gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

You know, I keep reading this and hearing people say this, but in the last three or four years, we've had a ton of people (25-30) leave our newsroom, err information center, either by layoff or just voluntarily. And every single one of those people are gainfully employed right now and every one of them I've talked to said their new job not only pays better, but is better for their health.

Of course, they all admit they miss writing and working at a newspaper, and their current profession is probably not what they had envisioned when they were going through school, but it's a job and it's a paycheck. And frankly, that's all this profession has become -- just another job, just another paycheck.

That's not to say some of them didn't have to bust their ass for a few weeks before finding a job, but the point is they found one. And they're all happier now. And making more money. I realize there are some people who are still struggling to find work, and maybe I'm just blessed to live in an area of the country not completely affected by this recession. But I also think this "Jobs are hard to find" tactic is a scare tactic to keep you suffering in your current job.

 

So true. Great post. There is life outside of the information center.

 

Jobs may not be hard to find if you are making $18,000 a year, granted.

 

I've spent 96 minutes and counting on hold applying for unemployment benefits. I waited 50 minutes, and talked to a nice lady who said to press option 3 when it came to how I want to be paid. I've been on hold for 45 minutes since.

 

I really hate this thread.
:'(

 

Where did you see/hear denials from the brass? We haven't seen/heard anything down here except the reported rumor.

 

That's the thing. There hasn't been ANYTHING said by the brass. No denial. No confirmation. They just enjoy letting their employees twist in the wind.

 

This tends to happen when you don't care about giving your employees a heads-up on whether or not they are losing their jobs or even if their paychecks and benefits are going to be cut.

 

I've asked management at my shop, and they're denying any more layoffs. It would be nice for better lines of communication between management and the employees, especially given the new technology, but what can you do? Gannett will eventually be known as "Ant" after selling off the other letters to anyone willing to buy!

 

Someone posted on the GannettBlog that this pretty much sucks either way. Management was criticized late last year for announcing cuts were imminent weeks ahead of the ax. So everybody spent the next few weeks wondering/worrying about their fate.

This situation, where there's a rumor that cuts are imminent and management neither confirms nor denies, leaves us in an identical situation: Spending weeks wondering/worrying about our fate.

Same difference.

 

What they SHOULD do, is decide who's going to leave, and notify the employee. Then they should give the employee the option of staying the 2-5 weeks extra in order to receive the severance package. If they find a job before then, then they leave without the package.

This way, if the employee decides to stay, at least they have a little extra time to find a new job. But I guess Gannett is too afraid the fired employees will do something (like sneak something in to trash them in print), during their lame-duck period.

 

They didn't give our union a definitive list until the Friday before and everyone either left that day or the next Monday or Tuesday. No extra time there. They wanted them out.