend hours drilling.
Behavior like that in the 21st century is so out of line it cannot be justified and must not be tolerated. Such behavior was just plain stupid, offensive and counter-productive.
To me, Collins smoking in a dollar drill is the penultimate symbol of Gannett senior management arrogance.
Why so many talented, sharp, confident and independent people tolerated such behavior I'll probably never understand.
Talented, sharp, confident and independent people do not tolerate that kind of behavior----period.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right, 11:12 AM. If people would have put these guys in their places, things might be different today. Some may have been fired, but enough wrongful suits would have curbed the behavior. I never tolerated disrespect from my bosses, and I never had any problems. They can be taught.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteTalented, sharp, confident and independent people do not tolerate that kind of behavior----period.
I'll hope you don't talk about the Gannett Executives who are crows. Just like them they don't hack each other's eyes out!
The best way is to spread the word so that nobody wants to work for them anymore! But then again: there are crows in all shapes and sizes........
12:39 a.m., you said, "Why so many talented, sharp, confident and independent people tolerated such behavior I'll probably never understand."
ReplyDeleteThere are an awful lot of us who really didn't want to tolerate the behavior, especially those of us who suffered from the trickle-down effect of it. It's so easy to say, "lawsuit" but it's not at all easy to follow through on, especially if you're trying to support a family in New Jersey, where all the papers are cutting jobs.
Most OC members recognize McLean’s often unreasonable edicts for what they are – unreasonable. And, while many would like to blame Corporate for woos that enacting many of them may create my mid-west metro OC experience suggests a greater catalyst of pain – the Publisher.
ReplyDeleteCorporate may as well cut her out as she does little more than magnify their calls for action, painfully so at times. At least with corporate, there’s the belief that you could openly discuss the latest change of the day to potential get better outcomes. With her, there is none, else you appear not on board, or worse, challenging her authority. Of course, the same applies when we have to go undo and/or fix what could have been avoided in the first place.