USA Today Forces Employees To Take Furlough Week

USA Today Reports More Bad News For Employees

USA Today Publisher Dave Hunke was the bearer of more bad news when he sent a February 11th memo to his more than 1,000 employees, detailing how they need to take an unpaid leave of absence sometime in the next six months. The memo follows on the heels of a round of pink slips that went out to five percent of the staff in December.

The memo read in part, "All employees will be furloughed for one full week...during the time period of Sunday, February 28 through Saturday, July 3, 2010. To be clear, a furlough means no one will be permitted to work while on furlough and no one will be exempt, except for business necessity. That means when you are on furlough, there is no work, no office phone calls, no voice mail, no e-mail and no PDA checking."