Sure, you lost your job, but please think of the readers

Sadness, but not for ourselves -- Gazette.Net

Thoughts, anyone?

 

Many of the folks losing their jobs are going to go on to far bigger and better things than toiling for a local news company that gives less and less of a crap about its employees each passing quarter. The readers, however, will not have a high-quality local news source replacing this newspaper when it finally and inevitably bites the dust as a result of failing to evolve with the times. I think the writer makes an excellent point.

 

I'm sure some of his co-workers who are wondering how they'll pay the bills and take care of their families appreciate his wisdom.

 

It's not like he isn't one of the people losing a job. And as he notes, he has been there before.

Good column.

 

Having been there before, he should have a little more empathy for the people he works with. Saying, "Oh, they'll be fine" is ridiculous. Chances are some of them won't be fine. I'd be a little more concerned with those people than the readers. Caring about the readers that much is great, in general, but this column is tone deaf in its timing.

 

Eh, I disagree. I think they will be fine. And you could look at it also as a reassuring message from someone who knows.

I will also dip into my go-to stance on this issue of, nobody can possibly be surprised about being let go from a newspaper. The fear (and the backup plan) should have set in long, long ago.

 

Having a plan and having that plan work out are two different things. Also, available plans vary according to what one does, age, geography, etc.

I can imagine this guy's final conversations with a co-worker or three:

"Tough break, Joe. I realize you're scared about the future and the skills you've developed aren't the best for finding equivalent work in this job market, especially at your age. But look on the bright side: You could be one of our former readers. They're really going to have it rough. Buck up, Joe, everything will be fine!"

 

I think this column is called putting on a brave face.

But I just checked the website and so far there have been zero reader comments about the column, which leads one to wonder how much readers will miss this paper. And I wonder if, sadly, this is not true for a lot of papers.

 

The biggest shock is that it wasn't an executive who wrote it.

 

I, too, thought it was rather dismissive of his coworkers. And presumptuous to assume that readers will miss his paper's work, specifically. Yes, they've done good work there, but patting yourself on the back while Rome is burning isn't a good look.

 

Sounds like he is about 48 years old. Not a good time to be hitting the unemployment rolls at all. That kind of thing petrifies me - getting let go in the 50 to 65 range, and even 48, has got to suck. That's the age when a lot of folks typically have kids in college or near college too. Scary. So, he may be facing it worse than a lot of his colleagues, and they perhaps know it.

Anyway, I took the article both ways - an interesting perspective and perhaps worth saying, but could also have been a bit more supportive of his colleagues.

Bottom line is sad though.

 

"One of my favorite emails during my Gazette tenure came from a coach telling me how a feature we did on a girls basketball player helped her get some attention from colleges after months of no one noticing."

So he DIDN'T cost somebody's daughter a scholarship.