gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

The other thing is that can't you collect severance and unemployment? If they give you your severance in one lump sum, you'd be able to collect unemployment the next week, no?

 

Why would Lafayette been any better than Monroe? Shreveport is the biggest paper in the group and, presumably, the bigges staff. So that would have been the place to put a regional desk if you wanted to minimize transfers.

 

From what I understand, that's not what they're doing now. They're tying your severance to your unemployment, so that (theoretically) your severance pay plus your unemployment pay equals what you normally would have gotten in severance only. As such, when you stop receiving unemployment or begin drawing a paycheck from another source, they're immediately cutting off severance payments. So they're giving you severance pay on a week-to-week basis. It must be continuously renewed, just like unemployment payments are done.

And yes, it sucks.

 

Can we stop posting on this thread and just get a new one already? Every time I see it brought up, I'm afraid I'm going to lose my job.

 

Unfortunately Mustang, you're probably right. This isn't going to stop. The report that the big G made money last quarter didn't save the jobs.

 

For starters, Lafayette is a much better place to live than Monroe. The city is in good economic shape and it's located at the crossroads of the two major interstates (Interstates 10 and 49) that service Louisiana. The building is only a couple of years old and has tons of unused space in it currently.

Monroe, on the other hand, is a dump. There's no easy way to get to Monroe, it's a horrible drive no matter where you're located in the state (save for maybe Shreveport, since it's just a drive across I-20). Monroe's building is nowhere near as nice as Lafayette's, and from what I understand they had to do some major renovating to clear an area to hold 24 copy desk workers (shouldn't be a problem now, since they'll not even get close to half that number).

I've talked to people in Shreveport and Alexandria and they've said they would have moved to Lafayette, but they're not moving to Monroe. I don't disagree with you. Shreveport would have been the best location, since it's the biggest paper and has the biggest staff with which to start the regional copy desk. But for some reason, they didn't choose Shreveport and they instead chose probably the worst of the remaining three options (Opelousas was never an option).

 

Agree with StaggerLee. I lived in Shreveport, and I've spent a lot of time in the other four cities. Lafayette is by far the most culturally stimulating. Shreveport is a distant second.

 

They probably don't want people to take the job. That's why they put it in Monroe. If people quit rather than move, then that's more money to heal Craig Dubow's back.

 

Anyone who argues that Monroe is better than pretty much any other Louisiana city just lost all credibility. Forever. On every subject. Forever.

Seriously, if you don't know anything about the subject just keep your mouth closed. Otherwise, you're the fool saying "What's so bad about Monroe?"

Don't be that guy.

 

Glen is right about Monroe.

 

Is that because you're posting on the thread while at work? (grin)

 

I don't know what your talking about. It was my lunch break. ;D

But seriously, it compensates for all the time I work from home and post stories and don't put it on my time sheet.