Jim, any chance of starting a thread for middle managers to weigh in on what they know and what they plan to do when the layoffs come down? We know very little, and I'm stunned our input isn't being solicited. I don't think I'm owed information in advance about what will be done, but I can't imagine not asking for our thoughts. It's crazy. I'm holding my breath. I'm driven, enthusiastic and productive, and I'm willing to gut through this if I have good people around me.But if the layoffs are based on anything other than skill, if our best and brightest are among the casualties, then I'm gone. No question about it. I will not be surrounded by those who don't care or can't do what it takes to save us. That would be miserable.
What are other managers, particularly middle managers, thinking? Will you stay if the top editors make poor layoff decisions?
Join the debate, in the original post.
Most newsroom mid-managers I talk to fear, as I do, if we're not laid off we'll just have even more to do, even though that seems like a physical impossibility considering the long hours we already put in so the higher-up managers can show they've met one MBO or another while we do all the minutiae they've left us to tend to while cutting the staff. They have no clue how time-encumbering the workflow systems are, yet they yell at us for not being the visionaries they think they pay us to be. Rubbing salt on our wounds, they didn't consult us on Round 1 or 2 buyouts, nor 10% layoffs now. If we're not the ones cut, we'll certainly be expected to tout and toe the company line -- whatever it will be.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for my boss, a pretty good, young, new ACE. She gets the short end of the stick already, and is just going to get shafted when her staff gets cut.
ReplyDeleteHalf of the mid-managers at our newspaper don't pull their weight. The other half work very hard and put in long hours. Hopefully this is considered in the layoffs and decisions are made the right way instead of the easy way.
ReplyDeleteThe last round of layoffs included some very good middle managers at my paper, so I wouldn't count on talent or hard work saving you. It seems totally dependent on criteria that don't include ability.
ReplyDeleteAnd the reason they aren't consulting you, I'm sorry to say, is probably because you are on the list. The top managers aren't cutting themselves, and they need the grunts to do the heavy lifting. That leaves m.m.'s to hit that 10% mark.
Give us a break! Gannett's culture doesn't allow for consideration of qualified managers. Most of those on the list to go will be driven by numbers from Gannett down to the local level and then the good ole boy network will kick in. The incompetents (publishers and those directly reporting to same) will make sure they keep the drones they can manipulate and/or either have something on them or are connected in one way or another. Let's not kid ourselves either, this upcoming downsizing will not be the last. Another will come just after the year turns. Remember, as ad sales and circulation continue to drop, corporate will have to maintain the numbers no matter what.
ReplyDeleteLike the writer said earlier, MMs most likely didn't get consulted before and I doubt a lot of them know much about this round. My fears are that (a) I will be downsized, or (b) I will lose valuable staff members or (c) if I stay, I will lose staff yet be expected to do more with less and will, of course, only be able to do less with less. That would mean that my product won't be as good, which would be a bad reflection on me, which would mean I would get downsized later on. I feel like I am riding a downward spiral.
ReplyDeleteI would predict another round of layoffs around March.
ReplyDeleteTo the mid-managers who fear an increased workload on top of an already massive load, some advice.
ReplyDeleteWork 40-50 hours, do what you can in that amount of time and then leave the office. I understand that it's not pleasant to work in a hostile environment, but it's also not pleasant to work 60 or 70 hours a week. And you ultimately won't get much for ruining your life.
What's more, it's highly unlikely that you would be fired for putting in a regular 40-50 hour work week. First, upper management would have a difficult time documenting cause and they are very fearful of lawsuits. Second, most executive editors won't be looking to fire anyone unless it's ordered by corporate. There's a good chance they won't be able to fill positions that are vacated, so they would be likely to tolerate even underperforming employees rather than losing them altogether.
You could become a target in a future layoff, but you could become one anyway. And how will you feel if you get laid off having given management countless "free" hours.
If nobody takes a stand, the workloads will continue to pile up. But you may be surprised what will happen if you simply refuse to work more than a reasonable amount of time. My bet is you'll keep your job and have a better life, but the quality of the paper will suffer. That's unfortunate, but Gannett big wigs treat their papers like money-making machines, so employees have to start doing the same.
Put in the hours you are paid for. You aren't obligated to do anything more.
In the meantime, use those extra hours to float resumes to more forward-thinking companies.
Maybe not by March, but definitely by the summer. Hopefully Dubow will be one of those shown the door by then, and we'll at least have a little satisfaction of seeing him fall.
ReplyDeleteI agree that half of MM's work and the other half slide by. I think I get paid more than most MM's at my site, but if you break it down as an hourly rate, some weeks I might end up ahead working at McD's.
ReplyDeleteWe're salary, and with no overtime allowed, any work that can't get finished falls to us. (At our site, no overtime means no overtime. Kronos doesn't lie and I will push hourly out the door when their 40 is up.)
An earlier poster points out that a director won't fire someone who doesn't work over 40 hours because they might not get to replace them. Au contraire. With unemployment rising, who would avoid the chance to get someone in who hasn't had a job for six months, who will work at a starting wage, who will accept the new environment and expectations because they don't know any better-- and let's face it, 'actual journalism credentials' stopped being a criteria long ago...
Let's just say I'm busting my ass and I'm making sure my publisher knows how important every member of my team is. I don't want to lose any of them, I don't want to lose my job - but now we're at the point of wait and see.
My only hope is that if I am on the list, I'm not the last one dropped. Having to sit through the severance conferences, saying 'it's not you, it's the economy' before getting the same speech myself would really be a slap in the face.
A few years ago each department at our site had to rate each staffer on how important their skill set was, and how likely they were to leave.
ReplyDeleteIf you had someone who had great skills but no ties to the community, we needed them, they didn't need us. We had to spread their skills around. It was helpful in that we could see which employees could use skills enhancement, and which ones we needed to make sure were happy.
I don't know if we could actually use such a survey to determine layoffs, seems that the 'how likely to leave' would tread on family or marital status. But anyway.
My point is that simply looking at payroll dollars or job description to can people is the dumbest way we can run a layoff.
The best worker on my team is strapped by union contract to make $10/hour, while the guys making $25/hr are mostly concerned with getting their heel prints off the breakroom table.
On the other side, I work with a MM who makes around $65k - busts her ass every day, has a smooth running department, meets budget - but she'll get the axe because an equivalent (similar reporting level, not skill level) MM we just hired makes $37k.
Trust me, folks. Your supervisor or manager hates doing this more than you can imagine. Just because we can't bitch about it at the coffee machine doesn't mean we wouldn't like the chance.
I applaud most middle mgmt - esp. 6:05 who seems to do the right thing as far as her work ethic and underlings are concerned. But, isn't that what you are getting paid the big bucks for? How about us non-salaried who put in the extra hours and don't get paid or bust our hump everyday, all the time! Not against you - but I've seem some middle mgt. who come in at the minute they're supposed to and leave early without even checking out the situation with their team. They socialize and have little coffee clutches with the higher ups to brown nose and make non-work phone calls all day. They "offer" to help if you need it - ONCE - and don't bother to ask again or take any of the stuff they can do for you to lighten your load. They know you're busting to get stuff done but don't even bother to ask how things are going. When they do try to help, they bog you down more with stupid questions on how it's supposed to be done or how come it's done this way, when all you want to do is just get it done!
ReplyDeleteMost middle mgrs don't even know what their team does! Maybe I'm just bitter but I'm getting tired of all the bullshit!
6:45 - I could always tell good managers from poor managers by how they talked about their successes. One of the best ladies I ever worked for always pointed out the names of her people who came up with new ideas or worked hard - when it would have been just as easy to say 'MY team did this', she would say 'Mary came up with this'.
ReplyDeleteShe didn't move out of her MM position, but her staff by far was the happiest, best performing department in the building. Until the director needed a slot for one of his buddies, then all of a sudden she wasn't needed anymore.
7:27 - I agree with you about spoting good managers, as over the years I've had the previlige of working for a few of them. It's a shame that a few of the lousy give the rest a bad name. Hopefully, upper management recognizes the ones with real people talent, dedication and hard work and gets rid of some of the slackers who have no idea how to manage people.
ReplyDeleteAd directors seem to be the root of the problem. They don't seem to have the experience needed to get the job done, and then when they are given the job they just sit in their office and read email.
ReplyDeleteMy vote is that they are really not needed. Ax them all.
This sniping back and forth about who deserves to get laid off is like starving animals turning on themselves for food. Pretty disgusting. Fact is, the last set of layoffs showed this has nothing to do with skill set or performance. Gannett canned some of the best performers in the company last go-round - those including managers who had turned around failing departments. And that's the biggest problem of all with this latest round of layoffs -- it's a pipe dream to believe this has anything to do with performance or ability. It's simply about cutting expenses. And that makes it hard for good performers to continue working.
ReplyDeleteIs there info out there on papers in the southern division regarding layoffs? Like the Clarion Ledger and Hattisburg?
ReplyDeletedear manager:
ReplyDeleteplease cut me. i want to leave, but can't afford to without 6 months of severance to get me to my next objective -- retraining for something useful instead of the farce that journalism gannett style has become.
This is all about cutting that pension expense. Just remember that you are not the fiduciary on this one. You had no say in how that money was invested.
ReplyDeleteWhen they didn't consult the MMs in this round, it became very clear this round of layoffs is aimed at this rank of GCI employees. They are obviously going for money savings. I don't think it will work, and it will show up in the product very soon.
ReplyDeleteI disagree.
ReplyDeleteI love good MMs. I don't have very many at my newspaper, so I hope several MMs are cut. I believe we'd actually be a better newspaper with these lame people out. They waste money and time sitting in meetings.
Go produce something. Help. Accomplish a goal. Develop a new idea.
"Professional Meeting Attender" is no longer a rung on the ladder, peeps.
I wonder how many of the "professional meeting attenders" even know how to run a department/section or even a little part of the papers operations - can they OR would they even know how to open/distribute or process the mail? Can they file? Edit? Write an article or even input data? It's amazing to think that some of these people walking around with big "cat who ate the canary smiles" that say they won't be cut, could be included in this next round! Then there are the ones who are just getting ruder and ruder - like they're just above all this - just get your job done with no mistakes you lowly peon. This is not bickering or back stabbing - it's the truth! Anyone and everyone is in the mix to get cut and the ones who do the least will probably stay and pile the remaining work, left by those who gladly gave up their jobs, to the poor people who are already over burdened with too much to do now! I really hope I'm out of here this time, cause in both the last layoffs I was one of the ones who had to suck up more work from the ones layed off! It's just too much to take! Hope the good ones that stay get a little relief and help from their team and fellow peeps! They are the ones I feel the worst for!
ReplyDeleteLook at that E&P story on the API summit, and tell me how many MMs agree with the newspaper executive who blames reporters for newspaper economic ills?
ReplyDeleteAnyone walking around with a 'cat that ate the canary' smile is either in deep denial or doubled up on their Prozac dosage.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should anonymously send 11:43s comment to my managing editor.
ReplyDeleteMaybe GCI should put prozac in the medi-vend machines at all the offices and we'd all be smiling cats doing our dirty deeds!
ReplyDelete6:45 AM wrote: "But, isn't that what you are getting paid the big bucks for?"
ReplyDeleteIf you think all middle managers are making "big bucks," you clearly don't understand Gannett.
"How about us non-salaried who put in the extra hours and don't get paid or bust our hump everyday, all the time!"
That's illegal, as has been discussed on this blog extensively. I have little sympathy for people who work the extra hours without getting paid only to whine about it here. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
My "team" gets paid for every second they work. I make sure of it.
2:18 - who are you and what paper do you work for? Can I come over there? I wasn't whinning, just stating a fact - they expect you to get everything done in the 7.5 hour alloted but deny you any pay or god forbid if you leave even a minute early. Maybe it's just my middle manager whose such a by the book "can't do that" person. I also have pride in doing a complete job and doing it right rather than sloppily cause there's not enought time! I know it's illegal and been discussed but that doesn't change the fact that it goes on! About the Big bucks statement - I'm sure you make a hell of alot more than I do! And I am doing something about it - I asked to be laid off so I don't have to deal with the lousy management anymore!!!!! And no this isn't my first job and I'm not a newbie to the business world - I'm a grown mature adult who feels that Management should be the ones to encourage and NOT discourage their employees from doing a better job no matter what it takes!
ReplyDeleteWork harder, not smarter.
ReplyDelete