Yesterday was a sad day at the Los Angeles Times Olympic Facility as the employees financed and held a farewell party for the men and women leaving the company through buyouts or on their own accord.The camaraderie runs deep here at the Los Angeles Times, as many of the men and women have worked two and three decades together, so it was not surprising to see a few tears shed as we all said goodbye to the colleagues, that feel more like brothers and sisters than co-workers.
Our own David Martinez organized and collected the money to bid our friends goodbye, and had prints made of Times Mirror Square Building to present each colleague leaving.
And Alma Perez sent this out this morning:
Dear Friends and Colleagues:Today is my last day at the Los Angeles Times. It has truly been a privilege to be a part of this wonderful company. If
you are on this distribution list that means that you somehow made a difference
in my life. I have either learned something from you, listened to you or laughed with you. In some cases, it was all three. :-) Thanks for this great adventure in the Newspaper business!
We will miss our colleagues that will be leaving today and tomorrow, and wish them all success and happiness in their lives after the Los Angeles Times.
Photos of the party can be viewed here.
Posts
43 comments:
As a past manager at the L. A. Times, I, for one, am glad to see Alma gone. It is my opinion, that Alma was the most gutless and worthless HR rep to ever cross the threshold of the L. A. Times. Good riddance. Gwen Murakami, Risella Baeza and Diane Smith are viewed in the same light. Sam needs to really save a big buck and outsource this most worthless of departments. Ed Weilbacher
Gee, Ed. Tell us how you really feel.
“I, for one, am glad to see Alma gone. It is my opinion, that Alma was the most gutless and worthless HR rep to ever cross the threshold of the L. A. Times”
Ed... The HR Rep’s were never there to do your job as a manager, but to advise you that what you wanted to do was going to get you and/or the company in trouble because you didn’t have all your ducks in a row. I’m sure they “saved your butt” many a time and as a result you viewed them as “gutless”. Sorry that you never understood what their job was and what yours was when it came to dealing with the people that worked for you!
Unfortunately, there is little space here to say how I really feel and the things I know about the freaks - my opinion of course, at The Times. My experiences with this lot is all documented and available. I could rant on Jeff Johnson, especially Mark Kurtich and Wayne Bean also. I don't think you have seen what I have seen regarding these people. Me thinks that anyone that thinks these people were ever on the side of the people on the floor is a fool. You should have heard the message I left for Kurtich on the unions succesful bid. I would have loved to see his face when he heard it. If I had access to him at the time I would have said it to his face as I was well adept, from past experiences, at telling Mark "how I really feel".
Ed Weilbacher
Listen up you mealy mouth idiot that didn,t even give his name on the post trying to tell me what my job was and whether I had my ducks in a row - butt out. You don't even know what you are talking about, let alone someone else. Eddo - aka - Ed Weilbacher
Ed.... you sound like P.C.
Isn't this the guy that was arrested for threatening the life of the president?
anon no matter how hard you wash...................................the smell of pussy follows you...coward. pull the string out,and maybe you'll find your balls.
p.c
Why can’t you guys just have a decent dialog, anonymous or not, with out all the name calling and vulgar innuendos.
Oh My - Nasty words and all, this topic has raised more interest and comment than I have seen in some time on Eddie's blog and I like that. The Times was my home away from home for 21 years and it was a good ride, even with the upper floors and the HR department infested with rats and other dispicable parasites, I hope you get the drift. While I was there, I was known for one that spoke up when wrong was being done to a fellow employee and that is a lot more than I can say for the HR folks. They reminded me of the Nazi SS, just sitting there, not doing anything constructive - silent and complacent, willing to do wrong, just following orders. I was actually told to do wrong and follow orders by none other than "the toad". Did you ever get a whiff of the stench coming from the direction of the HR offices. It is almost unbearable.
By the way - hello to all of you still there at The Times. I am doing fine, back to an hourly job, 8 hours a day, and guess what, I am at a company with over 1,800 souls on site and I haven't come across a "freak" yet. Eddo
P.S. Me thinks the "mealy mouth idiot is in management" and no, they didn't ever save my butt - I always watched my own ass - I would never rely on those freaks for anything. I will say this, as a past publisher of The Times said
of himself - "I was succesful because I surrounded myself with successful people" - meaning the people that worked for me. I warned Mark Kurtich two years before the successful union drive -that he was going to be responsible for a union coming to The Times because of the people he was surrounding himself with. He didn't listen now did he. It is time to finish the delousing there at The Times, so you folks can go to work, do a good job, enjoy life and not have to worry abuout where the next salvo is going to come from. Me thinks they were freaks then and they are freaks now. Toodaloo
Here is something that all Times empoyees should have with them before approaching the "upper floors' or the HR dept (if Sam doesnt have the good sense to decommision it) - Voila
Delousing powder
Developed by the United States Department of Agriculture entomologists through research initiated by the army's surgeon general, the insecticide is widely used as a "delousing" powder by the armed forces. A single application keeps lice away for a month. Used in a special solution to impregnate underwear, DDT is effective for two months even though the clothing is laundered once a week during that period.
A carefully guarded secret until powder carried by captured American prisoners gave the secret away, DDT has been standard issue for all soldiers headed for the louse-infected front since the summer of 1943. Ironically enough, a German chemist was first to synthesize the chemical 70 years ago, but neither he nor the Swiss firm which patented it as a moth-killer realized DDT's potential power.
Huh?????
After Eddo's last post, we obviously know who the REAL freak is.
yea anon project all u want at least ed has the moxie to leave his name;something that continually eludes you.
how nice of ed to respond to anonymous comments: full well knowing his trading barbs with the equivalent of a popcorn fart in suspended animation.
p.c.
Hey P.C.......
How's your new job at Target???
"If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
-- Albert Einstein
Ed Weilbacher.. After reading all of your ranting for the last couple of days I realize how grateful I am you are no longer employeed here. Oh I mean you were in the Valley that doesnt count because you guys didnt do jack there. Especially you . And here I thought Chandler was unstable you make him look like a kindergarten teacher.
Did the alien space ship leave without you?
Hey Phil CHANDLER,
If I were a CHANDLER I'd announce my name everywhere and anytime also. Being a CHANDLER and born with a silver spoon in your CHANDLER mouth and living off the CHANDLER fortune made by the smarter side of the CHANDLER family must be great!
CHANDLER, CHANDLER, CHANDLER, CHANDLER...
To the gutless anon who will not identify him or herself, and stated "I realize how grateful I am you are no longer employeed here. Oh I mean you were in the Valley that doesnt count because you guys didnt do jack there. Especially you .". For your eddo-fication, I submit the following: I was the highest paid operations manager at the valley plant. My performance appraisals were described as stellar and golden. I received the highest bonuses year after year as well recieving the highest stock option grants for managers. I was the only manager in operations managing two departments - production services and packaging and distribution. The goals assisgned to these two departments beat Oly and OC all the way around including budgets, pasters, handling waste and mailroom waste, safety and equipmnet downtime. I started out as a journeyman power plant mechanic and within two years I a power plant lead, two years later I was a supervisor and shortly after that I became a manager. My assesments were always excellent. What are your credentials numbskull? Post one of your assessments and I will post mine and we will see who didn't do jack. You wouldn't make a pimple on a pigs ass. Eddo
Ed.... what happened to you? You used to be a nice guy, why are you so bitter?
Ed Weilbacher said,
"To the gutless anon who will not identify him or herself...
I think this is somewhat of a conundrum. If you sign you name to your post, do you truly have guts? Or are you simply insane?
Reading Eddo's posts, I lean towards the latter.
well at least they gave me a name tag at target. whoo hoo!I thought of all your coward posts:I saw wispy mold growing on dogshit.an epiphany for a metaphor..I know this much is true: scratch a keyboard to hear rants from a coward(S) how nice.
philip chandler
Well now, like I said, not only is anon a gutless idiot, but his lack of any substance as to credentials proves he is a useless idiot and a liar. He said "Oh I mean you were in the Valley that doesnt count because you guys didnt do jack there. Especially you ." This implies that he wasn't in the valley, yet he says I didn't do jack there. How would this moron know that or is he just throwing out drivel. Moron - it is time for you to go back to bed. Wake me up when you are ready to show us your credentias and all that you have done. If what you have written is any indication of your knowledge, skills and ability, you are a nothing. To Phil, I say that you are one of the few that has the courage to say who you are and what you think. You and I both see why the Times is full of empty wimps. If they had any guts, the working man at the Times would not be in the condition they are in today - full of fear and uncertainty about their future and the future of their famililies well being. I sa along time ago that the wool was being pulled over their eyes by wolves in sheeps clothing thru the use of the hegelian dialect. Poor saps. You know Phil - I think Sam needs to get HR to put together a focus group and try to figure out how to reconfiure the production departments and then outsource HR. Saps - at least now you have the union representing you, because you were not smart enough to represent yourselves, and instead believed the line of bullshit that Mark Kurtich gave you about who was better to represent the saps than heim. I think he took almost everything away from you that was of value left you in a pinch. A lot of the saps whored themselves and put their families welfare in jeoprody for free food and by glad handing you. What fools. Eddo
Eddo Wildbelcher said,
"...I was the highest paid operations manager...My performance appraisals were described as stellar and golden...I received the highest bonuses... [I] reciev[ed] the highest stock option grants...I was the only manager in operations managing two departments...The goals assisgned to [my] departments beat Oly and OC all the way around...My assesments were always excellent..."
How the hell have we been able to put out the paper the past three years without Eddo? Must have been a fluke.
"...I was the highest paid operations manager...I received the highest bonuses... [I] reciev[ed] the highest stock option grants...The goals assisgned to [my] departments beat Oly and OC all the way around..."
I don't think so ED..... and remember there is no "I" in TEAM. A good manager understands that "we" achieve goals "I" doesn't!
Have a nice day......
Evidently "Have a nice day is lacking in cognative ability or is being disingenuous as to what I said. Read them again idiot.
I have a suggestion. It is dificult to decipher which anon is posting what. If you are too cowardly to use your own name, why don't you use code names - like liar A, idiot A,or B, moron A, and so on. Even the great leader (not) Wayne Bean used code talk, or maybe he was using words that described what he really meant. Let me give you a couple - that asshole Jim Hathawy, That Son of Bitch George LaMonte and others, but this should suffice. Get the picture.
Oh one more thing for the morons, idiots, and liars - thinking and knowing are two different things. Try not to open your traps without knowing something to be a fact. But then, idots, morons and liars try to obsfucate things, now don't they. Or, just maybe, they are talking out of their asses - with these people it is hard to tell which direction it is coming from. It all sounds like one loud fart. OOOOooh!
Eddo
Oh, I do not want you to miss our code name (after we came to the realization what of what he really was)for Wayne Bean - simply "the jerk". When we wanted a real hoot, out of disgust, we called him "The Clown". This came from the drunken clown in the Uncle Buck movie. He so reminded us of him. Eddo
Eddo skip your prozac this week ?
Mr. Eddo Wildbelcher,
Help me out here. If you were all the things you say you were, how come you were dumped when The Valley closed?
ed weilbacher said: I was the only manager in operations managing two departments.
yes you did a really good job of that huh ed?
*** full timers working partial shifts when part timers were working full shifts
*** supervisors calling in sick all the time 1 did it 12 times in 1 year mostly saturdays and gets away with it
*** werent you embarrassed when your guy flipped the company van on the freeway at 3:00a and it was found out he was part time and all your full time people had busted out and left this guy to do the mail shuttle even though he due off and was tired from his other job
*** supervisor alway coming in at 11:00p and going home about 4 or 5 hours
and on and on and on and i really call that a golden and stellar manager
thats right ed was number one,and your number one(middle finger fully extended)
p.c.
p.s.
truly you anonymous posters are akin to a shit weevil burrowing up peoples asses.though I'm sure when people like dave or ron or king furry facial hair nutt tickler russ
are near:just check their ass and will find you.
anon said: yes you did a really good job of that huh ed?...
Moron - All that you say is not true. I do not know if you are lying or just mistaken, but some of it did happen. All of that happened before I took over. Why do you think they asked me to manage the department? Since you do not have the brains to figure it out for yourself and you are asking me, I will tell you why. Because they didn't trust any of the three supervisors to mangage it and they knew I would clean it up. With the knowledge you have of the valley, you must have been there. If you are so smart, why weren't you asked to be the manager? Hmmmm?
ed weilbacher said: I was the only manager in operations managing two departments.
Ed, didn't the pressroom manager also manage plate making?
In regards to the only manger managing two epartments, I should have said three, Production Services, Newsprint and the Mailroom. The latter two were merged together later. Sorry for the goof. Eddo
Eddo,
“ME THINKS” If you were so spectacular, why did Randy Wienky do all the work? I mean, he DID do all of the job interviews for you. Add insult to injury, I remember that your department was so out of control, that SFV was known as being the PORN capital of Production Services. It was so bad, that none of your exemplarily work could prevent I.T. from blocking access to the INTERNET. Way to go EDDO. Oh yea, one last thing, congratulations on being one of a few individuals that were CLOSED down for your ineptitude.
WOLF
WOLF?, CRY WOLF is more desriptive. You state that Randy did all the work. I refute that. State one thing that Randy did that was "my work". Who are you to decide what the manager's or the supervisors work was? You are also wrong about the job interviews. Randy's responsibilites as far as interviews went were to interview all candidates that HR sifted thru and refered for further consideration. It was not my job to interview anyone that Randy did not feel worthy. The final candidate then came to my office for a few questions and a brief on what the expectations were and to answer any questions that the candidate might have had that were not answered by Randy. That was your first mistake or misrepresentation.
You also stated that SFV was the "PORN capital of production services". How would you know this. Did you have some crystal ball that you looked into? The only way that you would know that porn was being viewed on the computers at SFV by prod svcs personnel, is if you were looking over their shoulder. Why didn't you report it? The only porn viewer that I ws aware of was from the roller crew and I believe that individual was fired. So tell us. Are you lying or are you a seer?
I have also deduced that you are from the tech shop, otherwise, you woudn't have known that Randy, exclusively, inteviewed all tech applicants coming his way. Either that or you must be lying.
Let me tell you something. When I took over prod svcs, Ron Ernst warned my that the SFV tech services dept was a disfuntional group. The "clown" carried the same message. Me thinks you to be one of the disfuntional ones, that gave the rest of the most excellent and talented group a bad name.
One last thing. The reason the techs did not have legal access to the net in their shop was because Randy did not trust you to have it. If you were looking over someones shoulder and viewing porn you should have had the guts to use peer pressure to shut them down, and if this didn't work, you should have reported it when it was occuring, not two to three years later, when nothing could be done about it. Are you lying or are you a coward. Either way, me thinks you to be a big stinker. Get the drift?. Eddo
P>S> This is my last post on this farewell party blog. I have refuted all hostile comers and I choose to move on to bigger fish.
Good choice Eddo.
Glad to see you followed my advice and made an attempt to employ paragraphs. Keep working at it.
I have to post a couple of final thoughts at the bottom of the page for "Cry Wolf".
You know the epitamy of ineptitude is two electricians changing a light bulb. A few of the techs at SFV were known for this. Oh Ya - They then would cry that they needed more people. They not only were one of the causes of downsizing, but were also the cause for their loss in credibility. They got so boring, that even the clown would walk out of their meetings.
Now for the admonishment: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Are you willing to testify as to the mush you have presented.
Now for your eddofication. The origin of the word testify came from the word testical or testes. One who was asked to testify literally took the risk of having his testicals crushed with a hammer if he was caught lying. Are you willing to testify as to what you have said, or for that matter, is anyone else out their who has attacked me willing to do the same thing? Oh My!!!
EDDO Said:
"P>S> This is my last post on this farewell party blog. I have refuted all hostile comers and I choose to move on to bigger fish."
Look at who is crying wolf. Your the liar from what I see.
Wolf.
Eddo Wildbelcher said,"...epitamy...ineptitude ...admonishment..."
Where's the foul language police. I think these are cuss words.
Talk about foul language, how did eddo get away with calling Cradock a big stinker?
So Wolf is Dave Craddock? Lol.
I will not try and rebute comments stated here, but for whatever it is worth, all I ever tried to do was to do my job as I was told to do it. I may not have interpeted it the way others think I should have, but I really did try to treat everyone fair. I know there are a couple former employees who might disagree, and I respect their right to do so.
After I was laid off, I got a card from one of the people that I had worked with and eventually who worked under me, and this person thanked me for giving them a chance to expand their abilities. This person was NOT one of the people whom I thought would do this, and it has come to mind many a day. I will not state who that person was, and the exact words are incidental... but I truly did try. BTW - this is a positive notation!
Anyway, I did not leave this to be negative, and wish you all well in the coming months and years!
Randy Wienke - Former supervisor, but thankful to be working as a contractor!
So Wolf is Dave Craddock? Lol.
I will not try and rebute comments stated here, but for whatever it is worth, all I ever tried to do was to do my job as I was told to do it. I may not have interpeted it the way others think I should have, but I really did try to treat everyone fair. I know there are a couple former employees who might disagree, and I respect their right to do so.
After I was laid off, I got a card from one of the people that I had worked with and eventually who worked under me, and this person thanked me for giving them a chance to expand their abilities. This person was NOT one of the people whom I thought would do this, and it has come to mind many a day. I will not state who that person was, and the exact words are incidental... but I truly did try. BTW - this is a positive notation!
Anyway, I did not leave this to be negative, and wish you all well in the coming months and years!
Randy Wienke - Former supervisor, but thankful to be working as a contractor!
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