Tribune Company's head-troll-in-charge, Sam Zell, caught some positive press when he unveiled his new employee handbook a few weeks ago. It was refreshingly honest! Entertaining and off-the-cuff! Also? A blatant cut-and-paste job from another company's manual down to the font. With a few very specific Tribuney differences, of course.

Tribune's fun-filled employee handbook is based on the manual [pdf] at current subsidiary Local TV LLC, from whence came Zell's new righthand man, Randy Michaels. (Who is maybe replacing Zell soon, but is definitely in big big trouble today for talking about it.)

• Now that you're working for Sam Zell, please do Question Authority. Just not Sam Zell's:
• Please "have fun and treat each other with respect." If you are Sam Zell, this proviso will be optional.
• Trib workers shouldn't worry their pretty little heads about employee classification—to make it easier for them, Tribune has cut that section in their version.
• At Tribune, the definition of harassment has been condensed a tad. Local TV's broader definition just didn't sit right with Sam Zell—no public invective-hurling at the employees allowed.

  LocalTV's definition:
  

  Tribune's take:
  

Neither of the handbooks encourages cruising porntastic websites at work, but Sam Zell took care of that horrific oversight during a visit today to the Los Angeles Times newsroom. "Let me know if you find any good sites," he told the staff.

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