LA Times layoffs

I agree, a lot of the folks laid off were older. But it wasn't a completely broad brush. Jaime is in his early 20s, Stephens and Yoon in their 30s and Henderson probably a little older than that.

 

Can't get Truman's link to work. Did international reporter Kim Murphy survive the cut? Knew her way back in the day.

 

This is just fucked up. And my shop is in the middle of buyouts and all I feel is fear for the future.
Life right now is one long horror movie.

 

horrifying

just totally fucking horrifying

 

What scares me the most (not at a Tribune shop, but still) is that these aren't being done based on performance. I have enough confidence in my performance that I wouldn't be terribly concerned if that were the case. But seeing the names of people laid off just scares the bejesus out of me.

Once you're laying off positions just for the sake of getting rid of bodies, then you know your industry is fucked.

 

When GM lays off 20,000 or Delta 9,000 or Citi 14,000 . . . do you think someone systematically analyzes the performance of everyone to determine who stays and who goes?

My 81-year-old father recently revealed to me that he spent practically his entire working life (Union Carbide/Martin Marietta) in the shadow of layoffs. Every time a new president came into the oval office, there were new budgets, new priorties, old priorities that were discarded. And plenty of smart, good people found themselves out of work.

This is just a real side of the business world that we have been fortunate to avoid . . . until now.

 

This was part of a post from LA Observed today:

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/07/la_times_layoff_scenes.php

Along with this:

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/07/note_posted_on_lat_wall.php

All my best to friends who won't go into work today, and friends who will. Sadly, I don't know which is worse.

 

Quote
I'm told there was quite a scramble in Sports Monday night when the only two designers on duty were laid off three hours before deadline.

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W--- T-- F---? That's insane.

Way to fucking go, Sam Zell. You zealot bastard.

You and Singleton will get yours, pal.

Hope those designers had a couple of cold ones to ease their pain ... or a Xanax.

 

Son of a bitch. Steve Harvey?!?

Steve Harvey was an immense help to me when I was a high schooler more than 20 years ago. He played as big a role as anyone in my decision to go into journalism as a career. The list of people I've encountered who are as smart, funny, and generous as Steve Harvey is extraordinarily short.

I grew up reading the Times religiously each morning. If I still lived there I would be canceling my subscriiption.

Seriously, what other business tries to save itself by eliminating any reason to buy its products?

 

Hope those designers were able to completely wipe their pages clean as a final FU to the company before departing.