Guarantees?

Right now for me it seems like the best guarantee I can have is not getting into some gig that seems destined to contract, have layoffs or fail.

 

Seems like no job is safe these days, whether a new one or for a veteran who's been someplace 20 years or more.

 

i'm a lawyer and my suggestion would be not only to get it in writing, but to make sure it's approved at the highest level. if the SE has no authority to give such a guarantee, it's not enforceable.

there's no doubt at all that a guarantee is a smart idea but whether anyone would actually give you one is the question. also not that i could ever envision a newspaper getting into this kind of detail but my advice would be to get in writing what happens in the event that there are layoffs - how much severance, etc.

 

I'll probably get flamed for admitting to this, but I once moved across the country for a job and the paper I was going to paid not only for a moving company to pack and move our house, but also for a hauler company to haul one or our cars and for our gas, food and lodging to drive the other one there. I seem to recall the bill was about 12K. This was a decade back. I had no idea what a gift horse I was being given. No idea at all.

 

Holy crap. My dad's company did that back in the day, but that was because they were transferring him from one assignment to another all over North America (he was a fairly high-level manager on construction projects).

I've had companies pay for my moves before --- almost a must these days unless you happen to be independently wealthy --- but nothing of that scope.

 

How times have changed. When I was a kid, my dad was moved from Michigan to Arizona to start work as an entry-level tester for an avionics firm. They paid for my dad to fly to Phoenix before the move to house hunt, and then paid for the full-service movers. He just finished his two-year degree at a community college. That was in 1979 and I don't see companies doing that for someone who just got an associate's degree.

 

Hell, one place I worked (not Cleveland) put the reporters up in a condo on the beach for a month when they moved them to a new bureau at the paper..

Well, it was supposed to be a month, but some of those guys bunkered in pretty good and wouldn't move out for months.

 

Why would you get flamed?

This used to be a pretty common practice, and was expected of companies asking employees to make major moves.

And, not only that, but if you planned to, but couldn't, sell your former home within an allotted amount of time -- say, two or three months -- companies often even would take possession of the house, handling the monthly payments on it, until it did sell.

As others have said, those were the days...

 

My moving bill was actually more than that. But I moved my whole double-wide.

 

Shit, my current company's total cost to secure my services was a teriyaki chicken sandwich, fries and an ice tea from the Marie Callendars down the street.
But, to be honest, it did pay for moving back in the day. I lived 45 miles away and didn't qualify ... and I didn't move at that time.