Gannett 1-week furloughs

I don't even know how some places will put a paper out.

 

That's different. They stop putting out tires. Car plants do this all the time. They call it shutdown. We can't shut down, we still gotta put out a product. Now its a shitter product.

 

It won't be impossible to put a section out. It'll just be the way it usually is in June and July or over the holidays when you have a couple people on vacation.

 

When the car plants have a shutdown, the employees usually get paid. But I don't think any paper has a union like the UAW.

 

I'm doing it in one week. My problem is this...if you do it one day at a time, and work 4 days a week instead of 5, you'll feel obligated to do 5 days of work in 4 days.

Then, why wouldn't they look at it as "if they can do this work in 4 days, why not have people work only 4 days a week" or if they see there's no drop-off in the product, why not make employees do this once a quarter??

 

We don't have to take them here but my advice to others who have to take them is exactly this: Do not do any work! This is what they want; this is what they'll get. Leave it to the management people to figure out how to cover the beats. Spend that entire week looking for a job out of the industry. Or do some freelance to offset the cost of the furlough to you. Also, I would definitely look into any state or federal aid you could get to offset the cost.

 

I already had some time off for a long weekend so I was taking three days off. I'm adding a day before the trip, and using the day after as a recovery day and counting it as my furlough.

 

It's not what they want. They don't want you to work because sure as hell some pissed off reporter (and there are sure to be thousands of them) would file a lawsuit complaining that an editor called and wanted him to track down a source while he wasn't being paid.

 

No, you misunderstood me. I said Don't Do Any Work. They don't want you to do work (so they say) so don't do any.

 

Right. Don't Do Any -- unless it's freelance stuff.

 

Go freelance for the other gannett paper whose beat writer is also taking his or her furlough.

 

Before your furlough, take as many batteries, notepads and pens from the supply closet and spend the week selling them on eBay.