Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Layoff stories: 'He didn't know either one of us'

Part of an occasional series. At a medium-sized Gannett newspaper, a senior manager entered the newsroom, and whispered quietly to a junior manager in plain view of other people nearby.

Then the senior manager asked me to make the long march to a distant office where he and the head of HR told me my job had been eliminated. I found out later why he stopped to whisper to the junior manager before coming to my desk: He had to ask her which one I was. I worked there two years and I was sitting next to another employee who has worked there more than 10 years, and he didn't know either one of us.

A look in someone's eyes. A cardboard box on an empty desk. A final conversation. Please share your layoff story in two or three paragraphs. Post replies in the comments section, below. Or e-mail via gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, that's pretty sad. Sorry that has happened to you and that the manager did not know who you even were. You would think they would have made themselves a bit more familiar with the person they were letting go.

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  2. Doesn't surprise me at all. My experience with Gannett is that the big shots treated the community this way, too, and that will never work with local, local, local.

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  3. Doesn't surprise me at all, either. Unless you are a golden boy (emphasis in BOY), no one knows you.

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  4. That manager should be fired. Period. That's awful.

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