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Walk-outs

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Written Off, Jul 3, 2008.

  1. Written Off

    Written Off New Member

    How far are we from actually giving the proverbial finger to the businesses before they give it to us?
    In the weeks before layoffs happen, why don't people just start walking out on deadline and not turning in stories? What are they going to do? Lay you off again? Make sure you don't work in this dead industry any more?
    I know not getting the job done is a poor alternative, but at what point should everyone just revolt?
    It is that bad right now.
    Why not send a message to companies that you're not going to take it any more?

    Would anyone here ever start such a movement with layoff/buyouts on their way?
     
  2. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Given the number of layoffs around the nation, if you walk off the job in protest the paper won't have a problem finding somebody to replace you ASAP.
     
  3. BrianGriffin

    BrianGriffin Active Member

    My experience so far has been that the people we are losing for layoffs, we are losing from the business, period. I haven't seen the applicant pool increase with unemployed veterans.

    Having said that, walking out probably isn't the best way to handle the situation at this point.
     
  4. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    For the last opening here, we got more than 100 resumes for a prep writer position in flyover country.

    From kids right out of college to several people who'd been downsized at bigger papers.
     
  5. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    You're going to have to have pretty strong convictions to walk out, because if you do, it's cause, and it's goodbye severance package, goodbye extended health benefits, goodbye whatever other things you managed to salvage from the situation.
     
  6. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    Yeah, at my last shop, the resume pool was enormous. Around 200.
     
  7. thegrifter

    thegrifter Member

    Make sure you're happy where you're at now, cause I don't think there will be many openings in the future. Just look at the APSE job site. Amazing the list is sooo small in July.
    good luck everyone
     
  8. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Resigning and not giving two weeks' notice to people who'd fire you even if you did give notice is enough rebellion.
     
  9. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    You give this business the finger by leaving it. You take your passion, your "calling," your work ethic, your standards, your experience, your training, your context and your credibility with you, gone forever from their midst.

    It will not save them, running off folks like you and me. It will only hasten their demise, by which time you will have this poison out of your system and be on the road not just to recovery but to a brighter and surely saner future.

    I've never seen a work force of college graduates treated so shabbily and disrespected so thoroughly as the newspaper honchos treat journalists. They don't deserve us. My biggest disappointment is that so many of us still are willing to work for them, entirely on their terms. Meanwhile, the guy or gal at the next desk gets clobbered, even though the honchos can't carry that person's jock in any way beyond title and wealth.
     
  10. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    It'd be nice if some group tried.
     
  11. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    I'm sorry, I could see the rationale behind walking out, I really can, but in the end you're only fucking yourself.

    You've got to remember that just because you might be getting laid off in this industry, doesn't mean you don't still have to find employment elsewhere. Any employer worth working for is going to ask you why you left your last place of employment.
     
  12. suburbia

    suburbia Active Member

    If you think walking out is going to somehow change things for the better, you're ridiculously naive.

    The powers-that-be either don't care about the experience and talent they're losing here, or they think their audience somehow won't notice and/or care. Either way, they'll keep on perpetuating this vicious cycle because it allows them to maximize their short-term profits, which keeps the shareholders and the execs happy. The rest is a problem for someone else and/or some other time.

    Walking off the job in protest only saves them the trouble of buying you out or laying you off.
     
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