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Sports editor's OT lawsuit against Gannett

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by gannettblog, Aug 14, 2010.

  1. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Bottom line is, Gannett is a billion dollar company that paid its CEO a $1.5 million bonus after layoffs and furloughs. And they have the nerve to try to screw their workers out of being paid for their time worked.

    They don't care about their workers. It's a business, and that's how they treat it as. And that's what every employee should be doing, too. Professional pride is great and all, but it makes for a lousy meal.

    I can understand managers being worried about poor evaluations and the loss of their job. That's a legitimate reason. But at the same time, they have to realize that the company will drop them in an instant if they want.

    Each year I worked at Gannett (as a non-manager), I had an evaluation. I was a pretty good employee, usually ranking about 3.5 out of 5, who my managers would tell me that they were perfectly happy with, but that they had to put some negative comments down on the evaluation because management didn't want all positive evaluations. In other words, the evaluation was a joke.

    So if your a manager who fears a poor evaluation, put down every single positive accomplishment. Point out the number of hours worked each week in the evaluation. Put it in black and white. That way, if and when they try to point out that you're an inefficient employee, you have some facts to back you up. If they're going to let you go, they were going to anyways.
     
  2. Magic In The Night

    Magic In The Night Active Member

    The funny thing is, at my shop, evaluations are even beyond what the "overtaxed" managers can fit into their days. A year ago, a few days before I left for my vacation around the Fourth of July, I was told I HAD to get my self-evaluation done because it was necessary for them to do my evaluation. More than a year later, I have not received my evaluation back because apparently somewhere along the pipeline (4,000 people have to sign off on it), it got stuck. As we have been in a wage freeze, meaning no merit raises unless you're heading off to the Wall Street Journal, presumably, for almost two years, I haven't really cared about it because I'm not getting anything out of it anyway.
     
  3. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    If David "L.C." Johnson wins, a hell is going to break loose. There would be countless followers which could seriously cripple an already fragile industry.
     
  4. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Tough shit. People are supposed to follow the law.

    But I would guess that more than half the hourly people who work more than 40 hours without putting in for OT never have a conversation with their boss about how many hours they are working.

    You aren't sitting in the office for 40 hours most likely. So if the boss doesn't see you working more than 40 or hear you saying you are working more than 40, he's probably going to assume you aren't working more than 40.

    Why rock the boat?

    People have to stand up for themselves.
     
  5. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    I hear ya.
     
  6. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Gannett won't let him win a court case, and risk the publicity. If Gannett sees that he has any chance of winning, they'll settle the case quietly with a confidentiality clause.
     
  7. Yup.

    My hunch is Gannett expects to be able to prove that it fired Johnson for valid reasons that had nothing to do with his wage-and-hour complaints. (And that may in fact be accurate).

    But they still might settle in order to avoid the risk of airing all this dirty laundry in court and prompting some sort of federal complaint/investigation or class-action or any other consequence.

    Remember (and someone correct me if I'm wrong), Johnson is suing for wrongful termination. This isn't strictly a wage-and-hour case, per se.
     
  8. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Haw. I've had jobs (a couple) where, as a salaried "manager," I was routinely expected/demanded to work 70-80 hours a week, every week, 52 weeks a year. (Theoretically I had 2 weeks vacation but in practice it was always impossible to take more than 2 days in a row off).

    When things slowed down in the summer and I could actually get the job done on (egads) 40 hours a week (including TWO days off), the bitch ME loaded me up with busy-work grip-and-grin photos, bullshit feature stories, etc etc.

    This was the same khundt who would regularly schedule throwaway G&G photos for 8 a.m. Saturday, after I had put the paper to bed at 1:30 the night before.

    Newspapers have been pulling this shit for decades.
     
  9. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I don't know.

    I can tell you that it's not a Gannett-wide policy to force people to work more than 40 hours without paying OT.
     
  10. StaggerLee

    StaggerLee Well-Known Member

    Don't worry, Gannett will find a way to recoup that money from current employees. I'm sure furloughs will be implemented again as soon as a judge rules in Johnson's favor.
     
  11. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    True. And at the Gannett paper I worked, they did pay for any and all overtime, as long as the employee notified them in advance that they were going over 40. And I don't know of any hourly employee that was told they must put in extra time without pay. Cramming in enough work to be stressed out for 40 hours, sure. And managers did have to put in more than 40.

    But there are enough stories about employees and Gannett properties out there that you know they sure as heck don't want to lose any OT lawsuits. If they did, the whole culture of fearing to lose one's job if you don't put in the unpaid overtime might go out the window.
     
  12. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    This is the great paradox of this industry at present. Too damn many of us (self included) structure our entire lives around getting things done in ways that meet our standards.

    I'm working between 50-60 hours this week because we have a FOOTBALL TAB coming out next week and that means interviews, research, extra writing, etc. Oh, and, yes, we still have a 7-day daily to put out as well. And we have one fewer staff member to do all of this than we did a year ago.

    Why do we do this to ourselves? I don't know.

    What would happen if I said "F the tab assignments, I'm working my usual 40 and going home"? Again, I don't know.

    I guess I am coming the realization that there has to be a balance between enjoying one's work enough to take the extra time to do it well and not allowing others to push you over the edge. Exactly where that fine line is I am not yet sure.
     
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