Thursday, August 20, 2009

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians at the Miami Herald

A reader says the Miami Herald seems top-heavy with VPs and higher.

"Just look in the "B" section of the Miami Herald. Look at the box that is usually on page 3 showing "how to contact us" or something to that effect. You will find 10 V.P. or higher folks for the roughly 700 workers that are left. Of course you STILL have all of the directors and managers to make the overall worker to management ratio smaller."


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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

McClatchy's ideal work slaves of the future will be on-call part-time workers without benefits who are paid substandard wages, as revealed in an ad on CareerBuilder. Note the special requirement of a current phone number(lol). I guess they think that you can just call up Manpower or go to the Day Labor Center to get skilled pressmen:

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has
immediate openings for On Call – Part Time Press Operators
Experienced on Double Wide Web Press
The following are special requirements and skills:
Must be able to work shifts as needed by the S-T
Position is part time, on call
Current phone number
Work a flexible schedule including nights, weekends, holidays
Follow all oral and written instructions
Be attentive to detail and quality
Have the ability to push, pull and lift heavy parts and equipment

Pay $16 per hour

Anonymous said...

People repeatedly display a profound misunderstanding of what middle management is at McClatchy in 2009.

There is this idea that they are people who kissed up to get a cushy job where they don't actually do anything.

While that might be the case in some instances, it would be unwise think that it is always -- or even often -- true.

People in middle management positions often got there because were exceptionally good at their jobs. Some of them are now in situations that they do not have time to do what they were good at because they are busy with paperwork and other forms of ridiculousness.

But still others are still active on the front lines despite their middle management positions. They are paid every so slightly more than the people who work "for" them and exchange are put on salary so the company can demand enormous amounts of hours from them without paying any more.

Anonymous said...

This is the problem with many McClatchy newspapers.

Anonymous said...

Re: "top-heavy with VPs and higher"
It would be interesting to see the true employee chart for each MNI paper. As long as Melanie Sill still has a job, McClatchy is top-heavy in deadwood, IMO.

Anonymous said...

I hear freelance writers are not even paid slave wages in some cases. The over abundance of freelance journalists has ruined the market. That is just my friend’s opinion, but he is not doing well at it. I know that, he owes me rent money

Anonymous said...

People repeatedly display a profound misunderstanding of what middle management is at McClatchy in 2009.




No they don't. They understand all too well the concept of "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians"

It doesn't take a genius to do the math and figure out the disparity ratio of laid off managers to rank and file.

Anonymous said...

Not necessarily true 8:12. They won't promote the talented, especially in the sales department, because they don't want to take them from the field. More often than not it is the less than competent who get promoted to get them away from the paying customer. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule but...

Anonymous said...

11:41 AM

Sales departments are not where that practice is most prevalent. You see that happen primarily in Administration and Production where established managers promote mostly people who are not a threat to their own well being.

Snitches and bots make the perfect mid level manager because they got to where they did by crawling over the backs of their friends and at the expense of their peers.

They have no where else to turn. A good salesman can always be promoted to handle the hard sell or undercut the peon's commission so they're always promotable.

The problem with them is that no one trusts them because they will generally sell their mother and give you a bill of goods. Besides that, a salesman is the biggest fool for a canned sales pitch that there is. They make terrible managers because they can't tell a snow job from a blow job.

When you make your living bullshitting people, it becomes difficult to know what real bullshit is.