Thursday, August 14, 2008

A rat on a sinking ship

Time to really get to work polishing up the ole resume'. Everyone in the company received this today. Encouraging, isn't it?

DATE: August 14, 2008

TO: All Employees

FROM: The Boss Man

SUBJECT: Wage Freeze

The Belleville News-Democrat continues to manage through an economic
downturn that is having an unprecedented negative effect on revenues,
and, therefore, our financial health. While we have taken many steps to
reorganize and streamline operations to respond to changing business
models and these economic challenges, we need to do more to control
expenses.

As an important part of that effort, we are implementing an
across-the-board, one-year wage freeze effective Sept. 1, 2008. This
means that if you are scheduled to receive a merit or salary review
between September 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009, your review will occur
one year later than scheduled. For example, if your next salary review
date is March 1, 2009, the salary review will be postponed until March
1, 2010. You will, however, receive regularly scheduled performance
reviews during this period.

This freeze is being instituted across all of McClatchy, including at
corporate and McClatchy Interactive. Employees for whom salary reviews
are pending or whose scheduled salary review dates fall before the
September 1, 2008 effective date remain eligible for their reviews. The
freeze doesn't affect salary increases related to promotions or minimum
wage adjustments.

We have avoided taking this step as long as possible. We know this
freeze comes at a time when the economy is putting stress on your
personal expenses and when you are working hard to adapt to our changing
business model. We greatly appreciate all that you do for the
Belleville News Group, and we hope we can continue to count on you as we
manage through this very difficult period. We are confident that all of
the efforts and cost control measures being made will result in a far
more stable and financially healthy company in the future.

3 comments:

Dana Clover said...

Yikes! yep.. time ti re-do the resume! crossing fingers for ya!

Anonymous said...

I think you and your co-workers should send a memo back to corporate in which you declare a "performance freeze."

Anonymous said...

just in time for you to quit and do three weeks of homeschooling!