When layoffs happen

Everybody at sizable dailies is worried about this it seems. So for those who know, when layoffs are made, on what basis are they usually made?
Reverse seniority?
Seniority?
Evaluations?
Drawing straws?
I would think in this age, as newspapers strive to be relevant, that reverse seniority layoffs would just about be that last nail in the coffin of newspapers.

 

And yet I believe that's how it works at my shop...

 

I knew this one guy that got the boot after saying something really stupid.

 

OK. I can see why a union would do this, though I don't agree.
What about non-union newsrooms?

 

Unions: protecting the lazy and underqualified, and helping burned-out veterans mail it in since . . . God knows when.

 

Good lord, Russo finally figured out how to work a computer and he comes here? We're all screwed. I can feel my IQ drop and my command of the English language weakening.

 

I guess it depends on how bad management thinks the newsroom bleeds money. I was laid off with a few other full-timers and every part-time worker in the newsroom. I think it was mostly to trim a little while scaring the remaining workers into doing more.

Make no mistake. Whether it's union, non-union, been there a few months, been there a few years, getting laid off for no reason other than to save them a little change feels like getting kicked in the balls. It's a sickening feeling to know that nothing you worked for really mattered. You're just an expendable cog.

 

Union-busting management: Cannibalizing your most experienced employees and decimating newsrooms in favor of inexperienced and incompetent kids who'll work for jack shit since ... one day before "God knows when."

 

kids get preachy here about the laziness surrounding experience, then turn around and rail about not working a second more than 40 hours. i don't think they can have it both ways.