Fire, Rehire - A Tough Strategy

If you have ever been a fan of the local daily newspaper, send some good wishes in the direction of Somerville, where the Courier News is now based. As you probably know, the CN will be affected by Gannett's firing of 99 New Jersey employees, of which 53 are to be rehired. Today is when they get the word and Friday will be the last day of employment for some.

This fire/rehire strategy is becoming more prevalent. A quick Google check just now turned up instances of school districts as well as newspapers looking to this practice to whittle down the ranks. There was even one proposal by a mayor to use it after unions balked at giving concessions. Turn them all out and start over, he said, though he was smart enough to ask the city attorney to check the legalities first.

I have been out of the work force for more than seven years now, but I recall being rather shocked one day to hear a publisher complain in a business meeting that "reporters don't bring in any revenue." Well, for heaven's sake, they bring in the #@*!%#! news, don't they? Isn't this a newspaper? Try covering the news with sales staff, why don't you?

Such were my irreverent thoughts at the time, but eventually I realized that employees in general are a thorn in the side of business owners. I see by Google that outsourcing HR is a booming business in which a company assumes all the employee-wrangling and basically rents the wage slaves back to the boss.

Part of the problem that has grown over the years is the expectation of benefits when one lands a job with an established company. I can remember way back to when a transaction in a medical office involved paying cash, instead of causing the death of many trees to provide forms to fill out and pass back and forth among patient, doctor and that new bedfellow, the health industry. Recently in Plainfield budget talks I heard an official say that benefits are now at about 30 percent above and beyond a city worker's pay, all the more reason to view the employee as a ravening, revenue-sucking beast.

Are you an older employee who has worked your way up to where you get four weeks' vacation and a passel of personal and sick days as well? To the employer, you are a nuisance. You must take all those days in most companies, even if you would rather just do your work. It is built into the system, it causes problems in the workplace and it may tend to make employers want to game the system somehow to get rid of you without incurring an age discrimination lawsuit.

Such is the wild and woolly world of work nowadays. Employers want your talents and allegiance with not so much commitment on their side. Witness the rise of contract work in modern industries.

Maybe it was always thus and we just don't remember, but the fire/rehire gambit kind of rankles in the current economic climate. Those who make the cut get to do even more work for about the same pay and may feel survivor's guilt when trying to socialize with their ousted friends. Longtime employees who thought it would be an easy glide to retirement find themselves in a chasm between the workplace and a pension. Bridging the gap between middle age and official old age may eat up their resources if they can't find new jobs.

It's very sad all the way around and that is why many of us are thinking of those affected, whose names we know by heart from bylines and photo credits. As a writer, I can't even find the words for how I feel for them today. "Good luck" seems inadequate, and even hollow, in the face of the fact that more than half will not be spared.

I'l just say ... you are all in my thoughts.

--Bernice