Former Time Inc. drones tired of their company's massive layoffs are fighting back. In email form! Susan Haynes, a former editor at Coastal Living, struck back at the parent company for slashing jobs at all of the titles in its Southern Progress division (which sounds like the name some 1965 white civil rights group, but that is not pertinent). We're willing to bet Haynes' "scathing memo" was laughed off by the bosses, right up until it landed in the New York Post this morning [UPDATE: the full emails are now pasted below]: Besides saying that Sylvia Auton, the head of Time Inc.'s lifestyle group, is horrible at her job, Haynes said this in an email to the top Time Inc. bosses:

"Everyone understands that cutbacks and layoffs and career changes must occur in a downward economy; but Time Warner/Time Inc. can't seem to decide how many to lay off, when and how to do it properly, and how to leave some sense of integrity within your venerable company. "Of course, I see [the memos], despite the fact that I am no longer a Time Inc. employee. They are being forwarded around the world with a smirk and a gasp."

It's true, employee trash talking about Time Inc. is at an all time high. As you know. Read all about it! I doubt the CEO of Time Inc. really gives a rat's ass what an ex-editor at Coastal Living has to say, but the bad publicity is another matter. They'd like that to stop, undoubtedly. On that note, if you have a copy of Haynes' scathing memo, email it to us. [NYP; pic via] Here they are:

Subject: Fwd: Message from former Time Inc (Birmingham) employee Dear Mr. Bewkes and Ms. Moore, I decided this morning to share with you the email I sent to Sylvia Auton yesterday. I do not expect a reply from her (or from either of you), but I think it is worthwhile for you to hear some thoughts from a person like myself—who enjoyed 9 1/2 happy and creative years at COASTAL LIVING Magazine, produced by Southern Progress Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama. (For that job, the magazine moved me to Birmingham from San Francisco, CA, where I had lived for 22 years.) As you can see from my email to Ms. Auton, I left in mid-2007, before your bloodletting began. I left in high spirits to pursue some other interests, so I have no personal grudge against you or Time, Inc. However, I hope that you will read my email below to understand the widespread awareness of the sloppy, ill-conceived, poorly planned, and monumentally wasteful series of executions you preside over. Everyone understands that cutbacks and layoffs and career changes must occur in a downward economy; but Time-Warner/Time Inc. can't seem to decide how many to lay off, when and how to do it properly, and how to leave some sense of integrity within your venerable company. In fact, the memos from Ms. Auton are so blatantly, transparently insincere that they make one want to gag. Of course I see them, despite the fact that I am no longer a Time Inc. employee. They are being forwarded around the world with a smirk and a gasp. Why don't you at least instruct Ms. Auton to simply write her memos to say thus: XXXXX has been laid off. We appreciate his/her XX years of service. We wish him/her the very best. I suggest the above because it is too late for you to alert the company, worldwide, of what could be coming to all divisions, and that divisonal meetings will be held to discuss the situation forthrightly. No, your MO has been to do it piecemeal, to instill fear and rancor throughout the troops of people you expect to do the work that will keep you in business. Look at your stock price! Thank goodness I exercised my options when it was at a "low" of $21. You are truly a failed "leadership" team. Susan Haynes

Subject: Message from former SPC employee Dear Ms. Auton, From April 1998 until August 2007, I was a senior editor at COASTAL LIVING Magazine, at Southern Progress Corporation. Joining the staff a few months after the launch of COASTAL LIVING, I helped to build that magazine into the success it became. Unlike many of my Southern Progress Corporation friends and former colleagues, I had an opportunity to leave SPC of my own volition and choice. Now, like so many in the community of Birmingham, Alabama, I watch in horror and disgust as Time Inc. conducts its ENDLESS bloodbath at my former company. I don't know what Time Inc.'s master plan is—or if you even have one. But from any standpoint, business or otherwise, Time Inc. is demonstrating shockingly shortsighted and reprehensible behavior. Why don't you just cancel all of the magazines and save yourself all of those salaries and benefits costs? Your "kind" but grossly insincere memos to SPC's demoralized teams of employees would be laughingstock were they not so vile. You and your "team" make me ashamed to have ever worked for Time Inc. Thank you, Susan A. Haynes