More furloughs from Gannett

Of course, I do check out the Gannett blog every now and then, so, yes, I am informed.

 

There is some good news. We've had the good fortune of finding out our Gannett-owned newspaper is not being required to take those shitty furloughs!

Whew! Guess we avoided getting screwed over by the man on this one.

Sincerely,

Tucson Citizen
(1870 - March 21, 2009 . . . TBD)

 

Solid job on that post.

 

Thanks for putting it in perspective, Mr. Dubow.

 

Obviously my post was sarcastic. There was no reason to stoop so low as to call someone "Mr. Dubow." That's just low.

In all honesty, I think the furlough situation is awful and just because there are those of us worse off (i.e. me and my Tucson Citizen colleagues) doesn't mean a furlough thread isn't a valid topic. We're all going through bad times in this industry and others.

It's frustrating for the Craig Dubows of the world in charge of the business models of their newspapers to go around telling the newsrooms of the world that while they did their jobs and they did nothing wrong, they are the ones now being forced into furloughs, layoffs, closures, etc. Because of the JOA I'm in, the only ones losing jobs in Tucson are those in the newsroom and some delivery personnel. Nobody in HR. Nobody in advertising. Nobody in the press room. Nobody in Gannett's corporate office.

Any word on when Dubow's furloughs are scheduled? On the bright side for him, two weeks of furlough based on his 2007 compensation package would have cost him more than $300,000. Since he's suffering through this just like the rest of us and only got paid $3.1 million last year, two weeks of furlough for him now will only cost him in the $120,000 neighborhood.

 

How will they know if you do?

 

I'm assuming IT can tell if the account has been accessed.

 

Well, shit.

 

I'm not one of those people whose knee-jerk reaction is to rip all corporate leaders and say they're all (fill in the blank with your most vile descriptions). I really would like to think that there are a lot of very competent people trying to do the best they can in a changing industry in bad economic times.

Having said that howevever, I really do wonder how many businesses (and not just newspaper companies) are using the bad economy as a convenient excuse to lay people off or to use these types of furlough programs simply to extract a little more profit when perhaps they don't have to.

 

Good. We already have one Frederick.

 

Not if they're on furlough.

 

Interesting. In some sort of twisted philosophical sense, this is beginning to sound something like the tree falling in the forest and no one is there to hear the sound.

If furloughed writer logs into email but IT person is furloughed as, in turn, is the HR person tracking the IT person's hours, then did the furloughed writer even exist in the first place?

Also, do the stockholders get furloughed in this quarter, too?