Gannett announces furloughs

They are legally not allowed to work. If they try to make a furlough employee work, that employee has decades of legal rulings to lean back on. Lawyers would jump at the case because it is so clearly defined.

Gannett doesn't want that headache. They'll tell managers and others that they're not allowed to work, even answering emails.

 

Many of us have been on furlough before (they were all the rage a decade or so ago) and there is no wink-wink about it. You do not do a thing on furlough. Not a thing.

Now, might be there pressure to work more during those three weeks to make up for the one week off? Yes, but that's no different than a regular vacation and we all have to guard against that as best we can.

 

Gannett, responding to the coronavirus-related downturn, announces a series of cuts - Poynter

 

Yep. Work more before your furlough to get ahead. Work more after your furlough to catch up. Do someone else's work while they're on furlough.

The reasons furloughs work in newspapers as that the bosses insist that everything still gets done.

 

Yes, as a Gannett vet, I can attest there's nothing wink-wink about them and furloughs. To the point where managers were told that if you even called someone on furlough, you would be fired.

 

I feel like Twitter was a lesser evil last time furlows were en vogue.

Whats the ruling on that? Can I Tweet about Wrestlemania or better call saul on furlow? I wonder if doing or not doing so would effect future rulings on who owns the twitter account

 

I always thought copy editor was 301 on that list.

 

Florida Times-Union education reporter

 

Hope they threw in the floor mats. I do find that kind of bizarre. While I do understand Gannett papers tend to focus on very particular types of markets - small to midsize cities over metros (generally) that don't have their own TV stations to compete for advertising dollars - I didn't realize they have that much national control on employee pay.

 

Still this profession is built on looking the other way as sports writers work 65 and get paid for 40. Nobody's going to know he/she is on furlough when he/she are interviewing and stockpiling stories for the 3 weeks they are working per month. All these years the suits have looked the other way when reporters work 60 and get paid 40 what difference does furlough make? And to the suits out there who think their NFL and MLB writers and college writers are working 40 during the season. Do the math on just one flight. Legally the newspaper is responsible for paying the reporter from the time he/she gets in the car to drive to the airport until he/she gets to the destination. Then you are still on the clock the entire road trip. LOL.

 

But the manager won't know the reporter is working on stories to run the other three weeks. When there's nothing to do but wake up, eat, take a walk, eat, sleep every day, and the reporter is starting at work the following week, the reporter will be interviewing and thus giving free labor to the Gannett company.