Saturday, January 10, 2009
Saturday | Jan. 10 | Your News & Comments
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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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Hi! The weather is warming up through this weekend here in San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteTelling us we'll have -50 windchills in Wisconsin on Wednesday....
ReplyDeleteDumping the staff out on one week unpaid is a 1.92% straight pay reduction, without any attendant benefit cost reduction. If we force all staff to take six weeks unpaid, we still won't meet the 12% payroll drop allegedly planned for next month.
ReplyDeleteDetroit's non-union pay freeze, if spread to the whole company, will also only pull 2-4% payroll, without losing benefit cost.
Both options really just drops in a hole-filled bucket.
If publishers really want to avoid layoffs, they're going to have to bite the bullet and kill some sacred cows. The TV section has to go. Sunday color comics shouldn't be a separate run, put them in whatever section has color available. If you don't charge a decent rate for obits, change it. If your real estate book loses money, kill it and let the competition lose their money.
As somebody said, don't let a good crisis go to waste. If readers are already up in arms about changes, might as well clear the decks of everything you've "always done" and position your paper to survive the recession. Afterwards, your print and electronic editions can grow together without all this legacy stuff holding you back.
Having listened to the Kate and Tara show earlier in the week, it occurred to me how terrified the rank and file are. Kate and Tara openly joked about empoyees who did not want to identify themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of culture is that?
While those at Corporate invite ideas and interaction from employees, what is happening that makes us not want to identify ourselves.
For this company to become truly innovative and aware of the needs out in the real world, this culture must be changed. There must be a shift that respects transparency.
What does this say about the managers who apparently create this culture of fear? There is no doubt a high level of insecurity.
And, beyond that, it probably reflects the fear of being slapped down by every level of the structure.
The lowest level of worker bees are afraid of being slapped down by their editors. The editors are afraid of being slapped down by the executive managers. And then the executive managers are afraid of being slapped down by their many corporate bosses.
Helllllo -- Kate, Tara et al. Want real solutions and progress, change this culture of fear and you will begin seeing wonderful things start happening.
There are so many ideas floating around out there.
Sign me
Fear and Loathing in Gannett Land.
To 8;41AM on Fri-01-09-2009
ReplyDeleteRE: UNEMPLOYMENT STATISTICS.
Unfortunately the "Official" Unemployment Rate does not capture the true severity of our situation.
The Bureau of Labor Statics DOES NOT include people as "Unemployed" once they exhaust their unemployment benefits and fail to find a job (they just fall of the face of the Earth). Also not included are people who want Full-Time work but are forced to accept Part-Time work.
If you combine all these components, the true Unemployment Rate in the United States is 14.3%.
The frightening thing about the economic situation is that unemployment is spiking simultaneously throughout the world. China is experiencing protests from fired workers; Greece, Spain is expecting 20% unemployment next year. Except for the Great Depression, other economies unemployement cycles have been out of synch with ours, thus creating an economic counter-weight.
In addition to monitoring America, I read Irish, English, Australian, Japanese, Chinese, German , etc. newspapers, and the story they tell of how this Depression is evolving is scary. Economic induced acts of violence are on the rise. Last week An Irish man who lost his job killed his wife, daughter &son -then himself. A man in Japan who lost his job attacked tourist with a knife. A German Billionaire who couldn't refinance debt jump in front of a train.
To lessen the impact of these extraordinary economic times people are going to have to learn how to network again with their communities - the way we (our ancestors) did in the prior to World War 2. Families are going to have to move together into multigenerational households -because it's cost effective (NOTE: except for the last 60 years that's how families lived). The Family will once again become the basic economic unit of Society.
Enough of my ranting, I'm just trying to plan/restructure my Family's future in light of the impending Lay-Offs and limited job prospects.
Take care and Good luck to All of You......even the myopic backstabbers out their.....you have families too....and these once in a century Economic Tsunamis
are going to hit you too. Maybe they will change your perspective on how you deal with people and how you will operate businesses in the future.
Any out of work business/economics/political journalists out their want to form a consulting firm?
Reggie H.
tammjenanalytics@live.com
Does anyone have any suggestions/ ideas as to where or what to look for employment after 15 years as a District Manager, home delivery and single copy??? (Cinti). I was laid off in the Dec round and am having no luck at all even getting interviews. It seems I am OVER qualified for most of the positions I am applying for! I am aware that a pay cut is probable and I can live with that. Anyone have any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteAlso, does anyone know how long it takes to get your pension cash out?
Thank you to anyone that can offer insight!!
Oh..... the weather here in Cincy is nasty!!! Cold, rainy, icy.....
What's special about Jan. 20 that makes it ripe for possible layoffs? Is there a financial reason for that date?
ReplyDeleteThe cynic in me considers that it'd be a perfect day to have the layoff news lost in the inauguration news.
IF and I mean "IF" there is any truth to the rumor about everybody being required to take 1 week off without pay by April,Why can't I just give back 1 week of my vacation time ?
ReplyDeleteBlizzard in Ohio, Jim. I went to a local coffee shop the other day and the smaller (page count not width) local paper was the buzz of the day. Nobody understands outside of the industry that it is not immune to economic downturns.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to see a newspaper that averaged 20 pages reduced to 8.I'm wondering about frequency. I had been told when I was with Gannett that frequency would be addressed at the smaller sites.
Anybody still with the company heard anything about frequency? I'm fairly certain that will happen in 2009.
Happy New Year!
to 12:19 Friday, Asheville
ReplyDeleteit is helpful to read the original post that this is a response to:
...Ashvegas reader responded to someone who said the endless rounds of cuts by Gannett at its newspapers is inhumane...
yes, i agree. the indignities the employees suffer is inhumane. drastic changes to schedules and duties with an implementation date that changes at a managers whim. one day on, the next day off, and never any concrete evidence the changes will improve workflow.
the one thing that is evident is that those who remain can not afford to lose the job they have in a market that is slim to none. they suffer indignities that i believe would previously been non existent. when there were policies in place to protect the employee, when there was respect for talent, loyalty, and seniority.
i am sad to see our town lose so much. there is beauty in the expression of print that can not be found in the flash of the web. there is worth in the conviction of putting words to the printed page. my grandfather and his siblings were writers and publishers of a magazine in Asheville back in the day, back in the 20's. to see our hometown voice be lost would be a sin.
Jim, is the anonymous voice (or voices) who raised the alert about all features being cut someone who has been right in the past - or is it coming from more than one anonymous someone?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I wish they'd try the unpaid leave route first. They could have one or two weeks mandatory, and then seek volunteers to take more. There are people who might take more A. to save their own job and others and B. because there is something they'd really like to do that work precludes (travel/study/hobby or family stuff).
Even if we are all getting laid off eventually, I would hope the company would at least try to toss as few bodies out into this impossible job market as necessary -- it might be far better to lose your job in early '10 than right now or in the coming months. Of course, it could also be worse...
Thanks for anything you can do to either confirm or debunk this.
RE: former Director, Publishers, V.P.s.
ReplyDeleteOn the post BENEFITS ONLY PUBLISHERS GET, a couple of poster said they were former high ranking executives.
I have a question for you regarding unpaid overtime & fake time-sheets.
Is it companywide policy to implicitly (by holding one's job over their heads) goad people into working unpaid overtime and not filling out actual time on time sheets?
The only reason I'm asking is over the years I've donated lots of unpaid time to the company, I was verbally told that I could not fill in the actual hours worked on my time-sheet. Now that I'm probably going to be laid off and thus their is no benefit to my reviews for working all this time (which by the way is never explicitly mentioned in the reviews, I want some money for my time. 5 years ago I was told by the State Labor Department that I was "Mis-Classified" as an exempt manager; and that I had a case against the compnay, but I let it slide because the Labor Department Rep. told me the company could retaliate.....now that the ship is sinking it doesn't seem to matter.
Many others in my department were told the same thing, even if we worked 20+ plus hours over the 37.5 we put on our sheets.
I'm not asking for a "Golden Parachute" but with the economy as bad as it is, I going to need as much coin as possible to live. Even if it's in my car.
It's snowing in the wonderful state of New Jersey!
ReplyDeleteI, too, listened to the Kate and Tara show. It was depressing and frightening to hear how little those two seem to grasp what is going on in the real world outside the Crystal Palace. If they ever knew how to really report and edit, nurture a newsroom, meet audience wants and needs, uphold the noble principles of American journalism, etc., those memories have been buried under layers of corporate BS.
ReplyDeleteThe Los Angeles version of Metromix is being gutted.
ReplyDeleteI believe if they will announce layoffs it will be shortly (within a few days) of Jan 26. That, to my knowledge, is when Gannett will release their 2008 Q4 earnings. Most likely, they already have a plan in place, indeed as we've seen in the company reports -bizjournals: "Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore said the company expects its newspaper headcount to be down “by the low teens” in 2009, with job cuts in the “mid single digits” at USA Today and layoffs at its broadcast division in the “mid to high single digits.”
ReplyDeleteNotice that comes from the CFO too, hence, awaiting earnings announcements to enact their "worst-case" plan.
I don't think "Feb" is an arbitrary date people have been just randomly throwing around for the layoffs either. That would coincide with a late January announcement of the layoffs, with enough time for the workings to trickle down the pipe for the selection process, hr paperwork, etc.
Q3 '08 earnings were released on October 24th, and subsequently on October 28 the December layoffs were announced. They most likely viably won't say, "we're doing badly so we're going to layoff x amount of people," on Jan 20 or before. They are more likely to wait for earnings and say, "Due to the earnings in Q4, we will need to 'right-size' by X%..."
That will also be after inauguration coverage is over.
I think also the cuts will be across all newsrooms. They can't feasibly take 100 people from a smaller newsroom that is already doing poorly and leave a larger newsroom that maybe doing marginally better/breaking even alone. That's why the last cuts were made across the board as well. Perhaps though, cuts will be fewer and far between if earnings aren't as bad as they think. Remember folks, it all comes down to the $$$.
We've already seen newspapers shrink in physical size and pages. They are probably also thinking now that the paper is physically smaller there are less people needed to fill it up anyway. So why would they just shrink it even more.
I'm not just trying to speak doom and gloom here just common sense.
Some may want to consider companies that give benefits to even part-timers:
http://jobs.aol.com/article/_a/companies-that-give-benefits-to-part/20070912114809990008
I am not trying to demean anyone, just saying it's better than going without benefits. As a newer member on staff I think my neck is probably out there so I'm just trying to make plans accordingly. I am not above working for Starbucks if it came down to it. It's not forever, but like I said vs no health insurance, etc... still while leaving enough time to hunt down a better gig.
If money is that tight then maybe they should do away with the flat screen tv's there buying along with monetary awards !!!!
ReplyDeleteCool (37), sunny and windy in Texas! No ice. No snow. Just enough rain to keep the grass green.
ReplyDeleteBTW, really appreciated the logical suggestions from 6:12 AM. Why isn't this person in a position to make these changes happen?
I used to just put 7.5, 7.5, etc. down for hours but one day I snapped and put "really 12" next to one day. I got paid but the editor was extemely pissed and said not to do it again.
ReplyDelete8:16
ReplyDeleteNortheast here.
I'm in the same position as you. My solution is to sell my house, move to another cheaper state, and find ANY type of work available; while developing a long-term plan to start a small business combined with part or full time work.
From now on we must view ourselves a small businesses selling our time, effort and abilities; we must not view ourselves as employees dependent on a paternalistic corporation.
Good Luck to you.
I'd love to temporarily give up some of my earned vacation if it meant I could avoid a week where I have to still go into the office but I don't get paid for it.
ReplyDeleteGannett can have back a week at the end of the year. I'm holding the rest in reserve if I get laid off.
Fear and loathing .... you could not be more right. When I worked in Gannett, that culture of fear was stiffling. And it did work its way from the top down.... It was devastating to anyone who wanted to contribute a new idea or thought...
ReplyDeleteBecause whoa unto the poor editor or staffer who says somethings or does something that offends the publisher, or group publisher, or somehow makes it way to corporate... that the crap hits the fan!
VERY quickly everyone learns to just shut up and take it, or start searching for a new job.
I worked in one of the "new aquisitions" of 2000 and found gannett culture awful compared to the old Thomson company. I did not think that possible.
But we learned fast that the publisher's job was to kiss corporate butt and ours was very good at it. he was a hateful, spiteful, vile, vicious, vindictive, and stupid troll. But he did manage to force out all the smart people.
In Gannett, it is shut up or get out. That amazingly incompetent idiot Phil Currie was proof of that.
Also proof is the idiots who now run the Wiscosin and Ohio community papers - only the REAL morons are left.
9:32 a.m. - If you are talking about the Ohio newspaper I think you are talking about, the 8 pages is probably worth even less than o pages. This paper has an idiot as editor and GM, and has a huge ego to match a tiny talent.
ReplyDeleteWhat is most sad is that this paper, and all the others in the poor quality Ohio community papers, is sending every dime of revenue to corporate. NONE of the money generated beyond the basic expenses to keep it gooding, remains in this town.
Most people don't know that in these towns - if they did, they'd probably stop supporting tme completely.
and that is probably a good thing.
So, anyone in the Ohio or even Wisconsin papers not too beat down with fear to come to their defense???????????
Didn't think so.
Instead of forcing people to take unpaid time off, why doesn't Gannett just lay people off for short amounts of time, kind of like the way manufacturers do it. That would allow employees to get unemployment for a couple weeks while they are on the ropes.
ReplyDeleteIf Gannett tells people to take one week of unpaid leave, they're basically telling people to leave the company, and holding the door open for them to do so.
ReplyDeleteNo one I know wants to lose a single day's worth of pay, much less a week or six weeks or whatever the rumors are.
The more b.s. like this I hear about, the more convinced I become that it's time to get serious about finding another job and moving on in my life.
Anon 6:12 a.m.'s comment makes more sense than unpaid leave. But who knows what Gannett will do?
9:50, I am in a department where some employees don't know their schedule from week to week. They're made by a manager who seems to always give himself preferential treatment, without concern for the personal lives of those this person manages.
ReplyDeleteAdd that to some other recent changes that make everyone's jobs much harder and stressful, and you have an environment that people are going to walk away from no matter how bad the economy gets.
Some readers here bring up the point that 'you still have a job, and in this economy you can't afford to walk away no matter how bad it is'.
I would argue there comes a point where things get so bad you have no choice. If you stay, you're telling the company to mistreat and abuse you any way they choose. If you go, you at least give yourself a fighting chance to find a better situation.
And if you stay, you also hurt yourself, because that company counts on you taking whatever b.s. they choose to dish out, and liking it.
re: 10:30
ReplyDeleteI doubt there's any widespread conspiracy to fake time sheets. There are a lot of rocket scientists at GCI operating on their own. It's much more likely that some boneheaded manager has been told to make sure their hours are "x" and he/she fallaciously translates this to having his employees write down only 40 hours. In actuality, no one told him to do this, but instead of trying to work out schedules, it's simpler in the short term to do this. Of the publishers I've known, even the most dim-witted know better than to sanction this.
From the wonderful State of New Jersey-- where it is snowing:
ReplyDeleteFor those of us who are very "green" at dealing with unemployment, can anyone please tell me the time frame. I submitted by claim online on 01/03 and received a confirmation number. Nothing has arrived in the mail. No payment has been made. When you phone, they ask for a "pin" number. Never got that because it was supposed to be in the mailing.
Is this the slow pace now because unemployment is so high?
Every single aspect of separation from Gannett has been confused in some way!
10:30
ReplyDeleteThe "look-back" period is three years, so if you're going to file under the FLSA, do it NOW, today, January 10th, because your three years look-back starts when you file. If you have already been laid off, you time is now less than three years. If you now start working less unpaid hours, your hours that qualify for overtime will be lowered.
So again, if you're going to file - do it NOW.
8:16, you are in the distribution business. Cincinnati is a distribution center, a transshipping point benefitting from its central location and lower operating costs. You would have a lot more to offer these warehousing/distribution companies than the typical walk-in. There are a lot of doors you can knock on in Cincy.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI'm am trying to gather up as many former employees who were wrongly fired - most likely for age reasons - as possible before
seeing an attorney about filing a lawsuit on our behalf.
I'm choosing to remain annoyance for now, but I have told Jim my name, what I did for Gannett and where I worked. I want to remain anonymous out of concern of what Gannett legal would do if they learned my name. I understand if you want to remain anonymous for now, but please include your story and a legitimate email address where I can reach you.
So, to sum up, if you had been fired wrongly or if you know of a
co-worker who has been fired wrongly, please send me an email at
WronglyFiredbyGannett@gmail.com
Thank you and I will keep everyone posted on whats happening.
UPDATE: Since my first post I've received emails from 4 former Ganett employees who were fired for bogus reasons, bringing the total so far to 7.
Jim - What's Tara Connell's email address?
ReplyDeleteWhat newspapers (city) are hearing about employees having to take one week unpaid? I have not heard that at my paper. Are they going to freeze raises too? Maybe take away our sick time or shorten our vacation time? What's next? Whenever I mention "rumors" I see on this site to a manager, they always say they don't believe what's in here. Most things I've read here have come true! Managers are just turning blind eye. Or maybe they know a lot and just can't (or won't) share info with their co-workers.
ReplyDeleteThe easiest way to save money, rather than keep laying off, is to not give Debow a 7 million bonus!!!
And all the other bonuses CEOs get!
2:25 You don't get paid unemployment for the first week after you file. Since you filed on 1/03, that week has only just finished. You should hear from them by next week. If you don't, find the local office and go there in person and explain your problem.
ReplyDeleteI posted this last night in another part of this site.
ReplyDeleteAn idea for Dubow; Have all of your directors, managers or employees making 100k plus follow in your foot steps and take a 10% paycut. I would estimate it would save 2 to 4 FTE per site. I guess this will not happen because the publiser making $250k base salary would not be able to live without the 25k.
If I give back a week of vacation time, there is no savings to the company. At the end of the year I will have still made the same amount of money. Just doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteTo the "cynic" at 8:18, you may be on to something about the magic date of Jan. 20. At my site, the publisher sent out the e-mail about workers being able to volunteer for severance on Election Day! As if we weren't stressed enough that day.
ReplyDeleteWe need more television news on this blog. We're all in the dark, but I know everyone where I work reads this blog, even management. It's major water-cooler talk, especially the recent follow the money posts. The current money solutions of a central Graphics and Master Control seem to be hurried and full of bugs. I know that our particular station makes money, that is until Gannett takes our profit and demands more. Why should we suffer and lose money to the competition? We've already lost some of our best employees (including sales staff and management) to the competition for higher pay and job security.
ReplyDeleteUnpaid overtime is the dirty little secret of the newspaper industry in general, and Gannett in particular.
ReplyDeleteIn 25+ years with Gannett, I have heard of exactly one paper where editors routinely monitored how many hours staff members were working so as not to assign them more work than they could do without OT.
To say GCI publishers and other upper management do not sanction routine and widespread unpaid OT is nonsense. They give lip service to the law, but in practice those who say "I'm out of hours" are treated like slackers or troublemakers.
The standard rule is that all overtime must be authorized in advance, a laborious and bureaucratric process that is not designed for the fluid and unpredictable nature of news coverage. When the clock is running down, very few good, dedicated reporters, photographers and editors are willing to walk away mid-story in order to stand up for their rights.
Thousands of people have lived with this system, and can prove it. There is a massive class-action suit here waiting to happen.
"I'm choosing to remain annoyance for now..."
ReplyDeleteYep, that about sums it up.
You don't need to gather a group of people to sue. You can file suit yourself. It doesn't need to be some class-action extravaganza to seek redress. And besides, "bogus reasons" are in the eye of the beholder.
4:42: Try tjconnel@gannett.com. Yes, just one "L."
ReplyDeleteI used Google. Neat thing. I think that company is going places.
Google? Sounds like a baby's first word. I'll stick with AOL and Lycos.
ReplyDeleteFrom David Ledford, executive editor of The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal and immediate past president of APME:
ReplyDeleteAll: In spite of the problems in our industry, we're privileged in the coming days to chronicle one of the most significant chapters in American history. I hope you're as excited about this challenge as I am.
Our inauguration plans are deep and wide, fueled with thoughtful journalism sure to resonate with readers - in the newspaper and online. We will publish an Extra edition on the day Barack Obama and Joe Biden are sworn
into office, getting papers on the street in the early afternoon. And we've developed a sophisticated online template to carry our content, the work of USA Today, stories and pictures from other Gannett newspapers and video from
the company's television station in Washington. It's all part of Gannett's new Content One initiative, which holds huge promise.
We also are producing a hardback book capturing Biden¹s ascension to power. It will be accompanied by a DVD capturing our best images of the campaign, and historical shots of the man who's reached the highest political office ever held by a Delawarean.
Beth Miller gets this effort moving in Sunday editions with a terrific story comparing the challenges of Obama to those faced by Lincoln and FDR. Howard
Johnson and Karen Okamoto created a compelling design to attract single copy buyers, a standard we should aspire to during the next 10 days.
So with plans laid and assignments made, I've got only two more things to say: Let's do this right. And let's have fun.
1:07 p.m. I can't speak for all the Ohio papers. I'm not even sure who's who anymore over there.
ReplyDeleteBut as a former Ohio resident who still visits home from time to time, I can assure you the readers of one particular newspaper are spitting nails about the decimation of their hometown publication and its staff in recent years.
The sadder points include at least once instance of a reader trying to call in a news coverage request -- and the news staff (rookies? corporate transplants?) doesn't understand why it's a local story that should at least be covered by a phone interview.
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteYou should add one more category to your Gannett quiz: regular stringer for Gannett newspaper. I've written a weekly profile for a Gannett paper for three years (plus other stories on a regular basis0. I suppose I haven't been cut because I'm relatively inexpensive, although I know a number of less regular freelancers who aren't getting work from our Gannett newspaper. I'd be interested to know what's happening with other Gannett freelancers.
@ 5:16 PM
ReplyDeleteWhat they ought to do is kill the dividend. According to the conference call last month, one analyst in the audience estimated that it would save GCI $750 million and affect the stock price only briefly, since it's already in the crapper.
But, of course, that would go against the liquidation mentality that is pervasive among senior management. Perhaps they'll just put the company up for sale and get it over with. We know, from Jim's reporting, that the worst offenders will get nice severance packages, so there's really no downside for them.
http://einkling.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteJim, the Indianapolis News Guild has an interesting synopsis about its talks with Big G. Since Va. dictates its policy to the masses, are some of what's proposed for Indy also on tap for the rest of the country?
From Fred Wilson's blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/01/avoiding-the-bi.html
6:31 PM wrote:
ReplyDelete"In 25+ years with Gannett, I have heard of exactly one paper where editors routinely monitored how many hours staff members were working so as not to assign them more work than they could do without OT."
That paper must be mine, then. We are very, very careful about this kind of stuff and ALWAYS pay for any OT reported.
Our Kronos system ensures that people are getting what they work, and NO ONE is ever told to under-report. As a matter of fact, it's just the opposite.
If you're an hourly employee working unpaid OT, REPORT IT. Otherwise, quit whining already.
Just to clarify Gannett has 230,000,000 shares outstanding and pays an annual dividend of $1.6/share. Dividends cost $386 million/year.
ReplyDeleteA week off without pay or a week of unpaid work would not just reflect the loss of one week's earnings, considering that reg. benefits deductions, 401K and any other deductions, such as scheduled savings or payments, withdrawals, would still be deducted from the remaining week's pay at their same bi weekly rate, which in some cases could reduce or possibly eliminate the remaining week's pay all together. Even if this is a ghost proposal, would it not be better for Corp to start reducing costs by cutting the 2008 performance bonuses that many of the mid-mgrs are being given?
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is Kronos? Sounds like the name of a villain in a bad '60s sci-fi movie.
ReplyDeleteKronos is the worst mix of 80's graphics and command line sql management the company could find to handle our payroll.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, what does it tell you when you don't need a mouse to run a program - except that mice hadn't been invented when the program was last updated?
First of all, I am FAR from a Gannett lover-- BUT...
ReplyDeleteI have worked for 3 Gannett papers and in all 3, there have been STRICT rules that ALL actual time worked must be written on time sheets by the employee. No excuses, rationalizations, etc. allowed. If an employee worked OT, the manager was on the hot seat, not the employee. Our managers watched people like hawks. I myself threw people out of the building on countless occasions. And if they were working on someting under deadline, it was up to me to see that it was finished -- so if that meant I had to give OT, I'd do it and take the hit. I didn't like a lot of the stuff that went on in some of the places I worked, but unpaid OT was not one of them. No one wanted to risk a big fine.