As Gannett continues winnowing its workforce, a few sites have resorted to an especially gut-wrenching method: forcing existing employees to reapply for a smaller pool of jobs. The process is guaranteed to end with layoffs for some people.
Last summer at Florida Today, one of those 15 employees was sports columnist Peter Kerasotis, 53, who had worked at the paper 22 years. Now, in a column this week for the newly launched local news site Space Coast Daily, Kerasotis recalls the events of August 20112010:
While it was demeaning to have to reapply for jobs, it was downright dehumanizing to force friends to compete against each other for the same job. It felt like some sadistic corporate game of musical chairs, and I wasn’t interested in playing it.
If they hadn’t reposted a sports columnist job or not posted a newly created job that interested me, I would’ve surely walked, because one thing I was not going to do was apply for a job that had already been someone else’s. That’s not in my DNA. But I understood that other people felt they had to do that.
Earlier: Why Gannett asks employees to reapply for jobs. Plus: In reorganization, USA Today sports staffers must reapply -- and so do some staffers in Fort Collins, Colo.
Last summer at Florida Today, one of those 15 employees was sports columnist Peter Kerasotis, 53, who had worked at the paper 22 years. Now, in a column this week for the newly launched local news site Space Coast Daily, Kerasotis recalls the events of August 2011
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| Kerasotis |
Earlier: Why Gannett asks employees to reapply for jobs. Plus: In reorganization, USA Today sports staffers must reapply -- and so do some staffers in Fort Collins, Colo.
I was kicked to the curb a few years ago after more than a decade of promotions and awards. My career is back on track (no, not in newspapers) and I am better off than I was when I worked for Gannett. But when I read Kerasotis' story, I realized how angry I still am. I gave what I considered a great profession everything I had every day. In the end, I was deemed disposable. I hope that I can become indifferent to Gannett and how it treats everyone but its executives. But the brutality, dishonesty, toxic culture and smiling lies fire up the journalist in me all over again.
ReplyDeleteFort Collins lost three of their best people in the reorganization.
ReplyDeleteOUCH! This is going to leave a mark.
ReplyDeleteKerasotis column is heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteThere may not be any good ways to downsize and lay people off or eliminate jobs, but the way Gannett is doing this is surely amongst the worst ways of doing it.
At this point in the company's evolution it's clear that they should blow up the current business model and start with something really new. That takes initiative, intelligence and courage, three qualities sorely lacking in Gannett's leadership.
It is going to cause a lot of pain across the company. And it should cause pain in the management suites, which so far have been immune to the real hurt experienced at the newspapers and TV stations.
Witness the latest round of early retirement or buyout offers. Offered to a very small pool of senior employees with no flexibility to offer it to others who were very close to the age or years of service, only bout ⅔ of qualified employees accepted the buyouts. Meaning layoffs are likely to get to the desired goal.
We can debate endlessly whether or not the EROP was a good deal and whether or not people who accepted the EROP made a wise financial decision, but at least it gave those employees a level of control over the decision. Gannett should have, could have, opened it to a much broader pool of employees or gone to a scoring system like other media corporations have done.
Let's say you need 75 points to qualify. Someone who is 50 years old with 25 years of service would qualify, but a 50 year old with 20 years would not. Then give local managers some flexibility so if no one from a department accepts EROP but someone else in the same department asks for an EROP the local manager can make it happen.
Gannett would have hit its target then, avoiding another round of layoffs. But the suits are the Crystal Palace are too ensconced in their little boxes to think about the world, to think outside the box.
Reading Kerasotis column and Jim's post about Dubow's payout vs the amount saved in furloughs angered me and made me ashamed of the company I work for.
I have made that comment many times, "how can they live with themselves"? Anyone know the context of the "surname of a certain spouse"? Heartbreaking but very important that he got this story out. Now we need the details on the Shreveport comment.
ReplyDelete"So much of what happened sure seemed scripted, with personnel moves prearranged. The journalist in me wants to write about the surname of a certain spouse, and in relation to that how one writer was told to book travel even before the rehiring and restructuring was finalized. But I’ve decided not to get into all of that. Instead, all I can say is that I don’t know how some people live in their skin."
That's a tough story to write. Kerasotis did a decent job explaining what happened without coming across as angry or hurt.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that is particularly galling is that with all these layoffs there is no centralized office to help folks find new jobs. I'm not talking jobs outside the company. I recall right after I was laid off that other Gannett papers were advertising. I didn't apply then because I felt that once let loose there was no interest in me. A decent corporation would look to capitalize on the strength of people let go. For example, Binghamton needs a new city editor. Well, just last week, Brevard laid off a city editor. Why wasn't someone in corporate human relations assigned to helping the transition after a layoff?
ReplyDeleteThe answer is simple: This corporation doesn't care.
Every open job in Gannett is on Careerbuilder. Why can't the City Editor go there and apply for the job in Binghamton?
DeletePeter Is a great guy and was a good company man -- and look what it got him. The few people making the biggest dollars DO NOT care about people and the lives they are ruining. It's happening several ways, too. Those laid off who can't find jobs are sunk. And those who remain but see their work loads double, while still employed, are taking on an extra burden and more stress that is hurting their health. I have once cheerful co workers who have turned into nervous wrecks who snap at people. The moral gets worse every day as we continue to reshuffle workloads, rearranging the deck chairs.
ReplyDeleteThe next shoe to drop will be the demonizing of staff who refused the buyout. There will be layoffs and they'll be blamed on those who chose not to "go gentle into that good night."
ReplyDeleteEROP stands for Endless Reduction Of People.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Kerasotis' column:
ReplyDelete"In fact, a year earlier I’d told Stover of my unhappiness and that I might be leaving. I told him I didn’t want to walk in one day with my two-week notice and have him ask me why I hadn’t given him a heads up.
He asked if we could meet for lunch. We did, and for two hours we talked. A few months later, he corrected the glaring problem in our sports department."
I would be interested in knowing more about what the "glaring" problem was and what the fix was. It's possible ... possible ... that this may have had more to do with the end game than anything else.
Gannett is nothing more than a giant leech sucking the blood and energy out of its employees and trying to convince them that they should just lie there and take it.
ReplyDeleteWell, we can be leeches, too. Thousands of little leeches sucking on the corporation for everything we can get out of it before the body dries up and dies. In the meantime, use the company to help you land safely at your next job. Write great clips, design great pages, take great photos. Use business trips to interview with other employers. Take sources out for drinks. Sign up for the tuition-assistance plan. Everything you can.
Years ago, I was in a management training program with Stover. As part of the training, we were asked what's the most important part of our job. Stover replied, "Keeping my boss happy." You can imagine the discussion of that remark at dinner that night. It also kind of sums up what he appears to be all about.
ReplyDelete"While it was demeaning to have to reapply for jobs, it was downright dehumanizing to force friends to compete against each other for the same job."
ReplyDeleteI am around Kerastois' age and was employed by Gannett for a similar time span (no easy feat, that).
And the same thing happened to me. Kerasotis put it supremely well. It was sickening.
Yet it didn't seem sickening at all to the execs.
It was too much for me to stomach, all those years of commendable work and serious commitment, and the decades of daily friendships, all reduced to a single boot-licking session with a newly implanted exec who was so smug he couldn't even get the names of his staff right.
After all, that would imply it was comprised of human beings.
Yet these types (that exec wasn't the only one)presumed everyone would become the marooned kids straight out of "Lord of the Flies."
It was expected that we would desperately vie with one another to reapply for a couple of positions -- as if we were as inhuman as they were, and as if one could stomach any longer working for a company bordering on the psychopath.
Yes, sure, some could. But after all those said years of commendable work and serious commitment, and the decades of friendships, I sure as hell couldn't.
@1:11 pm. Brevard laid off a city editor last week?
ReplyDeleteeter Kerasotis was laid off in 2011, not 2010. His column is a fascinating read for a number of reasons, but foremost because it shows the callous depravity of Gannett management at Florida Today. Bob Stover is nothing more than a puppet and a reflection of his corporate superiors. And within the Gannett corporate culture, the almighty dollar outweighs any sense of human decency. It would not surprise me if Gannett awarded Stover and some of his management team a special monetary bonus for laying off employees in large numbers. At least, that's the rumor I heard and that the entire interview and reapplication process is a sham. I personally can not see how people can stand to work for Stover and Kelly after reading this. Shame on them, but very happy that Kerasotis is still writing and employed once more. If you ask me, Stover and Kelly should be shown the door too.
ReplyDeleteAs a Christian I'm appalled by Stover's disregard for the feelings of his employees. How he ever became a manager within Gannett escapes me. Uh, wait, maybe not. This company is filled with managerial snakes and ass-kissers and hundreds of Stover-wannabes. John Kelly is the column by Peter Kerasotis is a prime example. He appears to be taking lessons from 'ol Bob himself. My condolences to Peter Kerasotis on the loss of his job and I sincerely wish him well in his new gig at Space Coast Daily. Maybe they will treat him wtih the respect he deserves there,
ReplyDeleteThere are two ads on the Space Coast website. Two. Let's see how long that lasts. It's about revenue no matter how much you may hate that discussion. Time will tell
DeleteI worked at Florida Today just as long as Peter did and he was a hell of a great co worker. Stover is weird person anyway. So he eats what he wants, but I do beleive it will always come back to him. It's easy to do until it happens to you! Watch out Stover!
ReplyDeleteGod speed Peter in your newest passion!
2:49 Thank you; I've now corrected that date.
ReplyDeleteAlways admired Peter Kerasotis for his honesty. This confirms that and I intend to be a regular reader of spaccecoastdaily.com as the main reason I took the Florida Today newspaper was to read his work.
ReplyDelete3:01 what does being Christian have to do with it? I would think you would be appalled by Stover's behavior as a human being.
ReplyDeleteBULL APPLES
ReplyDeleteLike to see the GANNETTOID CARPET-BAGGERS pass a local content exam (e.g., geography, important persons, important entities).
Still laughing at the GANNETTOID TOOLS.
As soon as the GANNETTOID-TITANIC sinks, can't wait to interview a few, just to jack them up.
GANNETTOIDS, you're a national joke. The average, brought lower by sucking-up to the lowest-common denominator.
The insensitivity of Bob Stover is not shocking, especially given the justification of enormous bonuses to top eschelon Gannett leaders for reducing expenses by laying off thousands since 2007. What is more troubling to me is this is the column by Kerasotis... So much of what happened sure seemed scripted, with personnel moves prearranged. The journalist in me wants to write about the surname of a certain spouse, and in relation to that how one writer was told to book travel even before the rehiring and restructuring was finalized." That suggests to me that the scale was tipped during Florida Today's restructuring and if it happened there, it can happen anywhere. How Bob Stover can look his staff in the eye today ia amazing and it is my fondest wish that someday he is treated in exactly the same manner by his Gannett superiors.
ReplyDeleteWill Stover will be invited for cocktails at the Pumpkin House if Big Al reads this?
ReplyDeleteIt's obvious that while strategy is half-baked, tactics are not.
ReplyDeleteWhat we have now are simple functionaries, provided with the words to speak without a tick of flinching, maybe deaf to their own ears or blind to a bathroom mirror in the morning.
These edicts usually form actual complete sentences, such as: "With OUR buyouts, YOU will need to compensate even more. Your new responsibilities will include a day of training or so."
Read: "This way we save even more money, the only point -- and you, this cog, fired -- not bought out, not laid off. Fired."
Just good, economic sense.
As everyone knows after seeing "Office Space" a decade ago, all manager types named "Bob" are incompetent jerks.
ReplyDeleteThat movie was a lot closer to reality at Gannett than anyone would dare admit.
GrAcia, the fallout from the sham reapplication process is affecting productivity and morale. Aren't layoffs, furloughs and shitty raises causing enough pain for you?
ReplyDeleteNice column by Kerasotis. Like his writing style. A stark contrast to the writer they replaced him with.
ReplyDeletefor his story their are 20,000 more just like it and worse..so what's the point
ReplyDelete6:33: I counted 7 ads on the front page alone. The online paper looks more interesting and more professional than anything Gannett is currently putting out there for public consumption. I predict this online paper will succeed and Florida Today will go by the wayside. I, for one, will never read Florida Today again now that there is a better option available.
ReplyDelete6:33, there are more than seven ads on spacecoastdaily.com, I just counted them myself with my own two eyes. Perhaps you're used to the blinding obnoxious pop-ups on Florida Today and can' count. Also, if FT owns the market and is so confident, then why have they suspended their pay wall?
ReplyDeleteIMHO, 6:33 must be a Stover Kool-Aid drinker. And they miss the point of his article entirely. Florida Today is on the slide, hence the layoffs and buyouts. Talk to anyone in the community about how the quality of the newspaper has fallen dramatically. That's reflected in poor print single copy sales and a steep decline in print subscriptions. And if you check the digital ad revenue for Florida Today, as reported Monday by the Gannett CEO, it's down 25 percent like across the company. So who are you to be lecturing about ad revenue? Implementation of the paywall also has had a major affect upon the numbers of digital readers too, it's a fact. This time Florida Today is headed south -- and fast.
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ReplyDelete11:16 I remove comments that include name-calling such as "kookie."
ReplyDeleteI live in Brevard County and hadn't heard of Space Coast Daily until reading of it here in the blog. I went there and was pleasantly surprised with what they are doing. I enjoyed reading the story Peter Kerasotis penned regarding his layoff. If this is an accurate representation of what is going on at what used to be a great newspaper, I'm sorry to say that I prefer reading Space Coast Daily. At the very least, they are entertaining and honest. To me, Florida Today is always asking me for money in one form or another and is simply far too negative for my taste. Their lead story is always about the depressed space industry or some horrible crime. Thanks Peter for writing a great column and I hope to read a lot more there from you.
ReplyDeleteMany of my friends from Brevard have moved there from NYC. I just emailed them the link to Spacecoastdaily because all I ever hear from my friends are complaints about how bad Florida Today is. Needless to say, they are thrilled with this other newspaper option, and it's still free!
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ReplyDeleteIt's the first I heard of Peter being cut loose by Florida Today. I used to live in Brevard, but got transferred to Houston in 2009. I read his work for years and thought he was often right on the money. I'm kind of amazed the bosses at Florida Today decided to lay him off because in many aspects Peter was one of the best staffers they still had there. It's nice to know that he's landed on his feet with this new site. He certainly has a following and now that I know where to find him, I plan on bookmarking the link to the site. Saw a copy of Florida Today last month when I was back at KSC, it's really not the same, very thin and not much original material, especially in sports where all I saw was Associated Press articles. Wishing Peter congratulations on the new job.
ReplyDelete7:47, re "Office Space." Working for Gannett was the only way I was exposed to that film. Everyone was quoting lines from it. Even some mid-level managers who were still personable sorts before the deluge. And no kidding... it pretty much painted a picture of Gannett itself.
ReplyDeleteMe too. Where's my stapler?
ReplyDeleteNo City Editor was laid off in Brevard. I work there. That's made up. Whoever posted that, at least provide some initials of who was let go if you won't give a name. But you can't because it is bull.
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ReplyDelete2:24pm, Bob still says, "Keeping my boss happy" in meetings!
ReplyDeleteO.K., you grab journalists attention across the country to be a beacon of how laid off Gannett reporters can start their own paper.
ReplyDeleteThen, your paper turns around and does a rehash of a Florida Today crime story with a crop of a video still from yet another media outlet.
Didn't you think the first thing we would do is compare how your paper reports an article compared to that of FT?
Its obvious your reporters weren't there because there were no pictures of the scene, just the stolen crop image.
There are tons of images on that site without any description as to whether they are your paper's images.
So far, you have only shown that laid of journalists are children who do not know how to manage and edit and keep their paper within the boundaries of journalistic ethics. Way to go! Bet Stover woke up with a smirk on his face after that article.
The article has been removed, but here is the cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vjcSA9Jm5XwJ:spacecoastdaily.com/2012/04/18477/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
ReplyDeleteHere is the video of Orlando networks when SCD was not a gleam in their daddy's eye: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCYQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DITrYTm9CXcc&ei=mfKST4SVAqWi2QW9tInrDQ&usg=AFQjCNH1fAHQJ5WyX5FLiC_YLB1TRe77EQ&sig2=l7lmRnM-uR5Ck0eanFNolQ
Here is the Florida Today article: http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20120419/NEWS01/120419003/Man-killed-early-morning-Melbourne-shooting
That's awful!! SCD will get shut down and bring down everyone associated with it. Can here the toilet flushing sound now!
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ReplyDeleteMaybe Florida Today's indifference and arrogance toward the community it serves led to the creation of a competitor. (For example, did anyone read Bob Stover's column about the Washington Nationals spring training in Brevard?) Times are tough for corporate newspapers and Brevard's audience is hungry for something fresh. It'll be interesting to watch how it all shakes out.
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ReplyDeleteI too was kicked to the curb a few years back. Devasted and demoralized I thought I would never find a job I loved as much as Florida today. Guess what? I did and am happier than ever. If you are offered an early retirement take it and run.
ReplyDeleteThis account mirrored my own layoff from Florida Today in 2008. Glad to see someone finally told it like it is. The management there has no clue as to how to treat employees with respect.
ReplyDeleteStover never understood the readers' passion for sports and has slowly, over time, driven every sports editor out of that position and decimated the sports writing staff to the point there is just one sports writer left at Florida Today. It's a mistake when the top editor at the newspaper fails to grasp the importance of this subject area and in my opinion, will be the ultimate undoing of the paper. From what I've seen the new startup has taken great care to work on revitalzing local sports and I think that will pay off in the long runnfor them.
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ReplyDeletePeter's column is fascinating in that it is mainly a decent piece of fiction.
ReplyDeleteHe was laid off for myriad of reasons, none having to do with asking tough questions of management.