A reader tells me they received the following e-mail today from the Reno Gazette-Journal's human resources manager: "Please plan on attending a short meeting in the War Room at 10:15 this
morning."
The e-mail follows the weekend disclosure that Publisher Ted Power was arrested Friday night in southwest Reno on suspicion of driving while under the influence of alcohol.
Monday, December 06, 2010
11 comments:
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."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In relatively short remarks during the meeting, Power apologized to staff, a reader tells me. And that was about it.
ReplyDeleteStaff? What on Earth for? Staff is daily just expendable chaff at any given moment. Why apologize to them? Power never apologized for a single one of the staff layoffs carried out under Gannett's dictums. The only thing that matters is how an apology flies with the West Group and newspaper division presidents.
ReplyDelete3:26 I work on Reno and I am calling you a liar. He has always been apologetic to the staff after layoffs. He called us together after the last big one and told us how much it bothered him. You are obviously thrilled to pile on. Go Yed, we are not all like this guy! I know Troll alert. You have to get a new line
ReplyDelete3:26, I was not referring to apologizing to the survivors, the group which still had their jobs, called together "after layoffs." I'm happy for you. I was referring to apologizing to the victims -- you know, the people who weren't there any longer to be called together. I am sure there might have been some exception, but by and large, no, no apology to the laidoff -- and that is fact.
ReplyDelete5:23 so let me get this straight you wanted him to call each person laud off and apologize. Please give us the list of non Gannett companies where that happens? Really 5:23, really?
ReplyDelete10:25 -- I think what he/she might have liked was an expression that the company was sorry about this. Something like, "We realize you've done great things for the company, but we've reached a financial state where we have no choice but to let employees (even very good ones) go. We are truly sorry." This could have been done when the employees were laid off and it doesn't seem like to much to ask from a corporation that asks its employees to work long hours for relatively low pay.
ReplyDeleteThe point was: Apologizing to the people who weren't laid off is akin to walking in a room, punching 10 people in the face and later apologizing for your actions ... but only to the 20 that you didn't hit. It's meaningless.
Our publisher didn't have the balls to even meet with the people laid off in our latest rounds of cuts. He made the department heads do it. And I guarantee you if you had lined up the 20-some people who were laid off in front of him, he could have probably named 5 of them. Maybe. They're just numbers to him, not people with careers, families, mortgages and bills to pay. And the fewer the numbers, the larger his bonus.
ReplyDeleteTed Power is a very nice man and has always been on the up and up when I had the opportunity to deal with him. He is one of the guys I miss at Gannett.
ReplyDeleteHullo RGJ-ers - I was in the first major wave of layoffs in '08 and have since lost touch with everyone. So, how it's going? What's the morale like? What's management like? Have there been more layoffs? I see IT director recently is gone, and couple of ad managers left on their own for calif. What else is going on?
ReplyDelete6:53, there were further layoffs in April 2009 (these totally unannounced beforehand), and then in August 2010 where they sacked all the local, loyal skilled designers in favor of the two high-turnover Gannett Production Centers in the Midwest. They've basically turned what was left of that department (two or three designers)into clerks who are now targets as well (probably in 2011) because a clerk is cheaper. And the retail advertising manage, a popular very capable guy, also vanished this month (one day there, one day not).
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete