Fort Worth Star-Telegram Orders One-Week Unpaid Furlough

Management at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas has ordered its employees to take a one-week unpaid furlough between April 5 and July 4. Here's the memo:

To: All Employees
From: Gary Wortel
Subject: Furlough Announcement
Date: March 22, 2010

Although we're seeing improvement in several advertising categories, the economic climate remains unstable and revenues continue to be negative year-over-year. Unfortunately, revenues have not grown enough to offset our expenses. Regrettably this necessitates further cost-saving strategies.

Effective April 05, 2010 we’ll implement a one week unpaid furlough program. The furlough period will be from April 05, through July 4th, 2010. Shortly you will be receiving:

· A scheduling form to complete and return to your manager no later than April 5, 2010.

· Q & A to assist you in understanding how the program works It's imperative that we remain diligent in reducing expenses and continue to focus our efforts on growing ad revenue. I appreciate that everyone is working hard toward both of these efforts.

After receiving the furlough Q & A and the scheduling form, please feel free to contact anyone on the Human Resources team with questions.