Shooting down rumor about Friday

A reader writes that a high level editor says the layoffs will not
happen Friday. For what it's worth.

Useful info on COBRA

A former DMN-er writes:

The economic recovery act passed earlier this year provides COBRA premium assistance for laid-off workers.

Here's a link where folks can find out if it makes sense for them:
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html

Today's unsourced rumor

A reader writes:
"I'm hearing layoffs could start Friday."

Has anyone else heard this?

Pay cuts May 1

Letter from Decherd today:

On Tuesday, the Board of Directors approved my recommendation to reduce my base salary by 20 percent and the base salaries of other Management Committee members
by 15 percent, effective immediately. In addition, all full-time employees making more than $25,000 per year will have reductions in base salary as follows:

Base Salary % Reduction
$25,000 and under 0 %
$25,001 - $74,999 2.5 %
$75,000 - $102,499 5.0 %
$102,500 - $149,999 7.5 %
$150,000 - $225,000 10 %
Over $225,000 15 %

These changes will be effective starting in the payroll cycles on or near May 1. The annual savings represented by these reductions exceed $10 million.

Also:

To cushion the impact of the wage cuts, all impacted employees will receive three additional personal days per calendar year, effective at the time of the salary reductions.

So no furloughs at this point? There may be another shoe to drop, though. The letter ends: "I will communicate with you again soon."

Rumor of the day: cuts early next week

A reader says the word came down from an editor: Layoffs Monday or Tuesday of next week. Anybody else heard this?

Preparation suggestions

I asked for them in my last post and got a couple of good ones that I'll pull out here so they don't get lost in the comments.

One person wrote:

I would recommend setting your email to forward to a private account. I only set mine up to auto-respond when I left.

I just tested it, my @dallasnews.com address will still tell you how to reach me. I have been gone for two years. Had I set it up to forward instead...

What you need to do to follow this suggestion is set up a "rule' in Outlook to forward your e-mail to another account, such as a gmail, yahoo or other private e-mail address.

Another person added:

Make sure it's a server rule, vs. a client rule.

But I don't know what that means.

One more suggestion:

YMMV on email still working after you leave. I have been gone for over two years and my regular web email and VPN login access was cut off within a week of departing, however my Blackberry continued to still have access to DMN email and calenders for another 6 months until I wiped the device. For all I know, I would still have access at this point had I not done that.

I would also recommend setting up a voice mail message on your phone alerting callers of alternate ways to reach you. My DMN extension is still active, 2+ years after departing, still with a message alerting callers that I no longer work there and how they can reach me at my new job.

Now that we've told the company about this, it may be that they will be more alert about cutting off access. But we all know that technology is not what Belo does best.

If you have additional useful suggestions, please put in your comment.

Stacking sandbags

I've been watching video from Fargo. What should we be doing while waiting for the cuts? I have two obvious suggestions:

1) Whether or not you think you might be fired, backup anything you have on a company computer that you think you might want. Contact lists, e-mails, notes, clips, whatever you have that is only in their server needs to be in your own. The easiest way to grab text files is using a flashdrive. Photos or videos will require something more elaborate. Alternately, you can e-mail material to your private account. This may be impossible to do on D Day. I read that last week's Houston layoffs were like the first round here: E-mail and computer access off immediately and perp-walked out the door by HR. The most recent round here was more humane. Even if DMN gives the fired a little time this time, however, you do not want to be making these decisions then.

2) Get your resume ready. Sign onto LinkedIn, Monster, or any other jobs database or social network you think you'd want to be on if you didn't have a job. Figuring out what you want your resume to say, which kinds of jobs you'd be interested in and filling out registrations all take time. Get ahead of it. Most of us assume this cut will not be the last. Many of us would prefer a job that does not have the sense of impending doom that is part of newspaper work today. So whatever preparation you do will not be wasted if you're not among the cut this time. It feels productive, too. Many of us need something to do that doesn't feel like just sitting and waiting.

3) Should you clean out your physical desk in advance? I'm not. If I get cut, they'll need to give me whatever time it will take to pack up what I want. It wouldn't take me that long and I am not worried that they won't let me take what's mine. On the other hand, I know that some people feel better if they feel like they're completely ready. Some people also have more to pack. So I suggest doing what makes you feel better.

Any other suggestions?

And here is a question for DMN HR: What will the procedure be for this round? We know that there are legal reasons you can't answer most of our questions. But that cannot apply to the procedure.

What seems like an unlikely rumor to me

A reader sends this in:

Rumor from the other side of the Metroplex is that DMN has hired 40 "community" journalists mostly in their 20s. Any truth to that?

Does this make sense to anybody? We know that the DMN is talking about reorganizing Local News to focus on specific communities. We know that there has been talk about how to recruit "citizen journalists." Can this be related to that?

UPDATE: Look at the comments. There may not be fire, but there is some smoke.

TV Belo cuts

Belo the TV company is now much more cousin than sibling to the DMN, but a reader passes this along:

They did layoffs at TXCN yesterday, a total of 11 people, mostly in production.

Whistling past the graveyard

While we wait for the inevitable.
It has come to me that some of you don't get my Spartacus reference. Too highbrow? Pepsi used it for a Super Bowl ad a couple of years ago, so how smart can it be?


I'm Spartacus - video powered by Metacafe

Here's the original:



(And yes, I know there isn't what you'd call a happy ending to the story...:) )