Beware, Trentonian offering jobs that don't exist

The law school guy ... leo1 ? ... would probably be able to answer the recourse question best, but I think...

If you're offered a job, and you accept, you've entered a verbal contract even if you haven't signed the dotted line yet. Which means if you make a material change -- i.e., if you leave your old job in preparation for the new one -- then you have committed to the terms of the deal/promise, which the other party has backed out of or failed to execute.

Because you altered your position based on what they told you, and because what they told you didn't stand up, then I believe you can sue the offending party. I believe this to be true even if all the details aren't worked out, which is why you often hear that people or parties agreed to something in principle. At that point, they are bound by the law.

Of course, I merely shadowed a friend one day in law school recently. His professor was Andy Katz' father, who was very animated and engaging in his lecture. If I'm wrong, blame Mr. Katz.

 

No, I'm not a lawyer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

What do any of you expect from a newspaper that can't do any better than "Trenton Trentonian" for a name?

What's next, the Topeka Topekan? The Minneapolis Minneapolitan? The Walla Walla Wallawallian?

 

As someone who has defended this place in the past and cares about some of the people there, it pains me to say this, but Interim has his/her facts right.

What's going on there needs to be exposed before more people are dragged into the mess. From what I hear, it's gone past the usual issue of incompetent and cheap management to blatant malice. The fact that a paper comes out each day -- and that sometimes the sports section is more decent than most would imagine -- is only a testament to the pride of the few people left.

Run away. What was salvageable as recently as six months ago no longer is.

 

"Trenton Trentonian"? Double J, it's just the plain old "Trentonian". It's not the "Trenton Trentonian". There's "The Trenton Times" and "The Trentonian", which are two different newspapers. Just so you know.

Anyway, I only started this topic to prevent anyone else from getting lured into the Trentonian's La Brea Tar Pit environment, where good folks are sucked into a slow death. It's no surprise that The Trentonian or any JRC newspaper is a bad place to work, but what is going on there recently sounds as if it has reached new lows.

 

Interim is correct, no one who ever worked for JRC would doubt this could be the case.

 

According to the mastheads, in Trenton you've got The Times and the Trentonian. I don't think The Times has officially been The Trenton Times since the 1970s or early 1980s. Technically the name of the paper is The Times (of Trenton), but for simplicity's sake everyone calls it the Trenton Times.

 

This is a time-tested JRC schtick. When staffing gets too tight (and bitching rises) due to your chainsaw cutbacks, bring a few new dupes on board for a month or two (you know they'll work like maniacs and gladly put in 70-hour weeks [30 off the clock of course], since they'll be grateful just to have a job, any job).

If they work out, cut loose a few longer-tenured (and higher-paid) incumbent employees; if they don't, just send the newbies out the door. "At-will employees," ha ha. Good luck buddy, I hear Wal-Mart is hiring.

As far as the people whose careers and lives you're fucking up, who cares? Tough shit for them. They should have known they were fucked the minute they applied at a JRC paper.

 

Sad experience has taught me there's no limit to greedhead cruelty from any newspaper's management. This story, however, is a baffler, because what's in it for the JRC greedheads in question? Offering someone a job, then telling them it's not there doesn't add a nickel to any bottom line. It's just some weird practical joke.
I might also add the appropriate response to said joke would be for the non-hirees to find the publisher's car and set it afire/

 

There is one correction to the original poster's information: The computers run on Windows 95, not 98 ...

 

See my post above. It's a short-term, no-risk tryout for management to bring in a raw rookie to maybe replace higher-paid incumbents. The only risk is to the young employee who has to uproot his entire life to serve as a pawn in the JRC game of systematic employee extermination, then get tossed aside like a used kleenex.

Plus, a lot of these JRC fuckhammers get a kick out of fucking around with peoples' lives, just because they can.

 

I don't think they care enough to screw around with people's lives. I don't think they care, period. By the way, one of the "raises" they handed out recently to a hard-working fellow was four - FOUR - cents an hour. That's the epitome of not caring.