I get there through process of elimination:1. The goal is to reduce payroll expenses. It wouldn't make sense to shift work that can be done at straight-time rates, into over-time, where it would only cost more. Therefore: no extra OT to cover for co-workers on furlough.
2. CEO Craig Dubow says in his furlough memo: "We are doing this to preserve our operations and continue to deliver for our customers.'' (Emphasis added.) Those words assure Wall Street there won't be a commensurate reduction in goods or services, since that would only pinch revenue more. Therefore: no cut in workloads.
3. Corporate, in its furlough FAQ, gave itself at least two chances to say definitively that production quotas had been cut for the quarter. But it failed to do so:
Q. Won't this compromise our ability to do our jobs, produce our products and satisfy our customers?
A. We think doing another round of layoffs at this time would impact our operations more. Furloughs, while a scheduling challenge, provide more flexibility for our businesses and provide more value for our customers.
Q. Who will cover my job while I am out?
A. You and your supervisor should discuss how your responsibilities will be handled while you are out. If you have a company e-mail address and/or phone extension, you should leave a message directing people to the employee designated to reply in your absence.
'We can't have OT during these furlough periods'
No extra overtime spending -- but no work reduction, either. I ask you, how else can this be done -- without employees doing more work Gannett won't be paying for? (Auto-rejected replies include: "We'll just work smarter." "Now, we'll really focus on what customers want.")
Let's get real. Exempt supervisors are going to take on even more work, to cover for their furloughed troops. Meanwhile, lots of hourly workers will just suck up the extra work, mark down the incorrect time (37.5 hours!) at the end of the week, curse -- and move on.
"I've already been asked to get several things done in anticipation of my first furlough day coming up this week,'' writes Anonymous@3 p.m. "When I told my boss that all that extra work would probably put me around OT, I was told 'Well, just manage your hours to make sure you don't have OT. We can't have OT during these furlough periods.'"
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[Image: today's Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wisc., Newseum. The paper is one of Gannett's 85 dailies in the U.S., and 17 in the U.K.]
One good thing about David Ledford in Wilmington (and I'm not a cheerleader by any means) is that he hasn't bullshitted with the staff by telling them they have to do more with less, work smarter, not harder, or any of those standard lines of crap. He's said several times in public that we're going to have to prioritize - there's just no way we can keep on working like we have been.
ReplyDeleteWhat that will translate (IMHO) to is less local-local coverage - fewer community event advances, less municipal/county beat coverage, smaller calendars. So less of the stuff that readers want.
Imagine the following:
ReplyDeleteTomorrow morning, editors for the local, sports, etc., news sections show up for the morning news meeting, armed with story lists ("budgets") that are just as full as ever -- despite furloughs.
What does Ledford do? Does he ask those same editors tough questions about whether non-exempt staff are, in fact, working off the books?
Or does he look the other way, and allow another section to be published with the same staff byline count as before?
I for one am working an OT shift tonight to shore up a hole created by the furlough.
ReplyDelete7:57 pm: Will your timecard show those OT hours? If not, why not, please?
ReplyDeletePlease be detailed. At least one member of Gannett's board of directors has been having this blog screened daily, including possibly over weekends, for especially noteworthy posts. This would be one of those.
"Work smarter" Now there's a phrase my clueless ex-boss once used on me. I told him, "I've worked smarter for years." This really, REALLY! brought home the point that Gannett hasn't been paying attention.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteI'm 7:04.
While I'm not intimately involved in the furlough scheduling, my understanding is that most of the non-exempt workers (e.g., reporters and copy editors) are splitting their furlough days - a day here, two days there.
We got a glimpse of your scenario last week. The editors had a ton of people and time committed to the inauguration - the previews, the daily events, the balls, Twittering, blogging, blah blah blah.
But once that was over, they were scrambling for copy and art just to fill the paper - absolutely desperate. I think the same thing's going to happen when the furloughs really start to kick in. There's just going to be less stuff in the paper... more quick-hit stuff like we're not going to be able to do when things return to normal, because we have to prioritize. I really doubt the byline county is going to be the same. But if it is, it'll be for smaller, shorter stories.
Sounds idiotic, I know. But that's my read on it.
7:57 here. Yes, my timecard will reflect the OT hours.
ReplyDeleteDude, have you never heard of "vacations"?
ReplyDeleteThey're the quaint, old-fashioned reason newspaper employees vacate the office for a week or so.
How could any newspaper survive them? How could such a treasured institution continue to publish in the face of these awful "vacations" that return to plague productivity year after year?
Oh, wait. We've been working around vacation schedules for years....
A furlough is a bad deal for the employee: no pay. But let's not pretend that a newsroom can't figure out how to deal with them.
How to fill the hole with fewer workers and no overtime? Lean on exempt workers. Then assign local stories with little substance (it's risky to try anything meaty without investing resources to get it right), edit haphazardly, slap the copy on pages surrounded by stuff from other parts of the country that the readers saw online the day (or week) before. That's my guess.
ReplyDeleteProduction isn't being scaled back by any means. In St. Cloud, our newsroom is actually taking on new sections the Advertising Department used to do. All of this came about in the wake of the furloughs. I guess someone thinks we're stupid.
ReplyDeleteIt can be done by informing your manager prior to working OT that the work can't be completed. If you document the work that has to be done, what else can they do? They either approve it or they don't. Document, document, document. I am not working a minute of OT unless my manager is aware of it. If it isn't approved, then see ya!
ReplyDeleteIt can be done by informing your manager prior to working OT that the work can't be completed. If you document the work that has to be done, what else can they do? They either approve it or they don't. Document, document, document. I am not working a minute of OT unless my manager is aware of it. If it isn't approved, then see ya!
ReplyDeleteDavid Ledford seems like a honest person. I doubt he would fudge OT. Wilmington has always been honest about hours worked. If you worked it, you got paid. I expect the same to follow in Period I. It's all about communication. You tell your boss I can't get it done. If they say work it, it's in their ball court. Then there is a law suit.
ReplyDeleteWow 9:42 are you from Wisconsin?
ReplyDeleteUmm, Jim, weren't you one of those EXEMPT reporters at USA TODAY?
ReplyDeleteI you serious 9:42? Yes we deal with vacations every year...but try to add to those vacations everyone in the flipping building taking a week off all in a 3 month period. The effects will be felt immensely.
ReplyDeleteI refuse to work free OT to cover for my furlough days, so I won't do it. It's that simple.
ReplyDeleteMost other employees should take the same approach, but many won't because they are frightened.
The bottom line is Craig Dubow's promise that this won't affect the product is bullshit. It will have a negative impact -- as most of his previous cuts have -- and they don't much care. They just can't say that to Wall Street.
How do you continue to put out the same product with fewer people without overtime? You have people work at double speed and turn out crap. The paper prints, there's just nothing worthwhile in it. My site has been using that approach for at least 18 months now.
It stinks, but it's better than giving Gannett a lot of free hours.
12:23 am: Indeed, I was an exempt USA Today reporter.
ReplyDeleteWe can't have OT in the same week we take a furlough day, but you can bet there's OT elsewhere trying to cover everything. It's unavoidable ... our staff still has to get the news out.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny. Not ha-ha funny but funny just the same...
ReplyDeleteThis week I am the only exempt person in my composing department. I will be doing the work of SIX people, due to the furloughs.
At normal times, we allow up to two people to be off due to vacations. Another may be gone because of sick time or whatever. It's a challenge then, but with a little overtime we can usually get the work squared away.
Now, no overtime. My staff will never work unpaid overtime. No additional 2adpro, because guess what, it's still cheaper to have our artists do the work than to send it overseas. So guess who's a design artist again?
The best, absolutiest funnest part? I have to bust my ass to get my OWN work done early for next week when I'm on furlough. 80 hours this week, zero hours next week, 40 hours pay. And my exempt assistant has to make it work with his 80 hour week.
All that being said, I've got it better than most of the people on my staff. At least I don't have to worry about feeding my family right now. The return on investing in all my exempt unpaid overtime over the years is that I do make slightly more than the people on the floor. Dividing it out by hours in the building, it's less. But we live with the choices we make.
We have been specifically told to not work in advance - essentially doing double the work - to cover for our furlough time. (I think the majority of people here are taking full weeks off so they can collect unemployment.)
ReplyDeleteWe were also told there are plans to reduce the size of the papers for the next few months because they know they won't have the copy or resources to fill all of the pages. I have not yet seen evidence of that, however.
Working around vacations isn't the same thing. A vacation is paid time off, which gives you more of an incentive to work in advance (at least at my paper) to cover for that time you won't be there and to make things easier for your co-workers.
Anon 9:42
ReplyDeleteEven if you accept that the vacation coverage model would work during the furlough period, you've just give everyone in the company and extra week of vacation! Oh, and we just finished cutting headcount across the group!
This is an asinie policy that will result in the most marketable talent (and often the most valuable) seeking employment elsewhere. When (if) GCI comes out of this downturn, it will be a weaker company.
Jim is spot on - less people, fewer man-hours, same output = OT by some and a lot of exempt coverage
We've been told no OT to cover furlough days. I have to shift days a couple of weeks to fill in for weekend reporters on furlough. Usually, those would be OT, but they are not in this case. They're making me take a day off during the week instead.
ReplyDeleteReporters, please guard your health when asked to "work smarter." Having to do your own work plus a share of someone's else's work can wear you out.I know, because I ended up with a chronic health problem due to stress and overwork a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe conjecture on this blog is getting ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteMy spouse is one of those exempt employees (who actually does the job of those he also manages) that will be working several weeks of 6+ days to cover the the non-exempt workers, a few of which will end up making substantially more per year than he does. Why will he do it? Because he has a work ethic and there really isn't another option right now. As someone who has gone through my own share of "company restuctures" (in a different field), I have regretably come to the conclusion that this is just how it goes now. Doesn't matter who you work for, big or small.
ReplyDeleteTo prepare for Furloughs, did Dickey do double the work in advance...i.e. 2 rounds of gold instead of just one? Hey, that'd get twice the business opportunities accomplished.
ReplyDelete11:05 am: For added savings next year, perhaps Gannett could offshore Bob Dickey's participation in the Bob Hope golf tournament. I'm sure there's an underpaid third-world person who would play for well under $25,000!
ReplyDeleteDickey played. The papers got out. So, the question is:
ReplyDeleteJust how essential is his job function and duties to the operation?
I'm 11:05
ReplyDeleteDid I actually say "rounds of gold"? Meant "rounds of golf." Must have been Freudian.
You know, I used to think that there would be a bunch of unpaid overtime with these furloughs, but now I'm changing my mind. What's happening is the quality of the product is getting so bad, it's excruciating to read.
ReplyDeleteYesterday's Florida Today had a story in the carousel that had dozens of errors. In fact, it was a partially written strawman, with XX where actual numbers were supposed to be plugged in. Today, the Tallahassee bureau has posted a story with three typos (including a wrong word: roll instead of role) in the lede. There is also an incorrect 's in the word issue's later in the story.
I'm talking about fourth-grade grammar errors here, folks. A cursory check of some of the other papers is showing a similar lack of quality.
So: You don't get more done with less--you get less done with less. Equation solved.
I'm a part-timer in B-I-E, and have already worked an extra day to cover for a furloughed coworker. I guess our local higher-ups can't even follow the guidelines they've sent out in their own memos.
ReplyDelete9:42, 1/25, here. I didn't post the vacation-model remarks; your quarrels are with 9:25. I'm also not from Wisconsin, so I've got no inside info,11:50. There are only a limited number of ways for Gannett to reduce expenses with these furloughs, and it's got to involve shifting work to exempt employees and shortcuts on content.
ReplyDelete