Monday, May 24, 2004

Layoff land A brief, non-exhaustive accounting of layoffs at my various workplaces since I left the world of secure employment at the San Francisco Examiner a little more than eight years ago (when I got hired there, one staffer said, "As long as you don't hit anyone over the head with a two-by-four, you can't get fired here." He was almost right: He got axed for trying to impersonate a worker at a hospital that was on strike so he could get the inside scoop). A while back, I started to think of the recurring staff-trimmings as resembling the show "Survivor," and I wondered when it would be my turn to get voted off the island. My time finally came: As Jeff Probst would say, "Dan, the tribe has spoken. ... It's time to go." Last shift at the Examiner ended at 2 a.m. Jan. 2, 1996. First day for "Project Gulliver" (Web startup that turned into something called NetGuide Live) began 2 p.m. Jan. 2, 1996. Layoffs: 1. November 1996: about 75 of 150 temporary and permanent employees. 2. December 1996: about 40 of remaining 75 employees. 2a. Left NetGuide in February 1997, which laid off remaining workers the following month and closed. I started at Wired News in March 1997]. 3. November 1997: About half a dozen Wired News employees, part of larger Wired layoff. I left Wired News for Wired magazine in June 1998, and left the mag in December '98 to freelance. I joined TechTV in January 2001. 4. November 2001: Laid off about half of 130-person staff hired for 8-hour daily news show. 5. April 2002: Laid off about half of remaining 65 staff members, canceled 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. shows, cut newscast to 30 mins. daily. 6. December 2002: Closed bureaus, laid off about 10 people. 7. May 2004: Goodbye, TechTV (my first personal layoff). 8:59:16 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Dan Brekke.