Cutbacks

[Flash]

My chain cut 120 jobs today. Mine was one of them. They're shutting down the our research library and centralizing a lot of things out the Big Smoke.
Has anyone been in this position before? What did you do? How did you deal with it? I already have some e-mails out to friends in the business.
But is the old saying really true? Once you're out of the business, you're out.
And could all the gloating, you-deserve-it assholes please stay out of my way today. I already feel enough like a pile of shirt.

 

[Gomer]

Holy shirt Flash, that's awful news. My sincere condolences, I've been in that position before and I'd never wish it on my worst enemy.

Honestly, the first thing to do is decide what you want to do now. There's nothing saying you have to leave the business, nothing saying you can't make it. I was at a daily when my job went bye-bye, and took a job at a twice-weekly (Beef's current paper). Now, I'm applying for an SE job at a paper that's about 10 times the size of the one I was cut from, and have a pretty damn good chance of getting it.

All I did was immediately start sending out resumes, phoning friends in the business, seeing what was out there.

You're a great commodity, and I'm sure someone will pick you up. But you'll have to move. Are you willing to do that, or would you prefer to stay in the city you're in and do something else for a while?

 

[Flash]

I love Calgary but if I gotta go, I gotta go.

 

[bydesign77]

The first thing you do?

Go to your state's department of labor. file unemployment. that way you'll have some income while searching for jobs. and the longer you wait, the less you'll get.

good luck. if you want to move to Georgia, I can get you a job down here

 

[House]

Sorry to hear that Flash. I was part of corporate downsizing a few years back when the economy was still quaking from the dot-com bubble-burst. It took me about a year to find another job because there just weren't a lot of them to find. In the meantime, I made pizza.

On the way out, I gave the executive editor the finger, as he was the one making cuts. I am likely blacklisted in that state and/or chain.

 

[berklonius]

Flash,

I'm sorry that things turned out that way. I find myself in the same position, as I, along with my entire paper, was released this past weekend, when I was on vacation no less. I had seen the writing on the wall so I have a few sticks in the fire right now and hopefully one ignites. Either way, good luck and hopefully we aren't butting heads on prospective jobs  

 

[Gomer]

Yeah, and avoid giving people the finger on the way out. Tempting though it may be, in the end I believe people get what's coming to them. You'll move on. Be a professional about it.

After all, you never know who you'll end up working for in the future. Best to keep your options open.

 

[Bob Cook]

Sorry to hear the bad news. Many of us have been in your boat before. I second the person who said apply for unemployment. It stinks, but at least it's money coming in. Also, now is the time to cash in all the chits you've collected over the years from colleagues, co-workers, contacts, etc. If you aren't tied to your current home because of family or whatnot, you may well have more possibilities out there than you think. Though in the shock of the news, that can be hard to believe, and not what you want to hear. I didn't.

 

[slappy4428]

While your position was cut, were you? Do you have enough seniority to move to a lesser position and bump someone else?
Not wishing this on others, but it's happened to me before -- when i moved one spot to a lesser paid spot because I had seniority and a higher position. It's not that you want to bum,p someone, but having been through economic cutbacks at one paper and closed two others, it's called self preservation

 

[buckweaver]

I've never heard of that, slappy. It seems a little odd that a paper would cut your position, but yet allow you to stay on in another position. ???

 

[Ace]

Flash,

That sucks. Best of luck.

I know it's a bad situation today, but sometimes it takes shoves like this to get you where you are really supposed to be.

I never would have even looked for a job at a newspaper if I didn't get fired from a crappy restaurant job.

 

[JR]

Flash
Wow, I'm sorry.

I just read a thing on the Toronto Star and was about to post it. That's friggin awful.

Worse though was this quote:

"Sun Media is repositioning itself from a chain of daily and community newspapers into a multi-platform content provider," Pierre Francoeur, Sun Media Corp. president, said in a statement.

forkin' weaselwords.