How to lay off people
It’s sort of beside the point - kind of like asking how you’d rather be executed - but someone raised the issue again of how the Mercury News laid off employees today. In the last round of layoffs, and again today, management ordered everyone to stay home between 8 a.m and 10 a.m. to await a phone call. If they called you before 10 a.m., you were history. No phone call and you were safe. It’s an excruciating two hours and somewhat impersonal. But I’m struggling to see a better alternative. Is walking up to someone’s desk and marching them into HR or the editor’s office - in full view of the newsroom - somehow more humane or respectful? I’d be mortified if I had to go out that way, in front of my friends and colleagues. And when do you do something like that? At a pre-set time? Randomly? How, dear readers, should these situations be handled? How is it done elsewhere? I’m curious.
07 Mar 2008 Michael
It wasn’t that bad this time, or the previous one for that matter.
At least on the desk, we were all told if we were in or out fairly early on. Maybe some reporters and photographers were surprised but nobody in production or features was.
Can’t speak for metro or biz, though, though I know of at least one reporter who knew in advance.
I was at the Santa Cruz Sentinel as an intern last summer when 8 newsroom jobs were cut. I thought the way they did it was cruel. Three weeks went by between the day we were told 8 jobs would be cut and the day the 8 unlucky ones were called at home one night. There were guesses as to who would leave, but come on, 3 weeks of that torture?