Sad Day in Orlando

Hey, otown and JustSaying, I give up. Which one of you is Zach?

Well, whichever of you it is, thanks for checking in.

And in all seriousness to Zach, good luck. I've been there and know the fear and stress that comes from this. Keep going and you'll be OK. If you're as good as they say, it won't take long.

 

If you start thinking about the "fairness" or the "logic" involved with layoffs, your head will explode.

Even if you don't include those who lost their jobs because the paper or website folded or closed (FanHouse, RMN, Cincinnati, Seattle...) you could hire a a staff far better than any existing one with the people who have been let go in the last 3-4 years.

 

Not fair accusation and/or speculation. I am just a person (50+ year old fat guy, trying not to get fatter) who does not like to see unfair treatment of people. I've been involved in the Orlando sports scene as a youth coach and HS official for multiple sports so I have had a little contact with Sentinel folks. I've also been the target of "unfair" actions, that is why it hit home with me. I threw my morning Sentinel in the garbage today, did not take it out of the plastic

 

I think what some folks are saying is that it seems really odd the Sentinel chose to lay off a young person who doesn't get paid a lot, is willing to cover anything, who seems to do a good job and has embraced the multimedia aspect of journalism.

 

Geez, lighten up, Francis. The "thanks for checking in" deal is a long-running SportsJournalists.com gag when a poster effusively praises someone.

 

The layoff is surprising, because the guys making the least amount of money are rarely targeted.

 

It's kind of poor taste on a layoff thread...

 

Ace has it right. Rare to see a paper lay off one of the youngest (and cheapest) writers embracing social media and multimedia as well as McCann did.

 

Maybe he wasn't a layoff. Do we know for sure?

Maybe he left, on his own, and has something better in the works. It certainly sounds as if he has the skills and the goods for that.

If not, was he part-time recently/now? If so, that may be why he was let go. At large papers, part-timers usually are eliminated before full-time people.

 

He was full-time and it was a layoff.

 

At the last newspaper layoff before I jumped ship, the publisher got up in front of everyone after the people had been walked out and said, "This is no reflection on the people who are gone. This is simply a salary dump."

As if that's supposed to make it easier on the people who just got escorted out of the building, and the people within the building who knew they could be next. You're not a person, you're a number, and if your number doesn't fit anymore, then hit the road.

Everyone already knew that was the case, but for the publisher to say that in front of the newsroom pretty much stripped away any last shreds of respect he may have had left.