This past Christmas, Vivian received a special present from the LA-we-want-to-be-New-York Times: a pink slip with one week's notice.
It so happened that, despite busting her ass for two-and-a-half years to excellent reviews, she had been hired under the wrong status in the limbo period between the Old Guard (the Chandlers) and the New Guard (Tribune Co.). And the New Guard made a Decree that none shall pass, and that happened to apply to her, and it was Not Good. And, in Orange County, home to the largest congregation of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam, the number of reporters fluent in Tieng Viet dropped from two to one.
So last Friday, a Vietnamese-American in OC was named as a bishop, the first to receive that honor. And the phone rang. Seems the one remaining Nguoi Viet on staff was sick, and Vivian was needed to save the day. She said, "How much?" Ha, ha.
It ended up with a pretty fee for a day's work, and an A1 story (only a contrib line, but hey), which was pretty much impossible to get when she actually worked at the bureau. Confirming yet again my repeated observation that outside consultants and contractors get the better treatment, while the loyal full-time employees get the shaft. Which is all...
Stupid.
Posted by yozhik at April 29, 2003 01:14 AM