It's cold again here in Michigan. I'll make my latest attempt to survive Gannett for a day. I find that's the easiest approach lately.I never really know what to expect with this place or this company. The indicators all look grim, the workload seems to be more insurmountable each day and my hope fades with each announcement of another pending layoff or furlough.
But I'll show up today. My friends don't get it. They make the argument that I should "just quit if it's so bad." They are, however, as clueless as the leadership.
My family gets it. I see the worry in their faces when I vent about the day. It tears out my insides to see that so I've stopped telling them. They are the constant of joy and happiness in my life and I won't let Gannett touch that.
I'll show up again today. Partly because I was raised that way and mostly because I don't have a choice. I'll pull into the parking lot and drive up to the spot. I'll put the gear in park and inhale deeply as I pull the key from the ignition and open the door to head inside today.
It's cold again here in Michigan.
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
Geez, could this be any more "woe is me"? This is part of what is wrong with this company. I credit this person with continuing to show up every day, but if he/she is just moping around all day then that's not good for anybody.
ReplyDeleteInstead of the constant bitching and whining, why don't some of you people start coming up with ideas to turn things around? Will it happen overnight? No. It also doesn't mean that the stock price will suddenly shoot up, revenues will increase or upper/corporate management will stop drinking the Kool-Aid. But if we all do our small part to try to improve the jobs that we are doing, it can make a difference.
I had this same issue at a Gannett property poorly run everyone scared every day. Always micro managed. I did'nt talk about it at work I talked about it with my wife and family. I also was good friend with a few MD's and told them of the issues. In one case even taking the issues to Hr.
ReplyDeleteNothing happened the publisher was mad as I questioned his authority and he said he would deal with me he did laid me off. This was the best thing they could have done for me. I lived on there money for almost 10 weeks found another job as a manager of a compnay making 25,000 more a year and I have all their business contacts to go get for the new company. Who wins here me or the publisher. I think I did. Don't let them tell you how bad it is. There are jobs out there in fact sales jobs they want Gannett employee's as they are willing to be beat into the ground and work hard for little pay.
BRILLIANT.
ReplyDelete11:42 AM
ReplyDeleteIsn't coming up with brilliant ideas what they're paying Dickey and others to do?
This post is not bitching but the sad fact that no matter how many good ideas you have this will not combat the Gannett corporate greed and million dollar paychecks still flowing to the fat cats at the top.
ReplyDeleteHang in there if you identify with this post. I feel the same way everyday and I am a high producer for this company.
It sounds like Lansing State Journal... Way to go!!!
ReplyDeleteHere's my version of this story: While driving to work one day, I let out a very sad, weary sigh -- and in that moment, realized I had been doing that every day for months and months and months.
ReplyDeleteAt that point, I knew I was a very unhappy man, and needed to develop a plan for getting a better job. I did, and I did -- and I am a happier person today.
Here's an idea to turn things around.
ReplyDeleteIf you're 40 and over and are being treated differently than some of your co-workers, file a complaint with the EEOC.
Imagine a truly diverse workforce. Boomers, let's leave that legacy for the next generation.
11:42 -- I was an "idea mill" for Gannett. I created a ton of ideas that produced money but it didn't make my work situation any better or spare me when the layoffs came. That is the problem with the way this company is run. It might be easy to sit atop your lofty perch and assume that all of the "bitchers" aren't doing their part to generate revenues, however you are sadly mistaken. The core problem is that a lot of Gannett employees aren't judged for the ideas and money they bring to the table but rather whose ass they wipe.
ReplyDeleteIt is, indeed, very cold. I so identify with your post it is as if I wrote it. Maybe we work at the same property. Maybe we know each other. Maybe it's like that at all Gannett properties.
ReplyDeleteI too am in Michigan. We have the highest unemployment in the nation. All around me, homes are in foreclosure. Friends have lost auto-related jobs. Stress runs high.
And, I too have stopped talking to my family about Gannett and the absolutely clueless managers whose erratic, off the wall and constantly changing attempts to preserve the bureaucracy has killed my newspaper.
But my family sees it. They know my joy is gone. I smile. I talk calm. But the kids can spot it. My wife, too, when I wake at 3AM and go into racemind mode, worrying, fretting about what now seems inevitable and the current impossibility of finding a new job.
I worry about keeping our home. About the doctor bills for my kids. About the grim look I see on my wife of 15 years as she hides her worry from me.
I don't blame Gannett for the economic disaster that has brought such stress. But I do blame Gannett for not seeing what all of us who report and edit and photograph and video the product we print, stream and post know only too well.
Namely, that we are being mismanaged. We have editors and supervisors whose job is to meet. And so they do, on and on, planning, whispering, keeping secrets and never executing.
If there's a vision, it sure isn't communicated. Our top editors take wide berths around the troops. They never mix it up in the newsroom. Instead, they issue bland memos about the challenges we're facing, hold briefings characterized by corporate-speak and retreat to their conference rooms and off-site meetings where they don't have to see those whose personal lives are hanging in the balance.
We have managers who can barely use e-mail, who still dismiss TV and radio and the Web and who think that we somehow have a franchise on journalism.
The fact that we do excellent journalism is undeniable. But so is the top-heavy management system that squelches us from doing more.
And so, every day, we die more and more.
Yeah. It's cold in Michigan.
I'm afraid it's going to get a lot colder.
Forget legacy, the younger generation just wishes you would hurry up and leave.
ReplyDeleteto 11:42-You must have blinders on-don't you think people HAVE tried to step up only to have their ideas dismissed because it wasn't the VP or Director's idea..wake up...the whining is because we are at the end of the rope and can only sit and watch the destruction happening. Before the layoffs I was included in every meeting and my ideas mattered -I had a director that was hands on with us and his/her dedication got her/him canned so now mostly I get emails from the one left in charge after the layoffs. I don't get asked my opinion now, I don't even know when my staff is affected until it happens. Layoff's have tripled the work and now VP's are moving people around to fill the voids and these people are afraid to say I'm over my head. Now with furloughs to be taken by March - it again burdens the already overworked and believe me I'm a middle manager and I see the ship sinking. When the only management is by email the rest are clueless as they don't have time to read the endless sea of emails - it's a choice between getting the work done or following trails from too many emails to learn how to log onto some new site so they can monitor what you did all day - WHY DON'T YOU MEET WITH ME, TALK TO ME? Without hands on management and there isn't any at this point some are taking advantage, 2 hr lunches or just disappearing! All are hiding while the rest of us try to keep all from falling through the cracks and sadly we can't ....the ship is sinking and sadly as we see each day in the news more are without work so we all feel helpless and the blog is where we can feel safe to express the frustration. Most are good people who give their best daily and after 20+ years I too find it hard to stay positive.I've given 12 hrs a day,for at least 8 years in my current position. I was proud to be a manager so I work the endless hours and my payback is a frozen pension, TRIPLE THE WORK,a furloughed week with anticipation of more. No, thank you's. I'll take my lumps and still continue to do the superior job that my annual review reports but YES - I'm pissed off..we lost people that should have NOT been laid off while IDIOTS remain. - For those who left us - we miss you daily but we feelnow that you were the lucky one! So Thanks Jim for allowing us a place to vent!
ReplyDelete12:27 PM
ReplyDeleteThanks for your honesty.
I can remember that same thing being said of women and blacks when I first entered the work world.
I'd suggest you copy what you just posted so you can show your grandchildren that---yes----there was a time when people 40 and older were pushed out of jobs
Seriously, this one thing I hate about our profession. YOU DON'T HAVE TO TAKE IT. It doesn't matter how you were raised. Is this working for you?
ReplyDeleteQuit being such a martyr and put your pride, well-being and mental health first. If you envision yourself prospering elsewhere, (in journalism, or even another field) do this:
1. Think about it
2. Consult with your spouse
3. Tell your family you are going to come up with a plan
4. Lead them in it and
5. For God's sake EMPOWER YOURSELF!
You do this because you were "raised that way." Well buck up and do yourself a favor. Live in the now and figure it out!
12:23--beautifully said. heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteI too live in Michigan. I'm not a journalist. But I understand your fear--it is real. We see it every day. I work next to Chrysler headquarters and wonder what will happen if/when the lights go out in that building.
And I wonder if the rest of America has a clue about how bad it will be if we continue to let businesses of every description fail, and the jobless numbers grow.
12:27
ReplyDeleteWith that attitude, why in the world are you posting on the blog of a 51-year-old?
12:27, you're just plain mean. Would that younger generation be the ones at my site who can't spell heds right on the Web, or who don't know the first thing about editing stories? Just slap that sloppy shit on the Web quickly.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between its and it's but the younger ones don't seem to care. AP StyleBook? Who needs it? Most of our younger reporters can't seem to grasp the importance of spelling names correctly, either. And those are just two small examples.
When the older generation does leave, you'll be in a world of hurt. There's only so much mentoring us old-timers can do; at some point I keep thinking they'll "get it," but sadly, many of the youngsters never will.
Coming up with ideas, eh, 11:42? That's quite often a death sentence in Gannettland. It goes a little something like this: "Why, how dare you attempt to imply that you're somehow as smart as me by voicing a sound concept that I couldn't possibly have conceived? How could you possibly possess an iota of intelligence, know something that I didn't — and so recklessly parade your knowledge, thereby undermining my perceived authority and superiority? Well, now you force my hand. Every time you come up with a good idea, I'm going to play the old, ‘No, that doesn't really work,’ or, ‘No, we don't want to do that’ management mindf--- on you."
ReplyDeleteI was there a long time; I know whereof I speak.
Jim, brilliant move pulling this post out as a separate. Just proves you maintained your story sense despite your long tenure at Big G.
For a while, I was driving to work with chest pains that would miraculously disappear when I had a long weekend or vacation. Could have had something to do with the bullying co-supervisors and the credit-taking "leaders" we were stuck with. But I met a lot of great people, too, and did a lot of great work there; it's just that none of us stayed around because we knew it was a dead end unless you were willing to fully prostitute yourself and defy your most humane instincts.
12:59 PM wrote: "Would that younger generation be the ones at my site who can't spell heds right on the Web, or who don't know the first thing about editing stories? Just slap that sloppy shit on the Web quickly."
ReplyDeleteHey, you just described our primary online content guy!
The problem with your argument is that he's in his 50s. This is not an issue that's confined to one particular age group.
For years, I worked 12-hour days as the norm, weekends, nights, you name it. I was proud then to be an editor, and I am still proud, but I am not putting in all the free time I used to. Nope, I now come in about 8:30-9 and leave about 5-6. And I take a break for lunch instead of eating crackers at my desk. Do I have things I could do if I worked late? Of course, but why would I want to give this company what amounts to free labor?
ReplyDeleteI worked for Gannett for 13 years. I put in thousands of hours of unpaid overtime. I dealt with horrible bosses (and a few good ones), crazy stress and working conditions that would have made Oliver Twist think twice.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was crying at least once a week, depressed all the time and getting nausea at the thought of going to work, it was time to make a change.
So I took a chance, moved to Silicon Valley and got a job in what can be a risky business (video games).
A year and a half later, I LOVE my job, the company I work for bends over backwards to make its employees happy, and I'm making more money than I ever would have in newspapers.
It can get better. Sometimes it takes hitting bottom first.
I have another one for Michigan. It is not as bad as you might think outside of Gannett. I believe that we all are scared to take a risk and leave a job that we are unhappy with.
ReplyDeleteYou must be a rare one that actually get to see family. When I was there I lost count on the nuber of times I was late at the last minute, missed vacations and sleepless night. Also, Dept head had a habit of calling 4:30pm meetings.
The best thing that happened to me was to get out and go somewhere I am appreciated. I know for a fact that my family is much happier and home life is now great.
LIFE IS WAY TOO SHORT!!!!
Microsoft, the Evil Empire, is laying off 5,000. Does anyone get it. Things are bad all over. Quit complaining and do something positive. Make a difference in a good way.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise shut up.