Shafer: Buyouts R good, old folks gotta go

Have to admit, I knew none of this backstory stuff on Shafer. Any quick, easy way to find it -- or should I just Google at will?

 

The problem is, the oldest guys are not the ones getting forced out.

The old guys threaten an age-discrimination lawsuit and no one bothers them... I know of at least three cases at big papers where they desperately wanted older reporters/editors to take buyouts, but didn't force them because of the threat of a lawsuit.

The result was they had to lay off someone else.

About half the people taking buyouts are scared into doing it. That's not the case with most of the big names we hear about on this board, the ones who are at ESPN before their buyout checks are even cashed, but it's the ones who won't have as many options when they're cut loose.

 

I'm with Mizzou. I hate it when old farts don't take voluntary buyouts.

Greedy rat bastards!

You can always get work as a Wal-Mart greeter! I don't look good in khakis, dammit.

 

At places I've been, management always found a way to target one or two oldsters and reassign them into some lousy duty as a way of pushing them out the door. Bosses turned their jobs into something they never would have applied for and were qualified way beyond, but the choice became: Eat (dirt) daily or leave now with severance. Lawyers have almost no way of bucking a reassignment.

 

By no means am I saying that all of the old people should be let go so they can be Wal-Mart greeters or spray kids with water whenever they get too close to their lawns...

But in the cases I'm talking about, the papers in question desperately wanted a specific older writer to take a buyout and when they didn't, they had to layoff another employee instead.

I don't blame the old guys. If we all had a card we could play to help our job security, we'd be crazy not to take advantage of it.

 

What I'm saying is, the managers must stink at that place because they couldn't creatively make the guy feel miserable enough about his daily grind that he would prefer to leave. They just took aim at a different staffer? Doesn't show much tenacity or drive to me -- they should have been the ones out the door!

If bosses want to get you out, they can get you out, unless you decide you're going to cling to every last legal protection no matter how shitty they make your day-to-day role. Saw a veteran guy who had covered major beats and national events stuck on small-college coverage . . . just long enough for him to start liking it. As soon as bosses got wind he was enjoying his gig, they jerked that out from under him too. Became a preps guy/G.A., until he took early retirement.

 

If a paper "desperately" wants some old fart to retire, then they should make an offer the old fart can't refuse instead of making some cheapo offer, wringing their hands and jingling their change.

 

NY Times doling out $300K to Greenhouse, 61, to leave her Supreme Court beat.

Jack Shafer thinks that how buyouts work for everyone.

 

Is this backstory on Shafer, or on this Lessenberry character?
I'm so confused.
I should probably be fired.

 

That's what I'm talkin' bout.

Here's $300 large. Make room for some young buck with mounting college debt, beyatch!

 

Well, what's really bizarre is if you want to know how old Jack Shafer is, it's going to take some looking. Finally found it. He was born in October 1951.

 

Guess I got my Shafers and Lessenberrys confused somewhere along the line on this thread, too.

But from what I've read, I'm glad I don't know Jacks.