Folks at Tribune Company have gotten their new employee handbook – and it is so different from anything seen in the past that it has been discussed at length in an article in the Los Angeles Times, one of the newspapers owned by Tribune.
“Rule #1: Use your best judgment. Rule #2: See Rule 1” the handbook begins. Some of you may find that familiar. Yes, it is indeed the handiwork of Randy Michaels, who became CEO for Broadcasting and Interactive when Sam Zell took the helm at Tribune.
The new employee manual is about a third the length of its predecessor at Tribune. The new Zell edition is written in plain English, rather than legalese, and mixes in some one liners with the serious stuff to make employees more inclined to actually read it.
As the new guidelines were issued to Tribune employees, Zell told them in a letter that it outlines “our company’s new core values,” describing it as “a performance-oriented culture.” But he also told them that the new handbook “reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously, and to have some fun.”
