Well, the other shoe did drop and we were told Wednesday (the 2nd) that 40 percent of our 370-person workforce would be laid off. That means about 170 people. All sorts of guessing is going on right now as to which sections (entertainment? metro? sports?) will get the ax and whether those of us who work on national desk are truly safer. Providentially, our main competition ran a front-page story on the layoffs and the last thing the president of our company said is he wants to keep the religion/values reporting. So *my* job seems secure although technically we have all been laid off. Then 60% will be told they are retained, although the conditions they will continue to work under might be quite different. Which is what a lot of us are also wondering about.
Anyway, the first wave of people who will have to go will start in about two weeks, we're told, JUST before Christmas. Isn't the timing lovely? So of course all of us are wondering how much to spend for Christmas, whether that bathroom remodel we'd planned for January will have to be scrapped; that sort of thing. Many people in the newsroom are quite depressed and angry at the recent revelations of some of the obscenely high salaries that the higher-ups in my organization were getting while the rest of us have been scraping along. It's been a real morale killer.
But at this point all of us are simply glad to have work - and health insurance - which puts us in a better place than where many Americans are at this point.
1 comment:
Hi, Julia. I came here after listening to your interview with CBN news over your book Days of Glory: The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community. Sorry to hear of the layoffs, although I've learned not to trust affirmations when they say certain positions are secure.
I was much heartened by your interview. You had such a compassionate view of the demise of the charismatic community in America. In your interview, you came across as knowledgeable without arrogance--a rare mix, as knowledge often breeds arrogance.
Your treatment of the matter was so gentle and nonjudgemental that I'm interested in your book now. Upon first hearing of it, I thought your book must be another of those mean exposes and snobbish putdowns of religion by the nonreligious.
But after hearing of your intimate involvement in the charismatic community and listening to your kind and humble assertions of it, I want to read your book, if nothing else, just to feel good about the Church again (I'm a 50-year old practicing pentecostal from Houston) and to know that sane, thinking people exist in the midst of charismatic fervor.
Thanks for addressing the issue in such a compassionate manner.
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