Gannett experiences

What if these tasing volunteers got seriously injured or died while doing this? Does anyone in management not see a liability issue here?

 

Yeah. I guess I'm just lucky. But - other than the furloughs obviously - i dont have a single real complaint about my Gannett job. I've gotten two raises in three years. One was pretty substantial. I can have all the notebooks and pens I want. I've been to one meeting this year.

And the only time anyone breathes down my neck about anything is when I'm late turning in receipts for the expsense card I have. Like I said. I guess I'm lucky. But this job beats the shit out of the three non-Gannett jobs I had previously.

 

Yes, yes, yes.
Gannett is a wretched place.

 

You have NO idea how lucky you are. Unless you're a publisher, then of course you have it good because upper management is the penthouse in Gannett.

Your story sounds so made up that I have a hard time believing it. But i don't know you, so I have to trust that you're not lying.

Just know that you are in the minority. The vast majority in Gannett do not have it nowhere near as nice as you do.

Expense card? You mean you don't have to beg to stay in a hotel so you can cover an NCAA weekend tournament eight hours away (eight hours that you had to drive because flying was just too expensive). You mean you don't have to share a room with two other grown men because the company is too cheap to pony up for three separate (or, hell, even just two) rooms?

Sad thing is, I wish I was making it all up.

 

Wow. Send that story to Gawker. Or restart Spy, just so they can print it.

 

What I found worse than the cheap mindset was the enabling of incompetent if not abusive managers. And journalism isn't the goal anymore, the words are just filler for the ads. The layoffs and the threat of layoffs was demoralizing and, if Hawaii is any indication, Gannett is going to start shedding papers.

As for the idea that things are the same everywhere, they just aren't. I think that kind of defeatist thinking comes after staying at Gannett for too long.

 

I spent five years at a Gannett shop and found it to be a mixed bag. On one hand, in terms of my day-to-day work life, it wasn't as bad as some of the horror stories I've heard. The "initiatives" were dumb, but as someone posted earlier, they change every year (that's no exaggeration, either), so it was easy to ignore them and just do your job. The frustrating things were the same things everyone at every newspaper feels (short staffing, do more with less, etc.)

But the furloughs and layoffs were awful. Not just seeing good people lose their jobs for no reason. It bred a sense of fear, a sense of "well, we survived this round ... but just wait until the next round in six months." Because there was always a next round. That killed morale at my shop.

 

Seriously. What newspaper company doesn't have furloughs, layoffs and salary freezes?

 

Nope. Not making it up. And if I was a publisher I wouldn't be on here slumming with you folks.

I went on roughly 15 road trips the last 6 months, covering the football and basketball teams. Stayed at the media hotel for the bowl game and the conference tourney ... both for at least four nights. Never heard Word 1 about it.

Now my SE might have, I don't know. If he did, he didn't tell me about it. And he didn't ask me to cut back on expenses or anything.

My last paper? Had to share rooms with photographers on multiple occasions. Boy does that suck.

So yeah. I'm lucky apparently. I mean, I was still furloughed twice in the last year while the CEO of the company got a $1.5 million bonus --- so I'm not the biggest fan of Gannett in the world. But I have no reason to despise it either. My experience has been a very good one for the most part.

 

Any specific observations about the News Journal in Delaware? Better or worse place to work than other Gannett shops?

 

When your boss is demanding someone to stand up and get tazed, I think that qualifies as a "hostile work environment."

 

Could you have a secret vote, like on Survivor?