Next in Line ... Milwaukee

Are the fucked up in Milwaukee? Yes. But Garry is pretty high on the company tree. Before he's shown the door, a whole lot of bad would have to occur at the paper.

 

There's nothing wrong with giving a shout-out of appreciation and a thank-you to colleagues who thought of you, called you and lent an ear at a time when all of that was probably needed, and that's essentially what this piece was.

The problem, really, was the lack of discussion about whether that courtesy/thoughtfulness was extended, even in any small way, to those who actually lost their jobs. They, no doubt, were far more downbeat and much more in need of such attention than Garry was, no matter how tough or depressing a day he had during the big exodus.

And if such compassion wasn't extended to those laid off/bought out, perhaps there could have been an assertion that it should be done, followed by a discussion, with all those editors who got in touch with him, regarding how best to go about that and handle such momentously bad days.

Given the state of the business right now, that would have been a topic worthy of a write-up.

As tough as such days are for all involved, there have got to be good and bad ways to go about them, and affected workers would probably appreciate greatly any managers who figure out the difference and who try to make a terrible time just a little bit better.

They may not be doing much, but they'd be doing what they could.

 

I think everyone who has been in the business has been around to see someone get fired. Even if you were close to them, you don't know what to say. Perhaps Garry Howard felt that way. He didn't know what to say or didn't want to get into any confrontations with disgruntled ex employees. Just a theory, nothing more.

 

Garry responded to my e-mail, said he was told, as management, to have no contact with those let go. Which makes sense from a management point of view, since you don't need to give ammo to those who may consider a filing of some sort.

But any boss worth his salt would find a way to at least contact the people, just a "Sorry you're dealing with this" kind of thing. Not just stone silence.

 

ijag, these are rough times. You can't blame him for following orders. If you were in the same boat and your job depended on not having contact with former employees, what would you do?
Management can be a motherfucker at times.

 

I doubt his job depended on it. And i'm not saying he should have called and said "Man, you got a raw deal. You are WAY better than the minorities and women and less qualified people we kept on!"

I'm just saying, be a human being.

 

Exactly. It wouldn't matter what I was told, I damn sure would say at least SOMETHING to the slew of guys and gals I just let go. It might not happen in the office in front of everyone, but it would happen. Perhaps a short phone call when I got home. Or maybe I'll meet them all at the bar, say a few words, give my credit card to the bartender and tell him the beer for those people are on me.

Something. To do and say nothing to those people is just wrong.

 

That's a pretty raw statement saying they are WAY better than the minorities es and women and less qualified. There wasn't a plethora of minorities there begin with. Several women and they were pretty talented. But that's another discussion.
In a situation where you are told not to have contact, and they have shown several people the door, you don't have contact. That's pretty clear cut to me. It might sound cold but no need of two people being unemployed, ya know? Many times, management has a way of finding out if someone goes against the grain on something like this and the result, in shops I've been at, haven't been pretty.
I curious as to what you would've done in the same situation?

 

Ryan, that's a beautiful gesture but many times, people who were just given the axe don't want to see management. And if they saw them on the street, someone might need to call 9-1-1.

 

I know nothing of 99 percent of the employees at the MJS. I was just saying that would be something management SHOULDN'T say. Not that it was true.

 

If Garry Howard contacted the people who were laid off and basically said, "I wish it didn't end the way it did, but I noticed and appreciated how hard you worked for me and how much you put into this paper. If there is anything I can do to help you land on your feet, be sure to let me know." and the JS upper management fired him for that display of basic human decency, every poster on this site would come rushing to his defense. That includes ones who have never said a single nice thing about the man. He would be a hero of this industry overnight for being able to put a face to the inhuman policies that have come down from above.