Herald to cut about 175 positions

Evil, obviously it's a moot point now, but having just gotten back from Doral where me and my 5-year-old son battled the enormous Tiger gallery and watched the media throngs bombard him after he walked off of No. 18, I can tell you that when he started finding his stroke and was in double digits under par at the turn and climbing up the board to within 5 strokes at one point, he looked in the hunt.

 

He moved within five strokes (at the turn)? And you say he was in contention?
Umm, OK.

 

Now would you have said same comment about any other player in the field?

 

Nope. And that's precisely my point.

Now that we have veered off the topic of this thread, may I suggest we move on and get back on track? Herald layoffs and more ugly shenanigans by the beancounters, remember?

 

FYI, he was nine back. With 18 guys ahead of him.

Now back to our scheduled programming.

 

Joe,

Thanks for the correction. And he did finish tied for 9th and only three shots out of fourth for whatever that's worth.

But I digress. A lot more important things to discuss on here, including the demise of the Seattle P-I.

 

The McClatchy model this time around has gone like this:

You get a packet (if you aren't tapped on the shoulder that day and told you are gone). In your work packet is some form letter that says We're sorry to cut positions, but we've decided to eliminate x number of positions in your workgroup. If you want to take the transition voluntarily, the final day to turn in your acceptance is 10 a.m. (of some day exactly a week later). If not enough members of your workgroup take the voluntary transition, we will begin involuntary separation based tenure.

You are the (insert position here) least tenured person in your work group.

Here's a scenario -- you are eliminating seven writers. Writers 7, 6, and 5 voluntarily take the buyout (they did not want to be saved - and only got 3 months of COBRA paid for), two writers not on the list take the buyout, saving writers 4 and 3. Writers 2 and 1 are involuntarily separated (receiving 9 months of COBRA).

You may have heard the names that are on the "list", but the debate will go on until the deadline to turn in paperwork.

 

I can't imagine continuing to work under those conditions:

"We have targeted you for elimination, but if enough of your cohorts willingly head to the gallows first, then you will be spared -- FOR NOW."

Yep. That would certainly inspire me to give it my all until that news is delivered.

 

Exactamundo.

Remember those good ol' days where we used to fret that volunteering for a buyout, and then not getting it, might tip your hand to management and damage your career trajectory at your current shop? :

Seems like something from the days when VHF and UHF were your only choices.

 

Well, in my case, I took the buyout the first day I was allowed -- the person who was "saved" was informed that afternoon by management.

They aren't turning anyone down, I know that for a fact. At my shop, too many news reporters took the buyout, so instead of turning them down, they took some of the editors that were to be let go and made them into hybrid writer/editors for the metro/cops beat.