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Sunday, October 09, 2011
52 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."
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I am still waiting to hear who the not less than 20 managers are to be let go. Is this a fictional statement put out last week to make the other 1% who will be let go before years end soften the blow. I have contact all over Gannett land and have not a peep from any one. Who was let go at your paper???????????
ReplyDeletethey were not "let go" as much as they were reassigned to other roles and their current positions will go dark
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ReplyDelete10/08/2011 5:40 PM
ReplyDeleteGannett brass doesn't care that you, I or the advertisers subscribe.
Getting put into another position and leaving the old position is not letting people go, If you believe that, Christmas is next week. like I said it was just a statement with no value to it, another gannett ploy to make them look good that we were getting rid of front line managers. Still waiting for names or sites were these moves were made or not made
ReplyDeleteActually, 3:38, that is a common type of move. I realize you and others here think there should be about one manager for every 200-250 employees, but bear with me for a second.
ReplyDeleteSay you have a position that can't "go dark." But you want to dump the person who holds the position. A common tactic is to lay off that person, promote someone into the spot (usually for less pay), and then not fill the position vacated by Person No. 2.
I guess the hypothetical position doesn't necessarily have to be a management position. Maybe that will make this concept easier for some to understand. I know that many people here get irrational -- or more accurately, even more irrational -- when the management topic comes up.
Mid-level managers at each site are impacted the most. When senior managers are eliminated, the administrative tasks are often shifted to the middle manager. When staff members are eliminated the tasks are shifted to the middle manager. By the way, the middle manager is exempt so he or she works 60 - 70 hours a week trying to keep the operation moving forward.
ReplyDeleteAll this happening while the Dubow collects his platinum parachute. This to me is pure theft no matter if he had a written document that stated otherwise.
NO person is worth that much. The contract should have been based on stock performance and successful initiatives.
Again I say the Board of Directors are at fault for approving such a contract.
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ReplyDeleteIt's the the big blue balls fault that this company is sinking. It controls those near it.
ReplyDeleteSo the less than 20 were not let go? More bu---- from the Golden Palace, what a joke
ReplyDelete12:35 We know the identity of at least one of them: The circulation VP in Louisville, Ky.
ReplyDeleteSo let me get this straight, some of you actually think the company lied about executives being laid off? That's unbelievable! You guys whine when the company doesn't give the facts, then you whine when they do give the facts, you whine when they don't give you advance notice when there is a layoff and then you whine when they do tell you claiming it is cruel to tell us in advance. I guess your position is to whine about anything the company dies no matter what your previous position, you've been calling for CD's head for two years knowing all the while there would be a parachute. Now it happens and ....... Well you know your reaction. Gracia becomes the CEO and of course you howl. No consideration that this was Dubow's company and she had to follow his lead. Well whiners get ready for a new Gannett under her leadership. Granted you won't like anything she does but that's a given.
ReplyDelete1:31 I believe the poster wants more details, and is trying to goad other readers to produce them.
ReplyDeleteAs to Dubow's exit package, readers know there would be a big payout. But the $37.1 million figure was not made widely public until I wrote about it in mid-September, so there's new outrage over that.
Way to keep that self-promotion going, Jim.
ReplyDeleteGood posts at 1:31 and at 9:42. People here are always going to whine.
They also see no distinction between the senior management ranks -- which are overpaid and bloated -- and the middle manager ranks you describe.
Jim has every right to pat himself on the back. He does some very good reporting here. And the $37.1 million is an outrageous misappropriation of company funds on any level. More excessive feeding at the trough, using public company cash resources as your own personal ATM after driving the company's value down to new depths of de-valuation and destroying thousands of careers in the process. Positively criminal. Honestly, why on earth aren't the Wall Street protesters camping out on the lawn over there in Tysons?
ReplyDelete2:53 - I will never understand it.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't the employees protest on the lawn?
ReplyDeleteTalk about getting national attention. Not a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteYes, Jim I do want names, I do not believe corp. Doe's anyone. I am not crying, I just want answers
ReplyDeleteThe troll who made the re mark is no doubt a company yes man
the higher ups are pocketing the most money that they can get- kinda like a squirrel hiding his NUTS, then they will leave when available
ReplyDeleteHOW SMART, you on the other hand reap no rewards.
Just sayin
Just hope for a package deal and leave--soon!!
"Why don't the employees protest on the lawn?"
ReplyDeleteBecause they're cowards. Did you need to ask?
2:53, people at Gannett destroyed their own careers when they accepted the dumbing-down policies they thought would make their jobs easier. Instead, their jobs disappeared.
Any word about who gets Silverman's job in Nashville as he brings his own special brand of misery to corporate yet again?
ReplyDeleteWell Dubow's $37Million Might Make Me Want to Occupy the Wall Street Movement.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/10/well-this-might-make-me-want-to-occupy-wall-street/246329/
5:03 How do you feel about the power newspaper page designers have gained over the years, and their subsequent impact on content?
ReplyDeleteJim, how is that related to the 5:03 post? I'm curious.
ReplyDeleteWhile you're asking about that, do you ever have any intention of unearthing the details about how and where the wire desks and copy editors fit into the design hubs? I think if you're looking for Gannett deception, you'd find some there.
In Wilmington, the VP of circulation has taken a role at the new center as has another manager. No one lost their jobs but their current roles went dark in Wilmington. hope this helps to clarify what is going on.
ReplyDeleteI can't find the original comment, but someone posted about people lying on their timesheets. Wilmington tells it's employees that overtime is not allowed and the employees must take comp time, even employees working over 40 hrs. As far as I know, this is illegal. Would appreciate it, if corporate would look into these practices. I have personally been there when a manager told a 40 hr a week employee to lie on their timesheet because overtime was not allowed. This is illegal and should be investigated.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed illegal for any public company to offer comp time in lieu of paying overtime. Only government entities can do that. If that is happening and it can be documented, run, do not walk, to the Department of Labor Wage & Hour Division and file a complaint. That is not something Gannett would want to have to deal with.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to know how many people here have filed the type of complaint 8:15 suggests. After all, we've heard one version or another of that complaint most of the time Jim's had the blog.
ReplyDeleteYet I suspect few to no people have filed complaints, probably because they'd have to expend some effort and sign a name.
So the third quarter report is due next week.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone remembered this ?
The new command will have it's very first explanation to give Wall Street.
This report,no doubt as the last 10 quarters or more,will be another downward trend.
What will she say to calm continue stock losses?
She will again use ghostly nonsense and trickery.
Adjustments will take place to make up for revenue shortages she will say .Expense cuts and consolidation transitions will need to be sped up.Redundancy must be eliminated.
The layoff queen will cut a wide swat,along with her bean counting second in command.
Pack up those boxes,copy everything you need from your computer
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ReplyDeleteNot sure, 10:35 (Part4) but who cares. She has never answered a single email I sent her.
ReplyDeleteWhat should the employees do about taking comp time for overtime? I know it is illegal and also told the supervisors and they ignorned me on this. What can I do to make them pay attention? Currently they just ignore me and never ask me to work OT.
ReplyDelete9:30, did you not read the post at 8:15?
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ReplyDeleteJim - I hope the Indy publisher's lawyers watch here. And I hope Gannett pays for their services. The libel and slander that is posted is dispicable. Regardless if you delete them, allowing those comments for any amount of time is deplorable. You should be ashamed. And if you can't control anonymous posting then be bold and set a better course.
ReplyDelete10:54 does the paper you work at set a better course? I read hateful comments all day long on gannett story comment threads. You should check them out sometime.
ReplyDeleteSONG FOR GRACIA:
ReplyDeleteTemperature’s rising
Fever is high
Can’t see no future
Can’t see no sky
My feet are so heavy
So is my head
I wish I was a baby
I wish I was dead
Cold turkey has got me on the run
My body is aching
Goose-pimple bone
Can’t see no body
Leave me alone
My eyes are wide open
Can’t get to sleep
One thing I’m sure of
I’m in at the deep freeze
Cold turkey has got me on the run
Cold turkey has got me on the run
Thirty-six hours
Rolling in pain
Praying to someone
Free me again
Oh I’ll be a good boy
Please make me well
I promise you anything
Get me out of this hell
Cold turkey has got me on the run
Oh, oh, oh, oh
11:25, you should just check out. The argument of: "Well, it happens everywhere else" is straight out of Jim's playbook.
ReplyDelete11:25 - I get hateful comments are a by product of anonymous posting. The comments here specifically targetting the Indy publisher are specific and personal. Day in and day out. Not only libelous and slanderous, but they tarnish any change that this blog set out to achieve. If Jim were bold, or was a true leader, he would rally the minions to take the high road. Instead, he allows the lowly and immature to hijack his efforts. As the "publisher", he is complicit.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, 11:59. To build on it, Jim encourages the lowly and immature to hijack his efforts. There are several examples of this -- finding them in the maze of archived posts is the challenge.
ReplyDelete11:59 The comments directed at the Indy publisher are immature and potty-mouthed, and I remove one or two every day.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm not going to base my commenting policy on the actions of a few, juvenile posters. That would unfairly punish everyone.
Moreover, your comment and the one posted at 10:54 will have the opposite effect: Readers who post the sort of comments you detest live for attention. The more you fume publicly about their comments, the more delighted they become. Rise, and repeat -- and the cycle continues.
That is why I advise, in the text above this comment form: "I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
In any case, I've made my views on name-calling abundantly clear, just as I've outlined the challenges in moderating comments -- here and, ironically, at the Indy newspaper itself.
When it happens daily, then ignoring it doesn't make it go away.
ReplyDeleteBut those comments are just one small example. The entire policy of "anything goes and try to prove it isn't true" is the real problem.
Sticking with the immediate issue at hand: I'm not suggesting that ignoring posts such as these will make them go away. It will, however, lessen their frequency.
ReplyDelete12:41...you bore me...zzzzzzzzzzz
ReplyDeleteGoing back to the wire copy editing subject ... I know Louisville has wire copy editors. I'm pretty sure Des Moines and Nashville have some as well. What about the other studios? Phoenix? Rumors are Asbury Park doesn't have any wire copy editors.
ReplyDeleteThey appear every day. The frequency isn't lessening. Do you understand? I don't think so.
ReplyDelete10:38 You only know those comments have been posted if you see them before I've taken them down.
ReplyDeleteWhen I remove those posts soon after they're posted -- and I do that quite often -- you don't know they were ever there in the first place.
The Indy posts aren't the only offensive comments posted here.
Wilmo is violating labor law big time and they know it. It is an open secret that metro reporters are being told by editors in the section not to fill out time sheets that go beyond their hours and to take the illegal comp time or not get paid at all. The emphasis is on not filling the timesheets correctly. No one tells reporters not to work more hours than they record. It will come to a stop soon because one employee is about to go to the labor department and the volcano of shit will explode.
ReplyDelete12:23, when hell freezes over and "about to go" turns into "went," then come back and feel free to share. Until then, keep your fantasies to yourself.
ReplyDelete