Update from the trenches
Thanks to all of you who sent me notes of support today. It really means a lot to me that I have friends who care about my welfare/want to get a firsthand account of the wreckage.
Anyway, the irony is that Sports Illustrated's editorial department has the day off today as a compensating day for working the MLK holiday. I kind of put off finding out what happened for as long as I could, but eventually I had to get online, log in to my work e-mail and check my office voicemail, hoping there was not a message personally addressed to me.
All there was were memos from Time Inc. execs Ann Moore and John Huey (who never have to worry about their jobs, sniff) and our managing editor. You can read all those memos on Gawker, which is perhaps giddily overusing the word "carnage" in their liveblogging coverage of Black Thursday (you'll have to scroll down their frontpage; their "time-inc" tag isn't showing all the updates from today).
But for the news you/I care most about: SI has to can 23 editorial staffers. No names have been named yet, because our managing editor is asking for volunteers to take severance packages. We have until Feb. 1 to decide. I really do have to give our managing editor credit for trying to make it as easy on us as possible (as opposed to People's ME, who apparently delivered the news via speakerphone. Yes, exactly like Big Brother). The memo enumerated the minimum that needs to be reduced in each position. Fortunately, they only need to make one elimination in my category, reporter-researcher. But there really isn't much good news in all this, because it's weird to hope that one of my co-workers will (have to) leave so that I can stay.
Also, for the first time, I am actually feeling a little laborforce anger. Time Inc. isn't losing money per se, we're just not growing at a rate desirable to the ones on top, who have lunch with Gay Talese while the rest of us heat up day-old chicken parm and worry about losing our sub-mid-five-figure salaries.
Anyway, the irony is that Sports Illustrated's editorial department has the day off today as a compensating day for working the MLK holiday. I kind of put off finding out what happened for as long as I could, but eventually I had to get online, log in to my work e-mail and check my office voicemail, hoping there was not a message personally addressed to me.
All there was were memos from Time Inc. execs Ann Moore and John Huey (who never have to worry about their jobs, sniff) and our managing editor. You can read all those memos on Gawker, which is perhaps giddily overusing the word "carnage" in their liveblogging coverage of Black Thursday (you'll have to scroll down their frontpage; their "time-inc" tag isn't showing all the updates from today).
But for the news you/I care most about: SI has to can 23 editorial staffers. No names have been named yet, because our managing editor is asking for volunteers to take severance packages. We have until Feb. 1 to decide. I really do have to give our managing editor credit for trying to make it as easy on us as possible (as opposed to People's ME, who apparently delivered the news via speakerphone. Yes, exactly like Big Brother). The memo enumerated the minimum that needs to be reduced in each position. Fortunately, they only need to make one elimination in my category, reporter-researcher. But there really isn't much good news in all this, because it's weird to hope that one of my co-workers will (have to) leave so that I can stay.
Also, for the first time, I am actually feeling a little laborforce anger. Time Inc. isn't losing money per se, we're just not growing at a rate desirable to the ones on top, who have lunch with Gay Talese while the rest of us heat up day-old chicken parm and worry about losing our sub-mid-five-figure salaries.