Corporate announced yesterday at a company-wide meeting that it's extending its new "purpose"-focused campaign to a Community Volunteer Program, where employees will get up to 10 hours of paid time off annually when volunteering for local non-profits.
Here's the text of a memo from CEO Gracia Martore:
Dear colleagues,
At today's Town Hall, we talked about one of the most important things we do as an organization and that is serve our communities. That is truly the heartbeat of Gannett. It is who we are and how we put our purpose into action.
To further support those efforts, I’m pleased to share with you additional details about the Community Volunteer Program announced this afternoon. The new program offers employees up to 10 hours of paid time off during each calendar year to volunteer for charitable organizations within our local communities. And 10 hours really does make a difference! If every one of us participates this year, that is more than 250,000 hours of service we would provide through the Community Volunteer Program alone. And remember that those 10 hours are eligible for the VolunteerMatch program where you can turn your volunteer efforts into dollars.
I am so proud of the spirit of giving and the commitment to making a difference in the lives of others that exists at our company. It has a meaningful impact and I thank you for it.
Best regards,
Gracia
Here's the text of a memo from CEO Gracia Martore:
Dear colleagues,
At today's Town Hall, we talked about one of the most important things we do as an organization and that is serve our communities. That is truly the heartbeat of Gannett. It is who we are and how we put our purpose into action.
To further support those efforts, I’m pleased to share with you additional details about the Community Volunteer Program announced this afternoon. The new program offers employees up to 10 hours of paid time off during each calendar year to volunteer for charitable organizations within our local communities. And 10 hours really does make a difference! If every one of us participates this year, that is more than 250,000 hours of service we would provide through the Community Volunteer Program alone. And remember that those 10 hours are eligible for the VolunteerMatch program where you can turn your volunteer efforts into dollars.
I am so proud of the spirit of giving and the commitment to making a difference in the lives of others that exists at our company. It has a meaningful impact and I thank you for it.
Best regards,
Gracia
Sorry, I don't have time for this with extra 10+ hours a weeks I donate to Gannett. I would have time during my furlough weeks but that would violate the policy of doing anything "Gannett" or getting any Gannett compensation. Any charity work I do will not be done to give greater glory to a company that doesn't have a damn thing to with it but yet covets my personal time as their own.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like the typical newsroom response to things like the United Eay, " I give someplace else." no you don't! Why help others when you can whine? Please quit and go away!
Delete“Volunteer Program, where employees will get up to 10 hours of paid time off annually when volunteering for local non-profits.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, this company has unpaid furloughs for employees who’s work makes a meaningful impact on the communities its newspapers are supposed to serve.
Matore may be proud of this effort but given the declining state this company is in, it seems hardly smart to invest up to 250,000 hours of employees' energies outside of it.
Yes, instead of paying us for volunteer hours pay us for all the OT we're forced to work without pay. Even when we alert management we're nearing the end of our allotted hours, they'll still pile the work and tell us to get it done without busting our 40 hours. Salaried folks are being worked into the ground, pushing 70 plus hours a week. Some are not getting days off. There seems to be no end sight to this madness. Who has time to volunteer?
ReplyDeleteNice gesture. Thanks Gracia. Now what about that raise I haven't had in more than three years?
ReplyDeleteIs this for real? Every employee in the entire company will be able to take 10 hours off from work for volunteer efforts? If so, wonderful! I just hope the individual managers will allow this to happen instead of grudgingly accepting it to send the message that "we don't have time for this."
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ReplyDeleteI second 10:36. All the higher ups preaching that our online content is worth paying for should realize our time is worth something too. Pay up, Gannett.
ReplyDeleteAnd will I still have to check by blackberry every 10 minutes during my 10 hours off...and respond to messages? If so, no thanks.
ReplyDeleteWonder how she decides between Best regards and Warm regards in her sign-off?
ReplyDeleteInstead of paying for community service they should hire back some of the people they have laid off first.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the managers will really love to hear their employees ask, "Hey boss, can I have tomorrow off so I can volunteer?"
ReplyDeleteSeriously, what qualifications does it take to become a high--priced executive at Gannett?
Giving back to the community is what Gannett did to me a few months ago. She'll probably take credit for 1500 hours on that move.
ReplyDeleteI should qualify for at least 20 hours since I'm doing at least one other persons job at was let go.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good idea that, unfortunately, comes at a time where emotions are too raw to be receptive to such gestures.
ReplyDeleteIt is very good that the company is offering 10 hours of service -- and allowing the monetary value of that donation to be matched through the Gannett Foundation. In other words, if you make $20 an hour and donate 10 hours to the charity, the foundation considers that a matchable donation and cuts said charity a $200 check.
A question to ask: Is that match coming from your site's annual lump sum allocation from the foundation? Or is it in addition to said allocation? If it has to come from your site's already depleted kitty, that means your site will no longer be able to give monies to worthy local drives and causes. But I digress.
I do like the lip-service being paid to "purpose." Indeed, it was the reason why many of us got into newspapering and enjoyed serving in Gannett. Unfortunately, the timing of this gesture seems to be a tad tin-earish. We are cut to the bone on staff, with little or no ability to cover shifts for illness and vacation, let alone charity work. Managers are working 60 to 80 hours a week, with little regard for the impacts said demands are exacting upon their health and family. Many workers, sensing that their bosses are drowning, wind up giving uncompensated time to the company (checking email from home, sending email or photos for digital posts, proofing pages, reviewing changes, filing other content) in the name of the greater good. Let's not even discuss the 1st quarter furloughs, our personal contributions to the "heartbeat of Gannett."
12:21 - we have consultants for that.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to volunteer at a soup kitchen so I can see my family when they come in.
ReplyDeleteGannett culture = the movie 'The Devil Wears Prada'.
ReplyDeleteUnhealthy
3:20, you kill me! Pretty much nails their "No Clue" disconnect.
ReplyDeleteBut it's institutional. So I figured I zap a quick story in that regard.
I was volunteer Search & Rescue ("SAR," it's called). I was deputized, had a badge, all that.
My shift was on nights, and I was sporadically involved in SAR calls during the day. Very little sleep. I didn't mind.
I loved my job and I loved volunteering.
I was notified that there was a mandatory meeting for all volunteers at such-and-such a time. It was in the p.m.
I informed my supervisor and asked whether I could schedule an absence from that shift which was weeks down the road, returning just as soon as the hour meeting was over, whereupon I would remake any time missed.
She said, "Of course! Not a problem!" Everything squared away, right?
Not with the department head, it wasn't... one of those arrangements where the dregs in the trenches dare to not speak directly to a department head; such was a supervisor's job, that role.
I returned from the SAR meeting. It was a very slow night. We had just finished a huge paper, and that next night's work was piddling.
The date comes, I check the work load and reconfirm with the supervisor. "Of course! Go!"
I return and am shortly hauled into the department head's office. He decided to come down on the night shift, surprise inspection.
He screams at me. Slams my file on his desk (full of good reviews). "You ever leave your shift again, it will be the last you ever have," he says through clenched super-white caps.
I said that I had arranged this before hand and it was approved. I also noted it was Search and Rescue, and the workflow was not affected -- elsewise I would have never had left even if there was work to do. And that my intent was to stay my full shift, minus the SAR meeting. Such a meeting was not commonplace. It was the only one I was aware of.
He demands to see "this badge." I show it to him. He says, "Anyone can get one of these." Very insulting after a thorough background check, plus the work I did volunteering.
At this, he hauls in the supervisor, brings her to near tears, my supervisor only managing a "Yes, sir, Yes, sir," in a trembling voice.
When I left his office, disgusted with this flaming jerk, he called after me with this gem: "You'd better decide which side of your toast is buttered on! [Sic] Your job? Or volunteering!"
Man, was my morale soaring at that point. But I valued my career much more than just walking out the door over an idiot.
Contrast to Ms. Martore's tact.
Sounds to me like Gannett will use this to justify of the actions of the golfers, travelers, etc. Now they cam tell you that the person is supporting a charity.. Good try Gannett. I don't buy it.
ReplyDeleteHello 6:22 pm. I never to United Way. I give to environmental groups, my alma maters, Girl Scouts, church and the United Farm Workers and other labor groups. And, yes, I work in the newsroom. Sorry to burst your anti-intellectual bubble. By the way, giving this way cuts out paying administrative costs that United Way sucks out.
ReplyDelete7:31 I don't believe you. Pure and simple.,you all say that and give nada!
DeleteI am a volunteer firefighter. I have been for 12 years. My newsroom, from my direct supervisor, through to the managing editor and anyone I worked with at my NJ paper were supportive and accommodating from the day I started through the day I was laid off. I did my work and when volunteering required adjustments to my schedule they were made. On occasion one would conflict with the other. A little give and take on both sides made it work. It was important to me and my boss, a good manager I think, juggled the needs of his staff to keep his department humming along.
ReplyDeleteI provide this in contrast to 5:49's awful experience.
Do you think the need to juggle your needs more than others eventually moved you higher on the layoff list? Nice guy managers aside, sometimes squeaky wheels get replaced, not greased.
ReplyDeleteThe deification of volunteers is almost as bad as the mantel the armed forces are placed on.
ReplyDeleteIn both cases, all sorts of altruism and worship are heaped on people who do jobs that few others want or will do.
Granted, both groups do good work on occasion. But the constant drumbeat of how wonderful they are only serves to convince new recruits to whatever cause their paid leaders want to drive them.
Why was this so poorly received? Because a company who has treated employees so poorly over the last few years and longer has no credibility when asking those same employees to do more.
ReplyDeleteYou are all pathetic, I'm embarrassed you work(ed) for Gannett.
ReplyDeleteTo 5:12 - No. I do not think it did.
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ReplyDeleteBanikarim can use this time for her speaking engagements. But doubt she'll donate her $5k speaking fees to any charity other than herself.
ReplyDelete"The deification of volunteers is almost as bad as the mantel the armed forces are placed on."
ReplyDeleteLeaving aside the question of whether placing on a "mantel" really is the same as placing on a pedestal, or whether the writer meant to say these groups don a mantle... Why does the journalism profession (and I'll eat my hat if a beancounter posted this, faulty diction notwithstanding) attract such sick, twisted sociopaths?
7:31 PM - So to paraphrase, newsroom types don't contribute anything to help actual neighbors in need, but instead give primarily based on ideology, or to impress old classmates. Got it.
ReplyDelete12:48 - A mantle is a cloak or shawl, a mantel is where you put your Marine's photo, medals or Habitat photo with Jimmy Carter - a place of honor to recognize the sacrifice made by people duped into the feel-good altruism of 'serving your country' or 'volunteering for the common good'.
ReplyDeleteIf people legitimately felt the need to 'thank soldiers for their service' we wouldn't pay them wages that require food stamps to support a family.
Likewise, volunteers that have to be bribed with getting out of work on paid time, aren't really volunteers anymore. But jeez, we all feel good.
I'm 8:02, from advertising not finance, so feel free to eat your shoe instead of your hat.
To 10:20 PM, 5:49 here. Thanks very much for the post of your experience. Personally it was good to see, a relief, that my experience was not the same elsewhere. It was awful. And then one only wonders what is it like for other public safety volunteers. Very good to see they worked with you. Very cool.
ReplyDelete