D-Day Has Arrived At My Shop. Wish Me Luck.

Don't be a photographer. Be a photojournalist.

A damn good one.

"Photography? Oh yes, I've done that full time. It was a big part of my job as a photojournalist."

And I know you know the difference.

 

Good job, Pete.
Glad you are taking the job.
Man your story is one a lot of people would want to hear about when ultimately you leave that paper.
Think about what they are doing in his situation. It is fucking insane and it really cheapens the product. The product means nothing.

 

Alright. I had a big ass argument about this with my girlfriend (also a journalist) tonight. She swears up and down it's unethical to take the other guys job, with the exception of someone in your family depending on your health insurance (as you can imagine, we got into some fairly stupid scenarios). Said that since the sports desker was the one laid off, he should have taken the bullet and not passed the buck, and so on.

Thoughts?

 

The unethical act was the company putting employees in this situation to begin with. After that, I won't tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do in that situation.

 

Wow, Pete, that's some amazing bullshit they're putting you thru.

I'd love to tell you to take the shittiest photographs possible, but I know you wouldn't do that. And I wouldn't either, as much as I'd like to. Good luck.

 

Good luck to you Pete. And I think you did the right thing taking the photo job. I give the guy who took your job a 50-50 shot of still being there in 6 months. You will probably be back on your beat before football season.

 

I have to admit, that's the first thing I thought about too, but I wasn't sure. Then reading Rick's response, I agree. There is no blame in a system like this. Not even for the guy bumping inky out of his spot, we are all different and we have to do what we have to do, no matter kids or no kids. It's your life that is being changed. I feel bad for the guy who bumped Inky, I feel bad for Inky and I feel bad for the guy he is bumping. All the more, I feel bad for the decision makers who put this system in place, because it clearly shows what is most important here. Money over quality. And it doesn't appear to be even close.

 

I vehemently disagree. There IS blame to be assigned to those who implemented a system whereby someone can take another person's job because of seniority. People shouldn't be in the position to have to decide between feeding their own family and preventing someone else from feeding hers.

The powers that be don't get a lick of sympathy. I harken to what MileHigh has in his sig, said by Jeff Legwold of the late, great Rocky Mountain News: "They don't have to do this. Everybody knows the arithmetic. We get the annual reports. Several parts of their company are doing very well. The Rocky had a tough year. They decided to walk away. Basically, my feeling is they quit on us. They quit on everybody in the newsroom."

That's my take on McClatchy, JRC, Lean Dean, all the people involved in the bullshit mechanism that sees newspapers trim prime beef after they've stopped cutting the fat.

 

It's kind of an interesting situation, if you can disengage from the emotion and the overall horseshittedness of it when it's urgent and immediate and now.

Would people's reaction be different if we were talking seats left in a life boat? Morsels of food left on a deserted island? Is it always OK to bump someone else, as long as those are the "rules" put in place by someone higher up in the organization? Do we need to change the old saying to, "All's fair in love and war -- and jobs?" Or, as some might suggest, do we answer to someone even higher up than the company's higher-up?

We gotta do what we gotta do, I suppose. And it is unfair for three employees like this to have to anguish over who'll get the two jobs. Ideally, the manager who sets this into motion would huddle with them and all four would work out a solution. I know, I know -- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm-thinking.

It is interesting how quickly folks come out of the woodwork who say, "Screw it, man. This is business! Look out for No. 1!" If that's all that business is, and if that's what business can do to us, that's a damn shame.

 

This just in. It keeps getting better. Because of all the shuffle and kerfuffle management has decided to shut down all blogs once the layoffs and bumping has taking effect.

Way to increase the quality of our all-around product.

 

The "bump another person from their job" is an interesting question, and I have to say, I think you'd have to factor in what one person's life is like -- two young kids, wife, etc., whatever -- vs. the other.

The ethics become a lot fuzzier if the guy being bumped is single, and the bumper has a couple of toddlers. At least in my view.

 

The management fucks that put the bumping system in place are to blame. I feel Pete and all those with the opportunity to bump, should bump. Although I'm sure Pete's fellow photographers probably won't be too friendly at first if they liked the guy who got the boot.