Monday, November 10, 2008
Monday | Nov. 10 | Got news, or a question?
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74 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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I have a comment. Stop taking so much glee over the company's problems. Some of us have jobs we're hoping to keep to support our families. You making smarmy comments doesn't help anything.
ReplyDeleteI just threw back into draft a Gannett Blog TV episode that seemed too light-weight and off-topic, after I viewed it a second time. I'm putting it back up on the video shelf for now. (Although I do think it's a pretty funny video.)
ReplyDeleteAnd now, I've taken a few more down. I got some great feedback, all of which went into my pulling a bunch back. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI just went onto YBR and updated my health and life insurance elections.
ReplyDeleteYou can go 8x on AD&D and up a level on regular life. If I get severed Dec. 3, I'm still an employee after the first of the year.
On January 2, I'm worth over a half million dollars dead, and $350 a week alive, unemployment. Tragic accident, he had so little to live for, those damn bridge supports.
I hope my kids like their new dad, but hell, they'll be able to go to college now!
This is POSTER 2:02pm-Sun-11/09/2008
ReplyDeleteI apologize for any interpretation of Racism in my post regarding Collins & Ketan. I love the comedy of Lewis Black and George Carlin (also Sam Kinnison); and I wanted to add a little Humor to my comment pointing out that the 2 of them were uninspired Bullies (NOT LEADERS), who intimidated people into 1) submission, 2) filling FALSE TIME-SHEETS and working unpaid overtime, 3) stiffling true creativity --- and were sneaky weak willed little bastards.
Ialso suppose I was venting a little because of the tension & anxiety I'm feeling about wondering what move to make to ensure my family is not homeless in the coming year.
Oh....look at Philly News's financial statements....I'm not sure how well Ketan is doing across the Delaware river.
NOTE: I'll be at the Improv in New York on Novemer 20th for Open Mike night....LOL.
One Lewis Black Joke to light things up...he used this referring to the election of Jesse Ventura in Minnesota: The election (if it occurs) of Al Franken as a US Senator, shows me the Minnesotans are not social drinkers.
7:28 a.m.
ReplyDeleteI am the one who questioned the Ketan comment. Thank you for your response. I wish you and your family all the best - I certainly know how you feel. I never worked for Ketan but I worked for Collins (shiver) and am still feeling his effects.
The weirdest part of this blog for me is that I'm undoubtedly exchanging comments with someone I've known for years, but we don't know it's "us.''
Sign me, Fellow Louis Black fan
Deutsche Bank just put out a SELL RECOMMENDATION on General Motors with a Price Target of $0.00 Per Share - THAT'S ZERO.
ReplyDeleteGod Help Us.
If you are severed, as I was, then your free life insurance that is supplied by Gannett (1x your earnings) will be canceled. So, if you do not have life insurance, you should contact Selectquote or Matrix Direct ASAP to set up an inexpensive term life insurance plan. But I hope that you never need it.
ReplyDeleteIt's the week publishers send their "plans" for cuts to GCI, and people are on edge not knowing where or when the hatchet will fall.
ReplyDeleteIn Appleton, we are in a little better position than some other locations.
Our newsroom has a union and lay-offs will be done by seniority.
Our concern? Why are any cuts of reporters or in the newsroom necessary?
Since Gannett bought us, it seems every newsroom job loss was balanced by an increase in marketing. That department now has 9 people who don't market. That's more than our biz, features and op-ed departments combined!
HR is up to 4, and most HR functions are on the web. The woman who did our insurance presentations was hard-pressed to answer any qquestions that weren't on the corporate hand-outs.
We still show a 20% profit, and if cuts have to come, how about looking at some editors as we near a 1:1 ratio between workers and exempt.
Yeah, cut thousands of experienced journalists across the country, but announce with fanfare that GCI will again hire 32 college grads for the corporate development program, and farm them out to properties to replace the decades of experience cut.
Yes this is the week the firing squad loads their rifles. After that they will stand all of us out in a field blindfolded until December 4th or so. Oh the joy of hurry up and wait.
ReplyDelete9:59 AM
ReplyDeleteFinally found something specific on this transformation---straight from Mr. Dubow.
http://www.gannett.com/leadershipanddiversity/message.htm
Anyone have info on P.C.F. taking over circulation for New Jersey Papers???
ReplyDeleteTalking about Collins and Ketan...they were BIG jerks! Collins smoking no matter where he was as if he was 'God' and Ketan, well lets just say I have a pretty good feeling he had something to do with outsourcing to India. Glad they are gone! And as for Donovan, he's like a Republican or Democrat running for president..a LIAR! He said to contact him any time you have a question or complaint. I've emailed him and called him several times and NEVER got a response.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the scoop on Hollis Towns in Asbury Park?
ReplyDeleteI received the following note in an e-mail this morning from an anonymous reader; it's worth posting in full, so I'm starting here. The text in full:
ReplyDeleteThe underlying cause of our crisis today is us.
It's not Wall Street. It's not greedy executives. It's not ass-kissing managers promoted beyond their capabilities, or lazy reporters who haven't challenged or been challenged in years.
We need now -- from publisher down to intern -- to look inside ourselves and ask whether we have what it takes to save this for those who truly are called.
If you're a publisher and you're relying only on your top managers to help you figure out who will survive the next rounds of layoffs, you're making a reprehensibly foolish error. The pace of change has accelerated so much that most top managers still are operating under a set of assumptions that reflect job descriptions, not the jobs as they're actually accomplished. A massive network of lower level managers and non-exempts are driving the changes we need to make, and we're doomed if they don't have input into how we address the impending layoffs.
If you're a top editor, you're guilty of the worst sort of betrayal if you're concerning yourself with anything other than how to preserve the best people. This is not about friends, loyalties to bygone eras, or a misguided sense that time spent on the job alone demands respect or consideration. This is not about fear of lawsuits or unions. This is not about your legacy, which will be irrevocably tarnished anyway if you don't act boldly. This is simple: The best must stay. Protecting anyone else, or fearing to act against them, is an aborgation of your responsibilities.
If you're a mid-level editor who can't walk out of the office every single day and demonstrate that you every day make at least one person a better journalist, you must leave. You bear an awesome burden in the squeeze between high-level managers and the rank and file. You also bear an awesome responsibility to drive the innovation and passion that is evaporating among journalists.
If you're a reporter, a photographer, a copy editor, a graphic artist, a clerk or anyone else who supervises no one else -- you need to answer honestly whether you are actively advancing journalism. If you're not building skills outside of the long-dead print model, it's far past your time to go. Every second you stay could cost a talented, ambitious, self-driven journalist his or her job because you care only about your own self-interest. That's the sort of naked selfishness we rail against so often when practiced by Wall Street, CEOs, publishers and editors. It's the worst sort of hypocrisy to rail against in in the macro but ignore it in the micro.
The chances of us making it through this crisis are directly related to whether we prove through action that we care more about what journalism means than ourselves, our positions and our security, none of which are guaranteed if journalists don't display some collective courage. If you don't love this anymore -- enough to make wrenching decisions for yourself and others -- than limit the damage and walk away now. Please. The buyouts aren't going to get better.
11:47
ReplyDeleteThat is an amazing piece of writing and should be molded into a Mission statement for all papers.
11:47 AM
ReplyDeleteAboragation?
@11:47 a.m.
ReplyDeleteYour comments were deeply relevant, expansive and bold. Thank you for them.
You are, however, way off when you scold writers who are more drawn to the written word than to digital editing and Web design.
The ambitiously innovative journalist could and should bathe in this soup of evolving technology. And wouldn't it be great if all of us felt so compelled!
But that simply isn't human nature. Some of us are intoxicated by audio and video. Some eagerly build fresh platforms on which we can share our stories in ways not before possible.
And some of us love to report and to write. We do not care only about our own self-interest any more than do all employees in danger of losing jobs. We know how to write moving stories, when given the opportunities, and that contributes immensely to the organization.
The active advancement of journalism had better not depend on multimedia alone. Everything, in the end, must be written and read. Passion is not an exclusive rush.
So let's not talk about hypocrisy.
Just got pinged by a former Reno Gazette-Journal writer who was told that the layoff count for the RG-J is 40. Anybody there got details? Oh, also today comes news that International Gaming Technology, Nevada's largest employer, is cutting 550 people.
ReplyDeleteSome more sobering news:
ReplyDeleteSTOCK MARKET VALUATIONS of the following frims:
TOYOTA: $119.852 Billion
FORD: $4.635 Billion
GANNETT: $2.282 Billion
Gen Motors $1.863 Billion
FORD is worth more than Gannett & General Motors combined
and TOYOTA is worth 13.65 TIMES G.M.+GANNETT+FORD combined.
-----Original Message-----
ReplyDeleteFrom: desic4@aol.com
To: cdubow@gannett.com
Sent: Sat, 25 Oct 2008 8:36 am
Subject: Economic-Financial Environment in Secular (not Cyclical) Decline
CC: BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Mr. Worden-Dow Jones
Dear Mr. Dubow,
I read Mr. Worden's -of Dow Jones- article where he quoted you as saying that the economic-financial forces buffeting Gannett are cyclical not secular. In fact sir, the United States (and the world) have entered a period of dramatic Secular Economic-Financial Contraction. This is not a 5-7 year inventory adjustment recession. This is a much more DANGEROUS Global Solvency Problem that has no easy solution. And your business has been and will increasingly be hit hard by the turbulence. Try and equate it to going out with you buddies on Friday night drinking and partying until Sunday morning.......you're going to have one hell of a hangover. That is what we (as a country) have done with Debt.
This unfamiliar environment has existed in the past, just not in our or our parents adult living memory. These Economic Storms (caused by multiple-decades accumulation of excess debt relative to G.D.P.) have occurred throughout our history: in the 1830's, 1870s and 1930s.
Unfortunately, the only way for individuals and businesses to minimize the deleterious impact of these Category 6 Economic Hurricanes is to drastically cut expenditures and get as liquid as possible. This is not an easy process for anyone, whether individual, family, small business, local & state (even national) government. Is is especially difficult for a large business organization because of the operational "momentum" built their business models. A large company can’t turn on a dime.
Granted this is free advice so you can take it with a grain of salt, but when cutting staff (and I estimate in the next 2 years you're going to have to trim 3,000-6,000, at least), you must be more "surgical" in executing such changes. The long-term survival of the firm depends upon this. If you do carpet-bombing like buy-out/severance offers, you are more likely to see you most talented players (who are more confident about finding other work) leave first and the deadweight less productive workers stay (because of job security concerns). This will leave Gannett weaker in a hard to quantify way. Try and find out who is "Qualified, Really Hard-Working, and Up to a Challenge" and struggle to keep them. Don't go for the Yes-People who will tell you what you want to hear; and try and rely on the expertise of your lower level employees to give you real (not-middle management filtered) feedback on how the company is operating.
There was a show I saw a few years ago called Back To The Floor ( www.pbs.org/opb/backtothefloor/ ) , where the Chief Executives of Burger King, Carnival Cruises, Wedgewood China and other firms) took one week to work the lowest level jobs in the companies to gain insight into how their firms actually functioned. They were able to see firsthand stress-points, chock-points and inefficiencies because they were actually doing the jobs. You may want to try something like that....It couldn't hurt. Go -anonymously- to a home delivery distribution center and deliver a route with a carrier...DON'T tell them who you are; really ask a pressman about the eminence requirement of his machine, he'd probably appreciate the interest.
I've attached some notes I written about the economic-financial phenomena we have experienced, they may give you some additional insights. Take care and Good Luck,
Respectfully,
X X
11:47 a.m., I hope your advice is taken in this round of layoffs, because that was not the case in August for many of us.
ReplyDelete11:47 -- Your points are well taken ... but leaving Gannett is the most courageous step that people who love journalism can take these days. You can only practice great journalism if the company that employs you allows it to happen. As Gannett focuses purely on profit, the ability to do great work diminishes.
ReplyDeleteTherefore I disagree that the problem is with common workers rather than greedy CEOs and investors. If you follow your own mission statement, you will be forced to leave your job and start a blog like Jim's. Trouble is, it's tough to make a living that way.
11:47 AM
ReplyDeleteAre you courageous enough to share that piece with your manager or an editor you trust? Have him/her review it for faulty logic, flawed assumptions and gaping holes---you know, all those little credibility busters readers notice both online and in print. If you, my friend, are unwilling to seek out constructive criticism, maybe journalism is not your true calling.
Surely this will bail us out: Louisville is selling reprints of its election edition front page for $100 each! Check it out at www.courier-journal.com
ReplyDelete11:47,
ReplyDeleteI have to call shenanigans. The newsroom isnt a profit center. The lack of quality journalism comes from the ME. He isnt being pressured to lower your journalistic standards to save money.
You may lose newshole, you may lose copy editors. But you do not lose the ability to write quality stories.
From what I have seen in most newsrooms today is the "journalists" never leave the newsroom. "All the news, as long as it happens in the building or can be covered with a phone call" is the new media mantra.
You know what people read? In depth coverage of a local story, man on the streets, break out info within a story. Come on. How are you being held back at your paper? I really want to know, because I commiserate with the publisher at my paper about the lack of effort in our newsroom. One good journalist cant change the mood of a paper, so get rid of the ones that write crap. Get rid of the ME if they dont let you get your report on.
1:12 by your very statements, you dont have what it takes to help Gannett prosper so I doubt you have what it takes to help any company.
ReplyDeleteJim, I miss the funny videos! Post them as time permits - god knows we could use a laugh right about now.
ReplyDeleteBridgewater had a 2-section paper today: news/lifestyle/commentary in A, sports/classified in B. Any other cities do the same?
ReplyDeleteI'm old enough to remember when the C-N was a 2-section paper every Monday.
9:59am:
ReplyDeleteDiversity has been a disaster.
Have more minorities started buying our paper? NO.
Who buys us? Old white men.
Kids? Hell no.
Maybe if we'd been catering print to old white men, who like to read us over coffee and the john, we'd all be in better shape financially.
We've done nothing to hold onto our "base."
Nothing to hold onto the base is an understatement. The decision makers have driven away and alienated that base. I live and grew up in Ocean County NJ you can't go five feet without tripping over a senior community and the APP decides to cater to young readers. And Monmouth County has many towns with ''old money''. And the paper decides to target young readers with hip annoying niche features. Genius!
ReplyDelete9:59 AM --
ReplyDeleteYou seem sarcastic when you refer to the Talent Development Program.
I hope you are saying that with sincerity. If not, do us all a favor and quit now.
Anyone who dares mock a program that pushes multimedia skills, Web kills and graduates with motivation needs to go.
Anyone who favors "experience" (read: old employees who have to rely on their age and not their skills to cling to their job) instead of skills clearly has little to offer.
You are an embarassment to this industry.
Our boss said recently that after this round, there will likely be more layoffs.
ReplyDeleteAt our paper, the largest demographic is white women, but we EMPHASIZE diversity so much that it amounts to nothing more than contrived stories in which individuals are sought out to fit into copy just so they fill the diversity mandate.
ReplyDeleteWays for papers to make money: I think all newspapers should come together and try to decide what is best for them financially in regards to asking subscribers to pay for online content. They have all got to get on the same page. If this were established, papers should have lawyers that go after individuals who copy and paste articles on their blogs or sites in the same way that the music industry has tried to protect its material.
ReplyDeleteAnd if photos and stories are republished elsewhere, a fee should be paid to the reporter and photographer. This would be a great incentive for writers and photographers to get out there and get the best stories with hopes that they would be reprinted in multiple places, meaning more cash.
5:55 PM
ReplyDeleteI'm cheering for them to promote you to some kind of job where your writing will be featured front and center on the Web every single day. Same for print. I hope they promote you to some big time manager, in a position where you can spew forth ageist comments and unsupported assumptions.
You personify Gannett's "good enough is good enough" standard, and that's exactly why I'll never call you an embarrassment to the company. You're a natural fit.
5:55
ReplyDelete"Quote"
Anyone who favors "experience" (read: old employees who have to rely on their age and not their skills to cling to their job) instead of skills clearly has little to offer "Unquote"
The newspaper industry in a nutshell. But can you blame people for wanting to stay at a job they know well. It is Gannett's fault for not retraining these employees wether they want to or not. It would be forward thinking to retrain people with years of experience in the newspaper industry. I just don't get it. Instead Gannett has let thousands of employees slip into a rut of poor morale. And down the ship goes. Like I told an over zealous Advertising Director the day before i quit. If you don't win the minds of your sales staff and boost morale in your advertising department your doomed.
@all - boring...
ReplyDeleteNJ - They have already started to move employees that they want to keep into positions where they likely won't be touched. It doesn't matter how much money you've brought in, or having a strong work ethic. Now it's who is the biggest ass kisser. It's a shame.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone else noticed that this blog is only interesting when bad things are happening to Gannett. Now that it is a subscription based model, it only makes money when you lose your job. Nice.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right in NJ. Today I listened to a Sales Executive on the phone bullshitting for an hour and a half. Laid back in the chair like it was home. I don't know who covered the territory for her today. And they wonder where the problem is...
ReplyDelete6:59: That has been going on in Westchester for about a year. It is obvious when it is done right before a buyout or a round of layoffs. They might be safe this time but after a few months the fear comes back and the song and dance follows. A great cycle for success, morale and teamwork.
ReplyDelete@7:03, Can you give us some good things that are happening to Gannett that we should blog about?
ReplyDelete@7:14--If our EE gets a pink slip, that will be very good news. It will surely save a ton of money!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSTRE4A985Q20081110
ReplyDeleteGannett has been downgraded. What exactly does this mean?
courier-post in cherry Hill nj. Anbody know anything or care to comment?
ReplyDelete11:47
ReplyDeletePlease define what you mean by "journalism." It is certainly not all the do-dads and gizmos on the Gannett Web sites. And it is certainly not the self-serving staff blogs we do. And it is absolutely not the reader comments we allow mainly unfiltered, often filled with hate for immigrants and the President-elect (and I didn't even vote for him.)
Journalism? Give me a break.
Journalism is what the print people produce and then the digital people just put on the web - oh wait, the print people do most of that too, through publicus - and they add the photos and the videos, too.
You want jounalism on the web, then put journalists in charge of it.
Yes, even dinosaur journalists like me, who were in newsrooms when real journalists brought down a president.
Hi, Jim!
ReplyDeleteIs there a way to self-police posting on this site? Like on Craigslist, if enough people "tag" the comment it will be deleted?
I jump on here to hear about Gannett, not politics, stupid jokes, etc. Would be nice if this could be distilled a bit.
Just curious.
Thanks for your efforts regardless.
8:55 pm: Regrettably, no; Blogger software doesn't offer that tool.
ReplyDelete7:57 p.m.
ReplyDeleteAbout what?
6:44 p.m. asked "But can you blame people for wanting to stay at a job they know well."
ReplyDeleteYes, I can, and it's when they're no longer effective employees and instead are helping the downfall of others at their company.
Yes, there are plenty of older people in this business who are skilled at what they do and as irreplaceable as it gets. I've learned some of the best lessons from co-workers who have been around far longer than me.
But there are also plenty of older people who cling to their age as a security blanket. They assume they're more valuable simply because they're older.
Ironically, they refer to themselve as more "experienced" but what useful experience do they really have? Experience in recording and editing audio? Experience in filming and editing video? Experience in posting to the Web site? Experience in writing memorable stories or columns?
That's the experience that matters, not the number of years served.
I never said to dump the older crew. However, I'm sick and tired of hearing older employees brag about how they don't have to worry about layoffs because they've been around longer. They seem to think skill should be irrelevant.
If we really want to have a future as an industry, we need to be very real and honest about our quality, not our quantity of years served.
So, yes, 6:44, when you get to the point that you brag about how you will stay in this business because of your age (and never even consider what skills you have to offer), it's time for you to go.
Regarding 11:10 am, this must be one of the sales people at the Courier-Post. There are several women there who do perform (?) this way almost everyday while claiming how hard they (she) work. If it's not personal calls setting up lunch for most of the morning for herself and a few other useless drones in the office, it's personal business...all day long. Funny why nothing is done about this!!! But then again, if the "leader" of the group is incompetent and surrounds with many others like this, oh well...
ReplyDeleteCorrection: My earlier posting about the Courier-Post should have referred to blogger at 7:03 pm. So sorry.
ReplyDelete@ 9:21 You missed another question. If we follow the advice of some people and cut by seniority, what happens when the people who do remin retire in a few years?
ReplyDelete9:21 PM
ReplyDeletePeople 40 and up are in a protected class. Get over it. Write your congressman. Complain to someone who can change that. Gannett HR can't. Your boss can't either, and neither can you. Work within your parameters, and please stop bashing mature workers. It's distasteful and very immature.
8:36pm - Journalists (and editors) ARE in charge of our website! And we get cutlines that don't match photos and headlines that don't match stories. We get yet another photo gallery of dogs dressed up for Halloween and completely impotent and unpolished election night video. We get typos in URLs.
ReplyDeleteIn my perfect world, journalists would be journalists. MEs and EEs would assign non-fluffy stories to said journalists. And when it comes to online, they'd all leave the packaging and posting of said stories to actual online staff who understand the code behind it.
Umm, the last several rounds of layoffs at my site included plenty of people over 40 so where is the protection? All I have for being (barely) over 40 is more gray hair and a longer time to have to have a Plan B.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations 9:43 PM. You're a member of a protected class.
ReplyDeleteYou've posed a wonderful question for Gannett HR. Ask them for a list of laid off/bought out people by position and age.
It sounds as though the company has historically ousted herds of mature folks now for a long time, and workers are allowing this practice to continue.
Amazing.
I can't think of anyone under 40 who was laid off, but I'm sure there must have been a few. But we've lost many (non newsroom) managers and they were all over 40.
ReplyDeleteOur nj paper photo department could use a cut. They only shoot maybe 2 photos a day while complaining about how hard it is. Not all of them are like this mainly the photo director.
ReplyDeleteIf they cut any more photographers from our paper we'll have to bring in a courtroom artist to draw pictures.
ReplyDelete10:26-
ReplyDeleteA court room artist would cost too much for cheapo Gannett. They just give a point n shoot camera to a sales rep! ;)
Or the Fed Ex guy.
ReplyDeleteIs this what we really need to be doing now? Fighting about age/longevity vs. youth/vitality? As journalists, are we not taught to be objective? Surely there is good to be found in both groups? I realize facing our own individual extinction is scary as hell, but must we turn on each other?
ReplyDeleteThis place is starting to sound like snarling bands of wild dogs.
Could everyone just take a deep breath and stop it for awhile?
In the words (possibly paraphrased) of the immortal Pogo "We have found the enemy and he is us."
Question for design center folks:
ReplyDeleteWhat size is the monthly bonus for your 2adpro "liaison"?.
You know, the person who is responsible for diverting a sizable number of ads to India each week.
Ours gets a few hundred bucks per month if his/her quota is met. I had no idea this was going on, and it made me curious if other papers are paying bonuses for this.
11:03 - for at least the dozenth time on this blog, we are not all journalists. We are artists, designers, press operators, sales executives, administrative assistants, IT experts, computer programmers, building crew, accountants, clerks, drivers, circulation managers, marketers, editors, paginators AND journalists.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, all of us need to calm down.
10:16 PM~ HNT's photo dept is exceptionally bloated... an assignment that should take an hour or two, including travel time, is usually an all-day event that includes parking the company vehicle in a residential neighborhood for hours on end.
ReplyDeleteRe: 1:49 - The Washington Post is charging $9.95.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cafepress.com/washingtonpost.326992528
And USA TODAY is only charging $4.95.
http://tinyurl.com/54m9te
I hope no one buys the Courier-Journal. That price is embarrassingly outrageous.
@10:16: Please elaborate. How many photogs do they have, and what is their circulation? Also, don't they have to shoot and build photo galleries like everyone else? Those take lots of time. An assignment could mean 1-4 photo portraits, or 15-100 shots in a gallery on an event.
ReplyDeleteThere has to be respect for the process.
We have 8 photogs @ HNT-CN.
ReplyDeleteThe age thing is something to watch in this next round of layoffs. The conversation made me think, and except for a couple of recently hired clerks, all the layoffs last time in my newsroom were older, well tenured workers probably at the higher end of the pay scale (but not as high as glass-office types).
ReplyDeleteThere may be reason to gather a class-action case, if a pattern develops.
Not to overgeneralize, but tenured workers have institutional knowledge and efficiency that is not easily replaced. It's not easy to see the way these people are efficient -- knowing how to spell tricky street names without looking it up, knowing who to go to for the best information, etc.
That's not to say some aren't slacking, but I'm not sure their value is fully appreciated, here or by top management.
Don't forget to document, document, document everything---every ageist comment made directly to you or to a coworker. You'll be glad you did.
ReplyDeleteDo something good for Gannett. Stand up for a truly diverse workforce----one not only with varying degrees of skin pigmentation, but one that embraces workers of all ages.
They pick off the over-40s one of two at a time. When the 100-person management round came, everyone we lost was over 50. We only have a handful of older workers left.
ReplyDeleteI love it when we print one of those stories that the kids write because they think it's news, but in fact the older folks know it's just the same old story about the same old person, just being retooled. I don't think it fools most of our readers.
Can you imagine the outrage at the company if the majority of the laid off/bought out workers were women---or blacks---or (pick a religion)?
ReplyDeleteJust don't understand where the outrage is now that another protected class---people 40 and up--is seemingly being targeted---intentionally or unintentionally.