Today's the deadline for many of Gannett's 30,000 newspaper employees to express interest in being voluntarily laid off early next month, as Corporate draws closer to eliminating 10% of the community newspaper division's workforce. That mass layoff is scheduled to start taking effect three weeks from tomorrow.
"I would like to take the voluntary, but don't know if I have the guts to do it,'' one employee wrote moments ago in a comment. "What will be waiting for me on the other side?"
Publishers last week told employees they could volunteer to quit their jobs, a move apparently designed to let workers give up their jobs so co-workers who can't afford to be laid off won't be forced to the curb. Many pubs set today as the deadline, although I've heard that some employees have until tomorrow to volunteer.
Earlier: Key dates in Gannett's planned layoff of up to 3,000 workers
How are you preparing for the 10% cut? Post replies in the comments section, below. E-mail gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
I am thinking of volunteering. Is that stupid?
ReplyDeleteI worry about the workload and changes in our "mission" when so many of my coworkers in the next cubicles are gone. What kind of shifts will we be expected to work?
Any word of when cutbacks in Louisville, and how many employees, will be announced?
ReplyDeleteI volunteered! After a long (10+ years) stint with Gannett through good and bad, I'm leaving. I'm afraid if I don't - there won't be retirement or severance funding left. Waiting to hear back from H.R. about the final decision
ReplyDeleteIt's not stupid to volunteer. Deadline seems to vary though. We were told Wednesday, maybe Thursday.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone definitively find out if we would be eligible for unemployment when the severence checks stop coming?
ReplyDeleteAnd, would we get those 1wk/1yr severance checks at once or weekly? If all at once, would it be in 2008 tax year or could it be deferred?
Could we get our pension and 401k out immediately, or not until checks stop coming, if they came weekly?
Your pay will come as it does now, until the severance is finished. So if you get paid every two weeks, that will continue.
ReplyDeleteYou may see a lump sum somewhere in there depending upon how your site pays accrued vacation time off.