A TSF tipster says Sun Media wants to know the education levels of its employees.
Not satisfied with employment application resumes, employees are being asked to provide education details.
"It is supposed to be to complete employee records, which they should already have through resumes we all submitted when we applied for jobs," says the tipster.
"While the company may be trying to update records, I get a strange feeling from it. Why do they need to know this information? Are they going to turf people who don't have the level of education they want or expect?
"It just seems fishy. Call me paranoid if you want, but with this company, you never know what they are going to do next."
Well, you can't have any riffraff high school dropouts working for Sun Media, gifted and professional as they might be.
We wonder how many North American newspaper giants from the 19th and 20th century wouldn't get a newspaper job today because of a lack of education.
The self-taught giants who dropped out of school early to help support their parents, or to fight for their country.
Education is a plus, but it should not be the lone factor for employment.
There are a lot of well-educated idiots to be found everywhere ... just look at some of the decisions made in this chain for proof of that.
ReplyDeleteBig deal, this company has let people go who were straight out of high school and others who have university degrees and other post-secondary training.
ReplyDeleteJust an excuse to cut more people and hire recent graduates and grossly underpay them. Ask the crew at all those Centre of Excellence about their backgrounds and you'll be surprised how few are even remotely related to journalism.
Next thing they will be asking for who you voted in the last election. Heaven forbid if you didn't vote for Harper.
ReplyDeleteWhile they're at it, would they also like to know who I slept with in the past decade?
They did that with Canoe a while ago... though we haven't heard anything about it since.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I gotta think this is paranoia a little bit. I am a former Sun employee/manager and remember having to submit educational backgrounds for my staffers. It happened only once or twice but I thought/figured it was to determine training needs for the future --- not a bad thing for a company to do so I aways co-operated.
ReplyDelete7:18, I agree. It's not uncommon for companies to update this type of information. Sun has been lax on this front and I would suggest it needs to be done as there have been some exceedingly strange promotions of individuals who lack the credentials, experience and/or background
ReplyDeleteWell, I'd just like to ask whoever is hiring to get SOMEONE who knows the difference between "sight", "site" and "cite".
ReplyDeleteSample from the free Toronto Suns I've been getting delivered daily for some reason (daily sub ran out three years ago): "laser site".
No, not where you go to get laser treatment, but something with which you sight a rifle...
Funny things is, it was used correctly later on in the same sentence. Ah, my spell checker tolled me sew...
It's probably the opposite — they're threatened by education and want to identify the potential threats. They're targeting the educated much like the Khmer Rouge, who went so far as to eradicate anyone who wore glasses. Is that analogy over the top? Oh, well, the Quebecor braintrust probably think the Khmer Rouge is worth a single point in Canadian football.
ReplyDeleteWas it wrong to laugh at this - "Oh, well, the Quebecor braintrust probably think the Khmer Rouge is worth a single point in Canadian football."?
ReplyDeleteIn my experience with Sun Media, the best reporters are those without journalism schooling. It seems strange, but those with a degree in say English or Political Science tend to pull out better stories, have more ambition and know proper grammar. In addition, they take better photos. I'm not sure why it's been that way in the branches I've been employed at, but someone should really look into who's teaching at these J schools out west.
ReplyDeleteParanoia has the best of everyone. This is a requirement from Standard Life in dealing with long term disability in relation to being re-trained or re-purposed on modified duties etc.
ReplyDeleteParanoia has the best of everyone? You must work in HR. If the recent request for education history was communicated appropriately(ie explaining why)then there would be no paranoia. But instead you fuel the fear. Must make you feel important.
ReplyDeleteHow can you not be paranoid working for this company? Every day we hear stories of people losing their jobs for no reason other than to further line the pockets of PKP and friends.
ReplyDeleteSo anything out of the norm raises suspicion that there's more to come. If they don't explain why they need the information, I'm entitled to worry.
3:31 Surely you're kidding, asking a media company to excel at internal communications ;)
ReplyDelete