Walk-outs

[Written Off]

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?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

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.

 

[BrianGriffin]

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.

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.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

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.

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.

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.

 

[SF_Express]

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.

 

[Angola!]

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.

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.

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.

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

 

[thegrifter]

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

 

[forever_town]

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

 

[Joe Williams]

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.

 

[mustangj17]

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.

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.

It'd be nice if some group tried.

 

[schiezainc]

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

 

[suburbia]

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.

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.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

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.

Inspiring. Truly.

You have to leave it all behind with dignity. Let the industry crumble. It might be the best thing we do to save journalism.

 

[Joe Williams]

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.

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.

So suburbia, you're agreeing with me that leaving -- not walking out in protest like some teenager in a snit but leaving on your own terms, with another job lined up or some other post-newspaper plan, rather than passively waiting for a buyout, layoff or a magic pill -- is the way to go?

Based on everything else you said above, if you are willing to work for such jerks on an open-ended basis and aren't looking to determine your own fate, you would be the one who is ridiculously naive.

I'm actually not sure why you were quoting me. I'm not the one advocating leaving in a huff. I'm merely advocating leaving, ASAP.

 

[Written Off]

I agree that my entire topic is immature. It's just a helpless feeling. I'm not talking about one person walking off the job; I'm talking about an entire staff.
Is it stupid? Yes.
At least it's something.
This is the most helpless feeling in the world. I find zero reason for optimism in the field in which I've always worked and always wanted to work.
It sucks.
I guess what I mostly wanted to hear is can't we do something? Anything? Just something to say they need us, if only a little bit.
Or are we doomed with the options of leave or be dumped?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

We're doomed. Sorry to break it to you.

Ask the people who were in Detroit in the mid-90s what happens when you walk out. Any power that unions had in the newspaper industry went with them when they walked.

 

[BrianGriffin]

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.

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.

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.

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

I guess our shop sucks!

Strange thing is we are a decent size paper, decent pay for the market (nothing great, but not horrible) and, as a family owned, relatively safe from all the downsizing going on...

Yet a well-advertised pagination position we had about 10 months ago had maybe a half dozen applicants or so. A photog position, also well advertised, got even less.

 

[schiezainc]

The fact is, there will always be a demand for local news and local content. Newspapers aren't going anywhere. They may change, there may be a complete makeover, but the basics will always--always--exist.

If you can't handle the changes, maybe you need to rethink your future.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The fact is, there will always be a demand for local news and local content. Newspapers aren't going anywhere. They may change, there may be a complete makeover, but the basics will always--always--exist.

If you can't handle the changes, maybe you need to rethink your future.

There are plenty of journalists who can handle the changes. They aren't being given the opportunity to because the executives above them ****ed up and figure it's easier to chop jobs than try to work a solution.

 

[schiezainc]

The fact is, there will always be a demand for local news and local content. Newspapers aren't going anywhere. They may change, there may be a complete makeover, but the basics will always--always--exist.

If you can't handle the changes, maybe you need to rethink your future.

There are plenty of journalists who can handle the changes. They aren't being given the opportunity to because the executives above them ****ed up and figure it's easier to chop jobs than try to work a solution.

Oh there's no doubt about that. My point is that the industry will exist, in some way, for the rest of our lives.

How we adapt to those changes will determine our ability to land/keep jobs in the field.

But, like the industry, stupid execs will always be on top. It's that way in every field, every career, every job opportunity. You show me one good executive who knows what he/she is doing and I'll show you 40 that don't.