"We find it's always better to fire people on a Friday. Studies have statistically shown that there's less chance of an incident if you do it at the end of the week." The San Jose Mercury News must have learned from the bosses in Office Space. Mercury News's HR head says in the e-mail quoted below that the paper will lay off 101 workers by December 19.

From: Slattery, Kathleen Sent: Fri 10/20/2006 1:14 PM Subject: WARN notice- Guild

October 20, 2006
Dear Colleagues:

As your Division Vice President shared with you earlier today, we plan on eliminating 101 positions by December 19th.

The rest of the e-mail is after the jump.

You are receiving this email because under California law, if an employer lays off fifty or more employees within a thirty day period, it is required to provide the affected employees with a sixty day advance notice of the layoff. This is known as a "WARN notice."

Not every potentially affected employee receiving the notice will ultimately be subject to layoff. But in order to meet compliance requirements, notice will be given to a larger number than 101 employees.

Attached is the 60-day WARN notice as well as a Q&A on benefits, severance and final pay, which are also being mailed to the most current address you
have provided us.

Please let me know if you have further questions.

-Kathleen

Kathleen Slattery
VP HR and Labor Relations, San Jose Mercury News

Part of the Q&A attachment reads:

Q: If I am laid off what will be my last day of employment? A: December 19, 2006, but you may be notified earlier.

Q: If an employee resigns, will that count against the required number of layoffs?
A: It could, if it were in a department that did not need to fill the position.

Q: How many positions are being eliminated?
A: 101.