A Home View from the Family of a Discarded Employee

This letter has been circulating since Dec. 24; it is the opinion of the husband of one of the former employees of the Chestnut Hill Local, Ellen Weiser. Given that there are no certainties that letters will be published by the Local (see the Lloyd Wells letter for one such example), we are letting Chestnut Hill residents know what is happening to their community newspaper.

I am the husband of Ellen Weiser, the most recently discarded employee of the Chestnut ill Local. I am pleased that she has been fired. She is not. As a businessman, I question much of what hs gone on at the Local in the past few weeks. What message are you giving the remaining employees when the interim editor fires half the editorial staff because of a "gut feeling that you are not team players?" How must the remaining staff feel to know that the written policies on termination are not followed and that there is no process to ensure their job security. How must the remaining staff feel knowing that my wife was characterized as "not a team player" while working well beyond her 24 hours of paid time to do the job of the less qualified interim editor? How must the remaining staff feel about their job securiy to read the advertisement in the Local of 12/21 for all positions on the staff? I, for one, wonder why any qualified candidate would apply at all.

Are you running a business? don't think so. Are you publishing a newspaper? Not if what I have read in the past few weeks is any indication.

There is more to Chestnut Hill than motherless puppies and excess potatoes.