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I have learned tonight that there have been new layoffs at the SR. I know of three news staffers who have lost their jobs. As I am no longer involved and have not talked with the new editor in some months, I do not know if these are the only staff reductions or if there are more to come. I have tried not to become involved in SR affairs since leaving the paper. But I have to say these latest cuts are deeply hurtful. I hired all three of these people and have seen them grow and develop. Their loss will cause the newsroom added pain and will, of course, make it even harder to cover the news/Steve Smith, Still A Newspaperman. More here.
Question: Have you ever had to fire or lay someone off?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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Lynne on March 06 at 1:25 p.m.
The hardest part of my job
Reviewing Resumes
Interviewing
Training
Firing
I hate it. And there are so many workers out there that are lazy (don’t even get me started on the “clock watchers”) or simply don’t take pride in their work anymore. I’ve been through more than a dozen of them over the years.
Charlie on March 06 at 2:20 p.m.
Like Lynne, I had several positions that required me to hire, fire and train people. The first time I terminated an employee was almost traumatic, it took me 3 days to do it. It got slightly easier in time, but not much. What made it easier was keeping your employees up to speed on their performance and the consequences if they did not.
As Lynne stated, there are people out there that I don’t know how they survive. Bad penmanship, incomplete applications and to me the worst, coming to an interview looking like you just got out of bed in dirty clothes. I don’t have to do it anymore, that’s a relief.
Rosalind on March 06 at 2:46 p.m.
But the Spokesman is making so much money with their online stuff! How can this happen??
In my experience, laying someone off is easier because the person can get severance, unemployment, etc. And there’s no confrontation on poor work performance. But on the other hand, laying someone off sucks a lot.