Gannett announces furloughs

Remember Deal Chicken?

 

I had to look to see if I was on the Gannett thread or the Lee thread.

 

When I worked for Gannett during the furlough era, HR told us we had to take them all in one week and couldn't break it up.
Also the week you are on furlough, and as others have said, file for unemployment. You are laid off for the week!!

 

The loss of pay sucks. The uncertainty about your job sucks. But I can't imagine as a journalist being told to stay home when the biggest story of our lifetimes is going on around us. More deaths than 9/11, greatest economic disruption perhaps ever - say what you want about WWII it was an economic boost - and journalists are being told to take a seat. If I'm a journo, I spend my week interviewing people and writing a definative local account of the virus. Maybe it ends up being self-published, maybe you just put something together for a local magazine down the road once everything shakes out or donate your work to the local historical society.

 

Don't forget that the media is the enemy of the nation. Another reason why we've been benched.

 

If you tell the suits about your idea and what you did during furlough, they'd say: "Great idea. Now repeat all that work and do it again this week cause we can't use ANY of your furlough work."
You do bring up a good point. Another slap in the face to journalists. Yeah, put them out of work during a huge story with some of the most important stories of their lives to write.
I wish we could all just resign at the same time over this. Disgraceful in a business in which the decision makers make so many insulting, offputting, ridiculous decisions all just to make sure the CEO gets paid.

 

Well that's the point - it wouldn't be for Gannett, it would be to preserve the local historical record and a person's sanity after being benched.

 

What you do during furlough: Apply for a new job. Go fishing. Live, while maintaining a budget. But if you’re not supposed to work, don’t do anything that looks like work.

 

I think journalists would be better served using the week to collect an unemployment check and studying new skills online.

Let's be real - more jobs are going to be lost in the ensuing weeks and months. Furloughs will turn into layoffs. And those jobs will not return when the pandemic is eventually neutralized, because the reduced staff will help owners reline their pockets (or just stave off bankruptcy a little longer).

Use the furlough periods to further your chances of getting a job outside of the industry. Noble endeavors like preserving the historical record are nice, but they are too idealistic for these times. Self-preservation should matter more.

 

Apparently it is sounding like those making under 38,000 are not exempt from furloughs, because someone who definitely is below that threshhold got a letter saying they were being furloughed. So who knows what the deal is at this point

 

Oh I agree that you need to look out for number 1 - just thinking for people needing to scratch an itch doing their week off might find ways to "be a journalist" without being a journalist. Volunteering at soup kitchens, food banks, talking to business owners and talking to people in your network (while fishing for your next gig).

BTW - since you can't do a "ride-along" with the pizza guy or whoever is making the food runs - doing a first person account (i'm hearing nobody is tipping delivery people anymore since they don't have to look them in the eyes and everything is done by app now) would be interesting.

 

Just saw on Facebook that the income threshold at the Oregon Food Bank for a family of two is 31,200, a family of three is 39,461. Food stamps is 33,475 for a family of four, 39,221 for a family of five. I wonder if newspapers advertise that aspect when hiring for jobs, work here, get clips and still qualify for public assistance! For a metro to be paying wages like that 38k for a prime beat like education - they really should pack it in.