66 jobs eliminated in ‘humane’ process
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman Online, May 1, 2002
LOUISVILLE – Kathy Lueckert, deputy executive director of the General Assembly Council, gave the council’s executive committee an overview on how the denomination’s layoffs were handled by staff at the Presbyterian Center.
The goals for the reduction of 66 jobs, she said during the April 26 meeting, were consistency, compassion, fairness and communication. Staff at the Presbyterian Center were given information throughout the process by weekly updates on the center’s internal Web site; brown bag lunches where employees could ask questions of the leadership; a hotline for employees to call with questions; and articles in the CenterNews.
Seminars were held on dealing with anxiety and stress, worship services and prayer vigils were planned and pastoral care was given by the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky.
Kaye Hirt Eggleston, a member of the executive committee, called the process “the most humane system” for dealing with eliminating jobs that she had ever seen. Those in the outside world receive “a lot less notice and a lot less safety net underneath them.”
Of the 66 jobs, 21 were vacant. Notices of termination were distributed April 29 and those receiving notice must vacate their offices by May 3. Two positions will be eliminated later in the year, after projects are completed.
Those losing their jobs include 26 women and 17 men; 31 white, seven black, four Hispanic and one Asian. The racial-ethnic percentage of the reduction in force is 28 percent.