From: XXXX, XXXX
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 3:03 PM
To: XXX
Cc: XXX
Subject: Papers
It has been brought to my attention that we have some staff members taking papers out of the building at the end of the shift. This is strictly prohibited. No-one is to leave the building with a paper. We offer the paper at half price to all of The News Star employees. As Supervisors, you must insure this is not happening.This would be the same as someone from McDonald's taking home a Big Mac at the end of the shift.
Someone from Lowe's taking home a hammer.
Someone from Belk taking home a piece of Jewelry.
Someone from Cracker Barrel taking home a pack of smokes.
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Earlier: In St. George, Utah, new cost saver -- delivered to employees
Sounds like this memo was written by a cracker....first of all it seems nobody smokes any more and second does anyone call them "smokes"?
ReplyDeleteOMG! This is a joke, right???
ReplyDeleteThen they better stop counting each employee as a paid copy, else employees should be allowed to take one copy home with them each day.
ReplyDeleteSomeone might want to pass this note along to the folks at ABC and/or the auditor next time they visit.
Guess that manager has never been at a fast food restaurant right as they're closing. I've had bags of burgers and apple pies handed to me with my order for no reason other than I'm the last customer there and the employees would have to eat it or throw it all away.
ReplyDelete7:14 Pm, do they really count employees as paid copies?
ReplyDeleteMore like taking home that gallon of milk after the expiration date.
ReplyDeleteYou've got to be kidding....
ReplyDeleteOne big difference... people actually WANT the products he uses as an example.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'
Wow, does this supervisor have nothing to do but monitor what employees are taking out of the building. So what if we have homework, and need to take a paper with us to work on something overnight?
ReplyDeleteThis looks bogus to me. For one thing, ABC allows you to count a sold copy for each employee and thus each employee is antitled to one copy. Moreover, have you ever seen cigs sold at a Cracker Barrell?? I mean, come on.
ReplyDeleteThis is bogus.
Cigs? Are the readers of the blog in 5th grade? Cigs, smokes, whats next; cancer nails?
ReplyDeleteALSO NO MORE THAN ONE SQUARE PIECE OF TOILET PAPER WHEN WIPING IN THE RESTROOM! 2 IF YOU SEPERATE THE PLYS . WE WILL BE COUNTING !!
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised by this cost consciousness. I've worked at several Gannett newspapers. Tom Bucksaver would make us use newsprint to dry our hands in the bathroom.
ReplyDeleteStart a thread about outrageous cost-cutting edicts from managers. You'll get some fantastic responses.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteMore like taking home that gallon of milk after the expiration date.
5/19/2009 8:11 PM
3 DAY OLD NEWS, TOO FUNNY!
Perhaps the memo writer meant "smokey links" instead of "smokes."
ReplyDeletehahahahah
How .... odd.
Newspapers and Big Macs have a limited shelf life. It's not like anyone will buy that day's newspaper a week from now. Either it goes home with an employee, who will read it, or it just goes straight into the trash/recycling.
ReplyDeleteThis is very petty.
Must be a joke. But then again, this is Mickey Mouse Gannett management we're talking about. Where does this company find these managers? OK, so this is a small shop, but believe me, it's not a whole lot different at the USA TODAY. Just in different but equally petty ways.
ReplyDeleteBTW, just a mention that USA TODAY has become just another Gannett paper thanks to some awful newsroom management and the lame way in which we "merged" with the web site. That merger, and the manner in which it was conducted, should be grounds for firing a number of managers. In a nutshell, it exposed the weaknesses of every editor who played a key role in convergence. Look to the second floor if you want to see a total debacle in leadership. Look higher if you want to see blind managers who are unaware of things that happen right under their noses.
The place is full of amateurs. I would not recommend it to anyone interested in pursuing a career in journalism. Go to the Times, the Post, or even small independent and more creative shops...anywhere but here.
This is very petty, and thus.....This is very Gannett!
ReplyDeleteThis is sad but true. Taking it one step further: At APP in NJ you have to beg borrow and/or steal just to get a current copy of the day's paper at your desk during your shift.They ration out how many papers newsroom and bureaus can get. You want a copy of the Sunday paper to look something up on Monday? Good luck!(squeeze some more of those nickels, guys...)
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's changed, but when I was a Gannettoid, the employee handbook specifically allotted each employee one free copy a day.
ReplyDeleteHell, at FT we can't even find papers to check ads for our customers!
ReplyDeleteClassic. Yet employees are expected to know what's in the paper as part of their jobs.
ReplyDeleteI suspect this same manager would be upset if his employees take a half hour of work time to read the paper in the office. If so, that means he expects them to subscribe at their own expense to perform a necessary function of the job.
This is incredible ... and sad.
I've actually heard of this happening at a couple of non-Gannett newspapers. Thankfully, it seems to be rare.
ReplyDeleteour in-house newspapers distributed to the various departments are "spoils"- color not in registration, page not centered, etc. Take as many as you want!
ReplyDeleteThis memo is authentic and endorsed by The News-Star's top brass. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry when I saw it yesterday. Morale in Monroe is at an all-time low and the product has never been worse. The cost-cutting corporate decisions and bleak state of the newspaper industry contribute to the black mood in Monroe. But the bungling local upper-management team adds to the toxic work environment. Another mindless message from above exhibits what Monroe deals with daily from its "leadership."
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to the zeal to get as many copies in circulation as possible? I know a guy who wrapped his eBay sale with a newspaper and the recipient (who lived in a foreign country) became a subscriber.
ReplyDeleteThe legendary Bob Collins approved this classic cost saving effort:
ReplyDeleteUse the spoils - bad color we won't see - for tearsheets.
Not sure how many ad were credited for poor color, but this ended quickly.
"Free" papers are a pain in the ass.
ReplyDeleteNOT A BIG MAC.....Actually my former paper (The Asbury Park Press) was more like cat-litter or bird cage liner. As a home delivery manager, who delivered routes and did recoveries (missed paper redeliveries), I had TOO MANY of the damn papers left over at the end of the weighing down my car and cutting my fuel efficiency.
FYI
ReplyDeleteThere is a "cracker barrel" near the newspaper in Monroe that is a convenience store, and it is full of "smokes."
Next Big G Idea: Charge copy editors a subscription fee each night they work because they are reading for free everything that goes into the paper. You editors who work on a "combined'' desk, you'll get charged three or four times for all the different newspapers' content you read.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDelete11:43, you shoulda dropped off your extras in newsroom (or a bureau like Toms River or Keyport) you woulda been mobbed and hailed as a hero!
ReplyDeleteWe used to have to ask the newsroom secretary permission to get a pen or pad of paper out of the supply closet. Treat us like third graders and we'll produce like third graders -- kicking and screaming the whole way.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, can anyone tell me why a sub-60,000 circulation paper in the South needs THREE web or "multimedia" newsroom editors, jobs in the 22 and 23-grade pay range, an extrmely high salary for the market they are in???
Just laying off one of them would have saved two full time workers.
WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE?
That's got Spurlock written all over it.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the employee or employees who leaked what was meant to be a private memo...they still have a job so why are they complaining...it's not just Gannett who has been laying off and you people are very very bitter. Are any employees ANYWHERE truly satisfied unless they are self-employed? Layoffs are EVERYWHERE in the United States--not just with Gannett. As for the employee who leaked this memo--well..that tells me that perhaps someone who is NOT employed and is trying desperately to feed his young children would be better suited for his or her job and be thankful for the job. At least he or she is still employed! Do not rebut that perhaps the manager who wrote that memo needs to be replaced. His job might be gone next. Nobody is safe..in Gannett..at Sears..at McDonald's..Cracker Barrel...car dealerships..I could go on ad nauseum. The manger is merely doing as told and trying to cut costs in every way possible so that more people can KEEP THEIR JOBS!
ReplyDeleteDespite a monopoly in the market, circulation is way down in the Monroe. By last count, it's barely in the 30,000 range -- a loss of nearly 10,000 daily in paid subscribers from the not-so-distant better times. I'm sure there are plenty of extras lying around this half-empty building. If everyone on the payroll grabbed a paper on the way out, there would still be towering stacks remaining.
ReplyDeleteWho in Monroe can read??? Ever talked to these dimwits???
ReplyDeleteWow. Ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI'm a copy editor and have been taking home a copy of the first run every night for YEARS now.
What the heck else are we supposed to do with it?
If I'd known these pinheads considered me as a "thief" all this time, you're damn skippy I would've stolen something a lot more valuable than a a few copies of the first edition for a second-rate newspaper.