October 22, 2001

11:23 AM

Time Inc. Fires Mailroom Staff Time claims it's coincidental to the anthrax scare, they are just trying to cut costs. Like liability costs of having their own employees contract a deadly disease?
posted by Vek (7 comments total)

oops, source: fc
posted by Vek at 11:25 AM on October 22, 2001

Uh, try reading the second paragraph of the artical you linked

Time Inc. spokesman Peter Costiglio said the move had nothing to do with the anthrax cases that have prompted mailrooms across the nation, especially at news organizations, to revamp security procedures for handling mail. He said the move had been in the works for months and was motivated by cost considerations.

So I guess the answer to your question is... yes...
posted by delmoi at 12:02 PM on October 22, 2001

Delmoi, so if the answer is yes, then isn't Time Inc. lying about "the move [having] nothing to do with the anthrax cases"?
posted by Vek at 12:14 PM on October 22, 2001

I believe delmoi meant "yes" in the sense that anthrax is a possible liability that would be a cost Time would want to eliminate.

I think the idea that Time would do this because of the Anthrax scare - alone - is ludicrous. You don't abruptly fire your mail staff unless you already have a replacement, which takes weeks to set up, getting bids for the contract, etc.
posted by Qubit at 12:58 PM on October 22, 2001

I work in the building. The new mail guy for my floor is nice. The old one was nice too. As long as none of us nice people get anthrax, I'm happy.
posted by etc. at 2:11 PM on October 22, 2001

Often the new outsourcing company (e.g. Xerox office services division) will rehire the employees, so it's not necessarily that catastrophic.
posted by dhartung at 5:03 PM on October 22, 2001

Ah, but are the displaced workers rehired with the same pay and benefits? Probably not.

I took a 5% paycut, lost hundreds of hours of sick leave, and started over again at the bottom of the pile, when the firm I worked for was bought out.
posted by Carol Anne at 6:10 AM on October 23, 2001