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First Tribune Handbook Violator: Its Creator

By James Peters

Ok, so this topic has been blogged to death by not only me, but the blawgosphere as a whole. However, I just received this update to the story.

Sam Zell, the head of Tribune Co., met with his employees/journalists last week at the Orlando Sentinel, one of the newspapers covered by his idiotic/inspiring (depending on which side you are on in the debate) new employee handbook.

One employee asked Mr. Zell about the direction the newspaper was heading and asked some follow up questions when she felt like he did not answer her question directly. At the end of the exchange, Mr. Zell simply said: “F*ck you” to the employee and left it at that. Unfortunately for Mr. Zell, a video of the incident quickly made its way onto YouTube.

I would direct Mr. Zell to the following paragraph in the handbook he so proudly introduced just last month:

8. QUESTION AUTHORITY. …Question authority and push back if you do not like the answer. You will earn respect, and not get into trouble for asking tough questions.

Apparently Mr. Zell isn’t very concerned about practicing what he preaches. When “feel good” handbook policies like this are not followed by management, a culture of cynicism and hypocrisy emerges in most companies.

This is probably even more true in the case where the person who created the policy and widely publicized its merits, violates its own terms just a few weeks later just as publicly.

Mr. Zell has stated publicly that he tried to contact this employee twice and not been able to get in touch with her. Also, she has refused to comment about the incident to the media.

Sounds to me like she, and likely other Tribune Co. employees, have learned their lesson about talking out of turn and not to “question authority”.

Employment Contracts | Handbooks | Retaliation

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Full post as published by California Employee Rights Blog on February 06, 2008 (boomark / email).