Reuters in Wonderland   

When Reuters America shelled out millions of dollars to fly its entire 2,000-member North and South American staff to beach resorts for motivational seminars, it didn't expect rave reviews from the 350 or so who are journalists. The response of one New York correspondent was typical of many: "It was idiotic."

Company executives say the trips were part of a larger "Vision" initiative designed to improve the news and financial service's "operational efficiency," "responsive development" and "total client focus."

Held for managers and then staff over the past two years, the excursions included a role-playing game called "Gold of the Desert Kings." Reuter managers overseeing the game, in which employees teamed up to cross a "hostile" desert with limited supplies, wore bright turbans and robes. One journalist, who said she otherwise enjoyed the exercise, described the costumes as "blatantly racist"; another considered them ironic in light of the service's glowing reputation for Middle East coverage.

Also on the agenda: personality tests ("We had to wear colored hats based on our results," recalls an "aggressive" participant who got red), exhibits, discussion groups, skits, speeches, and visits from brass, including executives from Reuters' London headquarters.

Reuter journalists in New York, Washington and elsewhere admit they jumped at the chance to take a free vacation, and that they found some aspects of the trip valuable. A few mentioned having productive, late-into-the-night discussions with colleagues; others said they were impressed that the company would allow even mail clerks and receptionists to enjoy such luxuries as phones in the bathrooms.

They were much less impressed, however, by the money that Reuters America spent on the trips. Although revenues grew 14 percent last year, staffers say the company has been asking employees to do more with less, which has meant longer hours and frayed nerves.

"Any employee around here will tell you that we're short of staff," says Peter Szekely, a New York reporter who is also Newspaper Guild chairman at the company. "People are reaching a saturation point." Adds another reporter, based in the Southeast, "There are days when the desk is so short-handed, you can't get a story moved. Reuters is a really, really rich company, but they treat us like we're UPI."

Several journalists, all of whom asked not to be identified, say they were particularly outraged when non-editorial staffers from Chicago who had just been laid off climbed on stage at three of the retreats to testify that they still loved Reuters – and Vision. "It was like they were parading POWs," scoffs one Washington reporter, while a New York colleague got the message that those watching should get with the program "or this could be you." Responds Celia Berk, the vice president who heads Vision under President Brian Vaughan's direction, "It was very emotional and not easy to watch, but no one forced them to do that."

Reuters budgeted $2 million in 1992 and $5 million this year for Vision, including the retreats, according to sources. Berk says "those numbers feel high" but was not ýore specific, saying only that the entire program's price tag is in the millions. Two retreats were held last year for a total of 350 managers in Palm Springs, California, and Amelia Island, Florida, and four more last April and June in Naples, Florida, for a few hundred staffers at a time.

Berk says she has noticed "a heightened sense of pride" among many employees since the retreats. Newsroom grumbling about Vision was no surprise, she says, "but Brian believes there is no other way to keep this organization healthy and successful." Adds Andrew Nibley, Reuters America's top editor: "Our journalists are trained to be cynics."

Nibley, who says his editors and reporters "work themselves very, very hard," says he plans to increase editorial staff by at least 5 percent next year. He also says that while Vision was embraced more enthusiastically on the business side, it did have an impact in the newsroom. "I do see a lot of cooperation between labor and management and a lot of staffers taking initiative on their own," he says.

Even the union man is reluctant to call Vision a total loss. "There were certain aspects of the experience that everybody agreed were good," says Szekely. "Meeting your colleagues from all over the place, learning more about Reuters, hanging out on the beach. But I've not seen any real change in the way people think about the company or the way people are doing their jobs... I was left without a good sense of what it was all about."