Employee Handbook

As a GMM employee, you are expected to work ~70% of the year and you are expected to take time off ~30% of the year. You are paid for all of this time off, including:

OFFICE IS CLOSED

GMM is closed for business 9 weeks or 17% of the year, including:

• 1 week per quarter - 20 days = 5 days x 4 months

  • • First week of March

      • • a bit before the month break

    • First week of July

      • • once fiscal year is over

    • First week of September

      • • before NewsMatch in high gear

    • Last week of December

      • • Christmas-New Years, end of NewsMatch

          • Note: This is an approximate schedule, may vary by year

1 month per year - 22 days

• • • Usually in April

• 7 Federal Holidays

  • • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

    • President’s Day

    • Memorial Day

    • Juneteenth

    • Indigenous Peoples Day

    • Veterans Day

    • Thanksgiving Day

      • • Note: the missing holidays are those that fall in our quarterly closed weeks

Overall, you get more like 30% of the year off work, including 7 weeks of:

VACATION

• 10 days paid vacation to use whenever you'd like.

  • Please give 2-4 weeks notice to your supervisor if possible (even further out is ideal if possible).

SICK LEAVE

• 10 days paid sick leave.

PERSONAL LEAVE

• 10 paid personal days

PATERNITY LEAVE

• 12 paid weeks

**You are expected and encouraged to take all of this time. If you do not use your vacation/sick/personal time, it does not roll over into the next year.**

You qualify and we pay into that for you, as you do

GMM/Matter does not currently provide health insurance, life insurance, retirement, nor other major benefits.

This is due to a lack of budget/capacity and will change over time.

We are currently looking at providing health benefits to our soon-to-be employee, and then eventually to Marisa + Cass

Self-care is very important for our leadership and staff to prioritize. We take mental health seriously and aim to support yours. If you are ever struggling with your mental health or need resources, please let your supervisor or Cassie know. That disclosure will not hurt your job, in fact, it increases trust amongst leadership and employees - plus, we may be able to help.

Here are some internal resources:

• Mental health services are covered under our employee health plans

  • • <enter copay info once avail>

• You are given 30% of the work year off

  • • 9 weeks office closed plus 10 vacation days, 10 personal days, and 10 sick days.

    • You are expected and encouraged to use all of this time and it does not roll over from year-to-year.

    • We hope that having paid time off will empower you to decompress and take care of your personal life and mental health.

Here are some external resources:

• Self-care tips for journalists

• Newsroom mental health resource guide

• Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

  • • they are piloting a program for trauma therapy for journalists (it was full of of Nov 2021)