McClatchy newspapers

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Ritterskoop · #1 Post by **Ritterskoop** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:45 am

Eliminating 11% of staff due to stinky economy.

Voluntary and involuntary as necessary.

I got frustrated last week and wanted to be a voluntary, but then I got a nice pep talk, and also found out my blood sugar was out of whack and could be fixed, bringing back my coping skills, so I am staying as long as they'll have me.

Meeting later today to find out how long that is....

kayrharris · #2 Post by **kayrharris** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:47 am

Good vibes from here.

Bob Juch · #3 Post by **Bob Juch** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:49 am

Does anyone still read printed newspapers?

I hope things work out.

hermillion · #4 Post by **hermillion** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:57 am

Ritterskoop wrote:Eliminating 11% of staff due to stinky economy.

Voluntary and involuntary as necessary.

I got frustrated last week and wanted to be a voluntary, but then I got a nice pep talk, and also found out my blood sugar was out of whack and could be fixed, bringing back my coping skills, so I am staying as long as they'll have me.

Meeting later today to find out how long that is....

May everything work out the way you want it to.

And, let's get that blood sugar back in whack!

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #5 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:02 am

Bob Juch wrote:Does anyone still read printed newspapers?

I hope things work out.

I do.

We used to get the Register and the LA Times daily, but now just get the LA Times daily and the Register on weekends.

Ritterskoop · #6 Post by **Ritterskoop** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:03 am

The pep talk implied I am one of the folks who helps get us through ugly transitions like this, so I feel untargeted.

But I am ready to take that buyout and go elsewhere if that's how it works out.

silvercamaro · #7 Post by **silvercamaro** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:17 am

I hope this works out in exactly the way that is very best for you!

MarleysGh0st · #8 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:00 am

Good luck, Skoop, with whichever outcome you want.

tlynn78 · #9 Post by **tlynn78** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:02 am

Best of luck, Skoopy. It'll happen the way it's supposed to.

t.

kusch · #10 Post by **kusch** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:20 am

Holding good thoughts for you skoop.

Since I have never been in your situation I would have little advice that may apply. I will take a stab however. On the voluntary (you cannot do anything with the non-voluntary thingie) take as much time as you are allowed to make the decision. No, "snap" or "quick" thing.

Beebs52 · #11 Post by **Beebs52** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:21 am

I wish you the best in the unsettled timeage you're going through. The fact that you were a pep-talkee is very positive, though. So, luck in making the best decision for you.

earendel · #12 Post by **earendel** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 12:12 pm

Bob Juch wrote:Does anyone still read printed newspapers?

I hope things work out.

I do. It's a lot easier than trying to carry a notebook PC on the bus and read news on the Internet. Also, I do the crossword puzzles. Now if I had an iPhone...

Cue the song from Fiddler on the Roof

If I had an iPhone
Ya-va-di-va-di-va-di-va-di-va-dum
All day long I'd surf the Internet
if I had a new iPhone.

Ritterskoop · #13 Post by **Ritterskoop** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:37 pm

9 folks in my work group - 2 must go.

If two don't go voluntarily, they take the two with the least seniority.

I am somewhere around No. 3-5, so I don't have to go if I don't want to. But we are also merging our desk with the Raleigh sports desk, with lots of challenges upcoming.

They have improved the offer to 40 weeks of pay (I'm at 20 years), plus 3 months of insurance with the option of buying 15 more. I might take it, once I check on retirement benefits. If that money will still be there when I retire, I might do this.

Bob Juch · #14 Post by **Bob Juch** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:47 pm

Ritterskoop wrote:9 folks in my work group - 2 must go.

If two don't go voluntarily, they take the two with the least seniority.

I am somewhere around No. 3-5, so I don't have to go if I don't want to. But we are also merging our desk with the Raleigh sports desk, with lots of challenges upcoming.

They have improved the offer to 40 weeks of pay (I'm at 20 years), plus 3 months of insurance with the option of buying 15 more. I might take it, once I check on retirement benefits. If that money will still be there when I retire, I might do this.

Times are rough. You might go for over a year without finding a new job. I'd find the new job first.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #15 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:54 pm

Ritterskoop wrote:9 folks in my work group - 2 must go.

If two don't go voluntarily, they take the two with the least seniority.

I am somewhere around No. 3-5, so I don't have to go if I don't want to. But we are also merging our desk with the Raleigh sports desk, with lots of challenges upcoming.

They have improved the offer to 40 weeks of pay (I'm at 20 years), plus 3 months of insurance with the option of buying 15 more. I might take it, once I check on retirement benefits. If that money will still be there when I retire, I might do this.

Could you teach full time? Would that give you more job satisfaction?

ulysses5019 · #16 Post by **ulysses5019** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:59 pm

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:
Ritterskoop wrote:9 folks in my work group - 2 must go.

If two don't go voluntarily, they take the two with the least seniority.

I am somewhere around No. 3-5, so I don't have to go if I don't want to. But we are also merging our desk with the Raleigh sports desk, with lots of challenges upcoming.

They have improved the offer to 40 weeks of pay (I'm at 20 years), plus 3 months of insurance with the option of buying 15 more. I might take it, once I check on retirement benefits. If that money will still be there when I retire, I might do this.
Could you teach full time? Would that give you more job satisfaction?

I think skoop should be become a fulltime sploofer. Of course she has to contend with juliannars and that upstart scoop.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #17 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 3:29 pm

ulysses5019 wrote:
PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:
Ritterskoop wrote:9 folks in my work group - 2 must go.

If two don't go voluntarily, they take the two with the least seniority.

I am somewhere around No. 3-5, so I don't have to go if I don't want to. But we are also merging our desk with the Raleigh sports desk, with lots of challenges upcoming.

They have improved the offer to 40 weeks of pay (I'm at 20 years), plus 3 months of insurance with the option of buying 15 more. I might take it, once I check on retirement benefits. If that money will still be there when I retire, I might do this.
Could you teach full time? Would that give you more job satisfaction?
I think skoop should be become a fulltime sploofer. Of course she has to contend with juliannars and that upstart scoop.

JuliannaRS is such a bitch.

Catfish · #18 Post by **Catfish** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 3:36 pm

Well if full-time sploofusing isn't practical, I certainly hope everything else works out the way you want it to. Good luck with the pondering.

Ritterskoop · #19 Post by **Ritterskoop** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:04 pm

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:
Could you teach full time? Would that give you more job satisfaction?

I could if anyone would hire me. The department chair I work for now is not optimistic about budgeting. If I taught a full load I would make about half what I make now, but I would only work 202-25 hours a week for it. So I'd have to do something else, but I've always thought I'd like to take tickets at the art house movie theater nearby.

I have some applications out, one with a local ethics consulting company.

I am also looking at three-year positions with the Census Bureau. Not the interviewing kind, at which I would suck, but the logistics or equal-opportunity-employment management kind.

Thanks for the good wishes, I will sit on it for a few days.

mellytu74 · #20 Post by **mellytu74** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:56 pm

Ritterskoop wrote:

I am also looking at three-year positions with the Census Bureau. Not the interviewing kind, at which I would suck, but the logistics or equal-opportunity-employment management kind.

My cousin did this for the last census. She was a travel agent and needed a break.

She moved from logistics to interviewing. She ended up working with Native American tribes in South Dakota.

It was, on the whole, a hugely satisfying experience.

Is this an across-the-board McClatchy thing?

I want to email a couple of friends in Sacramento and Fresno but wanted to get the facts straight first.

silvercamaro · #21 Post by **silvercamaro** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:13 pm

mellytu74 wrote:
Is this an across-the-board McClatchy thing?

I want to email a couple of friends in Sacramento and Fresno but wanted to get the facts straight first.

It seems to be hitting all the McClatchy papers, with 86 jobs gone in Sacramento and 44 in Fresno. Skoop's paper was hit even harder, behind only Miami and Fort Worth. Approximately 1,400 jobs are targeted across the country.

My source is an anti-McClatchy web site that has been trying to get counts for all the newspapers affected. If you scroll down, you can read the McClatchy corporate press release, too.
http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/

When you e-mail your friends, I think you are safe in just wading right in. None of this is very secret.

Ritterskoop · #22 Post by **Ritterskoop** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:45 pm

silvercamaro wrote:
mellytu74 wrote:
Is this an across-the-board McClatchy thing?

I want to email a couple of friends in Sacramento and Fresno but wanted to get the facts straight first.
It seems to be hitting all the McClatchy papers, with 86 jobs gone in Sacramento and 44 in Fresno. Skoop's paper was hit even harder, behind only Miami and Fort Worth. Approximately 1,400 jobs are targeted across the country.

My source is an anti-McClatchy web site that has been trying to get counts for all the newspapers affected. If you scroll down, you can read the McClatchy corporate press release, too.
http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/

When you e-mail your friends, I think you are safe in just wading right in. None of this is very secret.

It was secretish until today, but now it's a bloodbath. A favorite co-worker from production will lose her job because she has 23 years on the job and the other person in her "work group" has 25. She will also get a nice severance package but she does not want to leave. I will talk her into being glad about it.

We lost 123 jobs in Charlotte, around 10-11%. Miami was 17%, which makes me think maybe they had too many anyway. Raleigh is around 8%.

My quotient or ratio or whatever right now is 65% toward taking the buyout. That will shift around over the next four days.

sunflower · #23 Post by **sunflower** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:31 pm

Ritterskoop wrote:9 folks in my work group - 2 must go.

If two don't go voluntarily, they take the two with the least seniority.

I am somewhere around No. 3-5, so I don't have to go if I don't want to. But we are also merging our desk with the Raleigh sports desk, with lots of challenges upcoming.

They have improved the offer to 40 weeks of pay (I'm at 20 years), plus 3 months of insurance with the option of buying 15 more. I might take it, once I check on retirement benefits. If that money will still be there when I retire, I might do this.

Just as an FYI (and you may already know this) but as far as insurance, if your employer has at least 20 full time employees, they're bound by COBRA which means that you have the right to purchase the exact same health benefits that you have today for up to 18 months following termination.

Ritterskoop · #24 Post by **Ritterskoop** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:57 pm

sunflower wrote:
Ritterskoop wrote:9 folks in my work group - 2 must go.

If two don't go voluntarily, they take the two with the least seniority.

I am somewhere around No. 3-5, so I don't have to go if I don't want to. But we are also merging our desk with the Raleigh sports desk, with lots of challenges upcoming.

They have improved the offer to 40 weeks of pay (I'm at 20 years), plus 3 months of insurance with the option of buying 15 more. I might take it, once I check on retirement benefits. If that money will still be there when I retire, I might do this.
Just as an FYI (and you may already know this) but as far as insurance, if your employer has at least 20 full time employees, they're bound by COBRA which means that you have the right to purchase the exact same health benefits that you have today for up to 18 months following termination.

Yeah, we get 3 months at the current rate, and then can purchase 15 months more. Most folks will have new jobs by then with new coverage.

peacock2121 · #25 Post by **peacock2121** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 6:44 am

You are good at figuring out what is motivating your actions and then choosing if you want that to be your motivation. You are good at logical thinking and at being who you say you want to be.

You are fortunate to have the space to do all that without being forced into a corner.

You will succeed at whatever you choose to do. You will also choose and not be forced - this I know for sure.

WWTBAM Bored

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