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As a former CT employee, I agree with the comments about Hatchet Hammer. He is a most unpleasant person. Why make people suffer about losing their jobs? Tell them the day that they are going to lose their jobs, that day not six weeks before they do. I also agree about the Ad Director. Why this woman continues to keep her job when revenue is at an all time low, I do not know. They forced a previous ad director from his job a couple of years ago and he wasn’t off revenue goals anywhere close to the dismal numbers they have now. Speaking of dismal, check out the CTimes circulation numbers. Reaching less than 30% of their designated market area during the week.
There have been some really good people at the CT. Many like myself left because they knew Hatchet Hammer would force them to leave. I preferred to go of my own free will. Ask Mr. Hammer if he and the other directors will forego their annual HUGE bonuses. Gotta love it. I am sure that they will buy bigger, fancier cars and bigger fancier homes on the backs of the pressman, the laid off directors and the other lowly people that work their.
Talk about a bad reputation. There are thousands of previous CT employees in the area that loathe Gannett. Ask some advertisers about customer service. Hah! My prediction. They will sell the building downtown (which is worth a tidy sum) and move everyone to Sardis Road.
Get rid of Randy Hammer! He is a most unpleasant man and is universally disliked, even loathed by staff in all depts., especially the news room. I’m not sure what value he really ads locally, except being the hatchet man for Gannett. His role could easily be taken over by the Publisher of the Greenville News, so let’s start the consolidation at the top of the organizational chart.
"anon" just put it all in perspective …
From the Gannettblog.blogspot.com 11-27-08
Happy Thanksgiving ?
Today is the day we get together with family and friends to give thanks for things that we are thankful for.
Should I Be Thankful for:
Seven restless nights since a week ago today Asheville Citizen-Times Publisher Randy Hammer said we are consolidating our production departments with our sister Gannett paper, The Greenville News, 63 miles away, in South Carolina. 60 jobs were eliminated in Asheville, some of the employees laid off are transferring to new jobs being added at Greenville to handle the extra work, mainly press jobs. For mailroom employees, we were offered a limited number of Part-time mailroom jobs avg. 20-25 hrs. a week at $6.50 hr. I’m going to drive 2 1/2 hours round trip in good weather, double that if there’s snow or ice, to work part-time. Yeah that will pay for my gas, but what about my mortgage, utilities, and food for my family? But I should be thankful for the offer, right?
With hindsight I wish now I had stood up for everyone affected that day and asked Mr. Hammer why everyone that had been previously laid off that it was effective immediately. In some cases, HR was there at 9:00 am to inform them that their position had been eliminated and they were packed up and gone before lunchtime. Why were the Production jobs not handled the same way? Why? Could it be that they needed all of us to produce the biggest Thanksgiving paper ACT has ever produced? I should have said, “You expect us to bust our asses to get you through the heaviest work load of the year and then show us the door.” We all should have said, “HELL NO, let Greenville do it.” you’re going to screw us, no we are going to screw you and we should have gotten up and walked out. But Gannett had already thought that out. As outlined in our Severance Packages “This severance is contingent upon your working through 01-04-09 with perfect attendance, except in the case of sick time that is supported by a Doctor’s note.“ How Clever. Gotcha.
I’m thankful to live in a country where I have Freedom of Speech.
Now I choose to exercise that right!
Talking to friends and family I’m amazed how many people have not yet heard about their local paper being printed in Greenville, and all of the people that are losing their jobs here at the Sardis Road Production Facility. It’s time I start a movement to make sure everyone in Western North Carolina knows what is happening and how Gannett is treating me and my hard working co-workers. The story was printed at the bottom of our local news section page. I’ve seen us give front-page treatment to stories with much less impact. This is a story about a local company that been a fixture for 123 years in WNC shutting down an entire production facility and laying off 60 workers in the midst of a downed economy, and it gets bottom-of-the-page, inside section only. WLOS-TV had only maybe a thirty second snippet concerning this event. Could it be Gannett only wants minimal coverage about this story?
I think its time WNC stands up to Gannett and sends a message that WNC will boycott ACT and will not purchase a paper until Gannett rethinks their decision, and gives us our jobs back so that it will benefit Asheville NC not Greenville SC. Our last edition is 01-04-09 that will be printed here locally. What a shame. I’m sure everyone at ACT never thought that their hard work, dedication, and pride in a job well done would have ever ended like this. So I guess today I should be thankful that I had this opportunity to work with a very dedicated group of people that I’ll greatly miss working with much too soon. Happy Thanksgiving
It was not my choice to leave.
Loyal ACT Employee
As for wearing black that was posted on the Gannett Blog by one of the sixty employees that are losing their job at Sardis.
I was a loyal employee for many years right up until another employee took my will away. It was then I decided to make a life change and while hard at times to make my mortgage and buy groceries it does not compare to waiting around to see if I was going to lose my job. I just could not deal with that in my situation.
My heart is with everyone that ever worked at the paper or still does and realizes that this week might be the hardest thing ever gone through. All of us expatriates know people that still work there and realize how scary it must be and we all hope and pray for the best outcome for you and your families.
you know Zip, i gotta say, i’m not feelin’ ya. i think i have to agree with LoyalACT. i don’t understand your obsession with a place and company you worked for for such a short time. i’m not trying to out you or anything, but you chose to leave, so move forward, move on.
Jeff
Yeah. I heard that Ad Services now sits in those dilapidated old desk that are falling apart. You can allegedly thank the advertising director for that one. As for the Call Center, it still exist but on the first floor under a possible new name. Same group of people and I believe you meant customer service that moved to Greenville.
i think zipperhead is talking about inside sales. there’s a rumor the whole dept will go.
Hey Zip! Why don’t go back to your domestic duties and let the grown-ups comment here?
First of all, there is no call center at the ACT.
Secondly, you don’t work here, so where to you get off telling us to wear black?
Just because some of your dissenter buddies in Ad Services slide you the occasional internal memo doesn’t mean you have a clue as to what is going on at the newspaper.
No one is exempt from the layoffs, now or in the future, including the remaining directors. No one is looking forward to Dec. 3, including the ones who will be left behind. It’s people like you, the malcontent expatriates, who try to breed a toxic atmosphere of "us against them" without fully understanding that attitudes like that don’t affect positive change.
Management reads crap like this post and the communication stops coming down to the front lines. It breads distrust. It is counter-productive and it makes it harder for us breadwinners to keep our jobs.
Um. The call center was moved to Florida about a year and a half ago. That whole room full of people handling delivery complaints etc.. just inside the circulation dept to the right? All those empty desks? That’s where they used to work. There were more empty desks, but they got moved to the basement.
Everyone wear black this week at the ACT.
Newsroom safe? What about Ad Services and the call center.
Why don’t the employees boot the Advertising Director?
Jim Hopkins’ Gannett Blog gives a breakdown of reported 2007 earnings and profit margins (first three quarters) for more than 80 Gannett papers, including the Citizen-Times.
We reported it at mountain xpress earlier today at http://www.mountainx.com/news/2008/gannett_blog_reports_gannetts_2007_ad_sales_margins_details_citizen_times_2
Combine these 2007 numbers with the national estimated downturn in daily-paper ad revenues for the third quarter 2008 (off 18%), and one can make a guess at this year’s revenues for the C-T. One factor that could soften this is revenues in small markets have been holding up better than in big ones.
if the newsroom is safe, 10% certainly makes it interesting for the rest of us. i wonder how many co workers i’ll see in the building over the weekend, boxes in hand, in anticipation of the layoff. one thing’s for sure, i don’t need someone hanging over my shoulder while i pack, waiting to escort me out the door.