Can someone explain to me the idea of layoffs based on seniority?

My company cut the nicely paid veterans and kept the inexpensive kids. Now we have very little institutional knowledge left -- and tons of mistakes every day.

 

Holy shit. I had no idea Schiezainc was so old.

I must say, you've aged well.

 

Thanks. It's all about diet.

 

Easy answer to question. Seniority is not subjective. Someone's evaluation of productivity IS subjective. Give me the former solution any day.

 

LIFO

 

We are all operating under the threat of opening THAT can of worms, but I think most people who have dealt with a public school system, and the protected teachers therein, would find many exceptions to this rule. Probably enough to lead to the conclusion that there's a better way.

 

And subject to gross misjudgment.

Let's say someone produces 15 stories a week, and someone else produces 8. What if the 15 were badly written, missed deadline and contained errors, while the 8 were clean and on time, and 2 of them broke news.

Who had the better week?

I'm a desker. Past two nights part of my job has been checking the final edition when it comes off the press for any bad errors.

Two nights ago a promo at the top of 1A refered to the wrong pages. Last night a "Classified Inside" ear was in the top right corner of 1B, when there were no classifieds in the B section.

Now, who outside of the platemaking department is going to know I caught those errors?

Are we at a point in our careers where we need to send out "Look what I did!" e-mails every night to our supervisors so they know how valuable we are?

 

If you don't like unions, work for a non-union paper. Or, ask your colleagues if they want to start a decertification movement (LOL). Otherwise, understand that the workers agreed to the provisions of the contract collectively.

I was in my 20s last time I was part of a union and took an exemption as soon as management offered me one. So, while not an especially big fan of unions, I do favor accepting the reality of the situation.

I will point out that dead wood has no demographic. Every rookie class has stiffs in it. Some of them arrive as dead wood, some of them are obvious dead-wood-in-waiting. Recognizing the latter is an acquired skill.

 

There is something to be said about that.

If that person 5 seats over can't hear you asking him/her a question because they have headphones on . . . chances are they are not focused on their job . . . and they are in their 20s. The quality of what they send to the slot is demonstrative proof.

At my previous shop, the most grizzled veteran would handle the most stories just about every night. Hardly a wasted moment in his shift. Just kept plugging and plugging until there was nothing left to plug.

 

Threadjack here, but I have been told (and read about studies purporting to show) that to this younger generation that grew up with constant stimuli, the white noise of headphones or an IM window or whatever is necessary to help them concentrate. Like, they'd be more distracted if they didn't have their headphones on.

I can't fathom how it makes sense. But that's the working theory.

 

While evaluating productivity us subjective, sometimes the lack of productivity is very obvious.

 

I have a problem with counting bylines as an indication of productivity, too.

This is what leads to somebody trying to get seven stories on girls' cross-country in each week, while the football writer has five.

Sometimes, knowing what not to write is as important as knowing what to write. Understanding the place of one's beat in the big picture.