The demands are getting louder; the annual deadline must be nigh. It has gotten to the point where some feel like it has become a shakedown.
Considering the economy, increases in the costs of consumer staples and gas prices, the fact that most employees don't know if any given day will be their last day of employment, and that cost-of-living adjustments disguised as raises are non-existent, how do they expect people to contribute?
Are you getting the same hard sell? If you don't participate, do you worry you'll get a poor performance evaluation, or even be targeted for the next round of layoffs? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. Or e-mail jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
I prefer to donate on my own and not through the company.
ReplyDeleteWhy? I don't see any reason the paper AND THE PUBLISHER WHO LIVES THE MILLIONAIRE'S LIFE should get any credit for their employees' generosity.
And that's why the paper is so keen on this. It makes the higher ups look good.
By the way, just got my health plan confirmation. I'm now paying over $5,000 annually for single-person coverage. And that includes the horrendous Delta Dental plan.
Just yesterday I was reading a story about a teachers' union making a big deal that members had agreed to pay $34 per month.
If your paper wants United Way donations, first unfreeze the pay and raise it, and stop bashing the workers with higher premiums and co-pays.
OMG. This always was one of my pet peeves when I worked for Gannett. They practically used strong-armed tactics to get you to donate. It was a total guilt move and I would have none of it. Just like 3:16 p.m. I prefer to donate on my own, and not get "credit" or an extra vacation day or freakin' lame ass pizza for it. Plus my newspaper ran stories ad nauseum on the whole United Way cause. What a huge turnoff.
ReplyDeleteSounds like extortion to me.
ReplyDeleteEvery time our local United Way group has an event, it's on our front page or Local page. And they're never "news" events.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the cost increases in health (Obama)care.
ReplyDeleteAt least that's one we can blame Gannett for.
Correction: CAN'T blame Gannett for.
ReplyDeleteSorry, not a writer.
In all my 24 years at GCI I have yet to give $1 to the United Way. But I do give, and generously, on my own and double that contribution through the Gannett Match program. I never could understand why someone would want to donate $50 to United Way when they can pick their own charity, give $50 and have it doubled to $100.
ReplyDeleteI'm at a mid-sized Gannett property, and we're getting the same kind of shakedown (don't know if I'm at the same place as the original e-mailer).
ReplyDeleteWe got the UW form that was "required" for us to fill out, even if we weren't donating anything. I checked the "no donation" box and wrote on the bottom of the form, "The amount I was planning to donate was taken from me in the form of an unpaid furlough in the first quarter of 2010. No money left!"
I'm sure that will only grease the skids for my departure in 2011, but I can live with that.
I never donated through the office campaigns and never noticed any repercussions for it. I don't recall getting any forms this year though. Maybe they're backing off since they realize that after furloughs, insurance increases and pay freezes that it's a little tacky to hound us for donations.
ReplyDeleteWhile this was annoying as a staffer, being promoted brought a "special" letter delivered to my home asking for a donation of sizable amount.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1990s at the Poughkeepsie Journal, the United Way appeal was very aggressive.
ReplyDeleteOne afternoon, I was summoned to the top editor's office. He had a list in front of him. I soon discovered what it was.
He asked whether I was planning to give to the United Way campaign. He could see from the list that I hadn't signed up.
I politely told him that I preferred to give money to other organizations, and that was that. But he was clearly pained because, I am sure, the Publisher was on his back to ratchet up the contributions and make the newspaper look good.
I'm in Detroit and while Hunke was here he had a leadership role with the local UW organization. We were stongarmed for donations and I didn't appreciate it one bit.
ReplyDeleteAt one meeting he said that they would not check and see who did or did not donate but I didn't believe that one bit. So I always ended up giving something for fear of retaliation if I did not.
We were just told the other day that for 2011 the drive won't take place until spring because UW doesn't have the resources to deal with all the corporate pledge drives in December so they are staggering them.
I have a several favorite charities that I regularly donate to and the money that UW won't be getting from me next year will be going to those instead. And like an earlier poster mentioned, I will use Gannett Match to match my donations.
If the pitch from management is strong enough and persistent, then they might be violating state labor laws (obviously depending upon your location). I would look into these, and file and anonymous claim with your state authority.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't doubt it if anyone out there had a case... the executive editor in Binghamton doesn't even know what single party consent laws are... don't really expect him to know the intricacies of labor laws.
I hereby pledge to give my annual salary increase to the United way. And the one i was supposed to get in '09, and '08.
ReplyDeletePublishers typically serve on local United Way boards, sometimes as chairman. They send the message down the ranks to maximize employee contributions, not so much to help the needy but to make them look good in the eyes of the city leaders whose acceptance they crave. I ended my payroll-deducted United Way contributions the first time my pay was frozen. Instead I chose to donate money to a local indigent health care clinic run by people I knew. I get a much better feeling of charity giving direct rather than through a corporate channel and a central clearinghouse whose overhead no doubt eats up a chunk of the contributions.
ReplyDeleteWow. Love all these locals who do not want to give to the United Way to benefit their local charitable organizations and somehow blame Gannett for their lack of charity.
ReplyDeleteDo you think Gannett is the ONLY company in the country that has a United Way campaign????
7:54:
ReplyDeleteWow, what an ignorant fool you are. Because people don't want to give to one charity that is shoved down their throats by their employer, yet choose to donate generously to charities of their own choosing, you mock them?
I won't give to the United Way because they help fund abortions, and drug treatment programs that do not work.
I give to charities that help out the families of America's war dead, and charities that specifically focus on the poor and homeless.
But hey, if giving to the United Way is the best that you can do, I'll bet that you also eat fast food on a daily basis and that you weigh in excess of 300 lbs. Surely there can be no person lazier than you.
I've run the UW campaign or been a part of it at my paper for 7 years. We do offer an incentive (extra option day) and have lots of fun activities. We give everyone a form. I'm the only one who knows who actually donates and we've never twisted anyone's arm. If we miss our goal (as we have) then that's the way things are.
ReplyDeleteI used to donate a fair amount of money to the United Way, mostly because it's a good charity that provides vital services to the poor and partly because of pressure from my bosses (sometimes it was subtle, other times it was heavy-handed). A few years later, I discovered that the top executives at my property had quietly stopped giving to the United Way. And I decided to cut back on my donations as well. I also have always wondered why the Gannett Foundation specifically won't match donations to the United Way. Why is that?
ReplyDeleteNo one I know of is pressured, and I appreciate the opportunity to make a contribution to the educational foundations of two local school districts through payroll deduction. I don't miss the money - which works out to less than $4 a pay period - and it helps people I know. Feel free to flame away ...
ReplyDeleteI love to hear about the dudes who never contribute to the UW but "contribute" on their own. While some may do that I would bet my annual contribution that most do not. Here is a poll fir the Blog: Over the last 20 years what department year in and year out gives the least to the United Way? Here is the first answer....the newsroom! Next?
ReplyDeleteI hate the United Way campaigns, as they are clearly designed to make newspaper management good and don't have the best interests of the charity in mind. It is far better to make individual donations of $50 or more and use Gannett match. The charities get twice as much money that way. If you donate through payroll withdrawal they only get your money ... nothing from Gannett Foundation.
ReplyDelete10:54 -- Consider saving the $4 a month and then making a one-time donation at the end of the year with the match. Your charities will receive twice as much.
Speaking of who gives and who doesn't - looking at the CPR certified responders on our site's phone list shows what's left of the old prepress staff still has a larger number (six) and percentage (75%) of people who could save your life than any other department in the building.
ReplyDeleteNewsroom? Zero.
The class was free, only two hours, in the building and done on company time.
There is no excuse anybody could make that justifies not even ONE person out of 42 could be bothered to set aside school board minutes for two hours once a year and attend the class.
I guess they must figure that if Bill dies at the copy desk, it's a better story -- with the plus that you don't have to put your coat on to cover it.
11:48: Here's another poll question: Year in, year out, which department produces the most valuable, salable product for the newspaper industry and yet gets screwed over every year/week/day the most by newspaper companies with respect to job insecurity, lack of any meaningful raises, furloughs, pay reductions, work-demand increases, insane work schedules and minimal starting salary to begin with? Hmmm ... That's a toughie.
ReplyDeleteNext?
ReplyDeletePressroom/production
Of course other companies conduct like events but Gannett relying almost solely on employee donations to make itself – and yes its publishers, look good in the markets they serve is pathetic.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of companies with whom Gannett likes to associate itself with within its individual markets during these charitable drives don’t profit 100% from them like Gannett – nor really from the goodwill that’s generated, yet they donate generously from a corporate level too. Gannett and its publishers prefer to put "pressure" on local employees, especially local execs, to do it for them.
Allowing top executives to raid Gannett Foundation funds for their personal charities (and enrichment) instead of directing 100% of those monies to markets it profits from is further proof.
10:02 you make me laugh. Let's do a byline count and see how many stories you wrote each week over the last 12 months. Yea they took advantage of you. In my newsroom reporters brag how they take time off during the day to go skiing. Yea you got it rough. You and your pals still give the least to the United Way then Amy other department. You can yell foul all day long but the truth is as a group you have always been negative takers who bitch about life. Respect and Dignity
ReplyDeleteCompany is using different Union's Logos in the adverting on company property in Phoenix. Saying how the Union's are in support with the company. It was never mentioned at any union meetings for pressman. They are using a logo for the pressman that is outdated by at least three years. The last time I remember them asking us to support with approval for logo use was over ten years ago, before Gannett bought the property
ReplyDeleteA question for Jim: In the records of the Gannett Foundation, is there any case in which one of the company's top officers gave money to the United Way? Or do they just give to favorite charities, like Gracia Martore's Wellesley College?
ReplyDeleteIn my too-long stint with Gannett, the pressure was usually intense to donate; if a department had 100% of its staff donating, the department got ...pizzas. Never mind the fetid travesty of charity and conscience being lashed up tight to self-interest. In any case, I've always donated on my own and not through Gannett... and if I were the one person who refused the coercion, I would hear about how I "ruined" it for everyone else. However, after much too long a time, they did stop this tactic, and instead offered drawings for days off. Still the nauseous "what's in it for me" mindset debasing the entire concept of charity, but one didn't end up with all the staff hating the spoilsport.
ReplyDelete3:41 On United Way giving, none of the officers directed grants to United Way -- as per foundation policy, I believe.
ReplyDeleteFor certain, the GannettMatch guidelines for rank and file employees specifically say that gifts to the United Way will not be matched.
However, there was an exception in 2009 that appears to have been a big mistake on the foundation's part: Its records show the foundation matched two employee gifts to the United Way for Southeastern Michigan; the foundation's match was in the amount of $12,500.
That apparently mistaken gift notwithstanding, the company's policies regarding United Way giving have the perverse effect of depriving additional monies to non-profits in Gannett communities. Here's why:
If an employee gives, say, $50 to United Way, it won't be matched under the GannettMatch program.
But if you give $50 to, say, a soup kitchen, the foundation WILL match it 100% -- and so that charity will get a total of $100.
Bottom line: If you want to truly maximize support for local charities, it's better to skip United Way and give directly to your favorite non-profit. Makes no sense, but there it is.
Jim you have to get realistic. Yes Gannett Match us the best way to maximize dollars. And it would be great if everyone who now supports UW would give under Gannett Match but the GM numbers don't lie; theajority of folks don't do it. At least a United Way campaign gets folks to contribute. I have seen a woman in the distribution center give 25% of her annual salary and I have seen a colleague in news give a dollar because they wanted the pizza party. Never the less one dollar or three thousand the less fortunate in our community benefited. Have you been to a battered woman's shelter recently? Well I have and it is money well spent. This is a sad string. Please shut it down.
ReplyDeleteThe other hypocritical thing about the United Way campaigns is that it is a flat-out conflict of interest for the paper to be involved.
ReplyDeleteRemember the whole Gannett Principal of Ethics thing, or whatever it was called a few years back? One of the prominent tenets of that was that journalists were not to have any business ties that could conceivably be seen as a conflict of interest. This, of course, could be interpreted any way possible by management.
Yet, the paper I worked for always had UW campaign stories on the front page of the paper, and we also were constantly bombarded with pleas to donate. Every day was an e-mail or two, or three reminding us to donate. When I first started, they rewarded everyone who donated with some small prize, a day off, or some freebie. But after a while, they turned it into a contest, with only two or three prizes awarded.
I donated my first year, just because I didn't know any better. Only later, I discovered that more money was being taken out of my paycheck than I had pledged. I complained, and they stopped the donations, although they didn't give me back any of my money due to the 'mistake'. After that, I never gave again.
I just posted at 5:11. I meant 'Principle of Ethics' rather than 'Principal'.
ReplyDelete5:09. To be sure, it's better to give to the United Way than to not give at all.
ReplyDeleteTo 5:11: and that ladies and gentlemen is why people get on the newsroom. Giving to the UW which supports organizations that help people truly in need is a conflict of interest. Truly there is nothing else to say! Well there us but I am a Lady.
ReplyDeleteWay to check your pay stub 5:11. What do you think there was a vast conspiracy? The clerk made an input mistake. But you never looked at your stub? I'm not a lady. You're a putz.
ReplyDeleteThis is 5:11. For 7:04, it's a conflict of interest for a newspaper to be participating in anything that it covers, or to at least disclose their ties in the story.
ReplyDeleteWhat if, on the off-hand chance, that the UW was misappropriating funds? Would the paper cover it the same way as it would if they weren't a sponsor of the annual drive? I would hope so, but if readers knew the paper had a stake in the UW's pledge drive, they could question that paper's commitment to telling the full story. It's just another layer to add to the mistrust of the media.
No, 7:08, I didn't always check my stub. It was such a small amount that I had pledged (a few nickels was all I could afford for a certain number of weeks), that I didn't notice it for a few weeks. Sure, under normal circumstances, I could chalk it up to the clerk's mistake. But the way the paper's brass was acting about getting people to donate, well, let's just say it was easy to question their motives.
2:10 this is a weak post. Of you don't want to give don't give but shelve the conflict stuff. UW does a lot of good.
ReplyDeleteThis if 5:11/1:10 again. I'm not denying that UW does a lot of good. And if employees can afford to give, they should give on their own privately.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the place of an employer to encourage employees to donate. As noted earlier, it can be perceived, as undue pressure, whether that perception is real or not. And in the case of Gannett, a company that, in the past, has said that journalists MUST avoid conflicts of interest, it is hypocritical that they don't follow their own words.
What's more. The company that could be perceived as encouraging employees to give has been downsizing for years. Those who actually still have jobs are making less money thanks to furloughs and few raises.
ReplyDeleteIf the company is that into charity, the lead executives (those making millions per year) should make a donation in the name of each employee. For instance, Craig Dubow could make a $600,000 donation in the name of Gannett staff. That would be $20 per person. And that would be only a fraction of his compensation when you count stock options, bonuses, etc.
This won't happen, of course, because the people who run this company are not particularly charitable ... and they want full credit for the donations they do give out. The rest of us are supposed to donate in the name of Gannett.
I do not work for Gannett. I am a government employee. We get hammered every year for a donation. We are told the top government official wants 100% participation as a "goal". I cannot give to the United Way because some of the money goes to planned parenthood. I was told by co-workers that I would never get anything I wanted or promoted. A year later and I put in for better position. After the interview process I was number 1 on the list but was nixed by top admin. Why? Rumor came back that #2 had given to United Way and I refused to do so. Therefore, I'm out but I don't care. At least I can sleep at night. Politics and a shakedown. You guys are not alone in this.
ReplyDelete