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So a double-super-secret source deep within the Time & Life Building explains how the buyout portion of the Time Inc. job cuts will work. Seems that under union rules, the company has to accept voluntarily buyouts for two weeks before it can start laying people off involuntarily. People who take the offer get a payout calculated by a formula involving some mix of current salary and years of service. Last time there were layoffs the company offered people over 50 or with more than 15 years of service an extra 5 years' credit toward their pension as an inducement to pack it in; this time, there's no such offer.

A memo yesterday from Time editor Jim Kelly to his (incredible shrinking) staff says that cuts will come from the ranks of "editorial assistants/receptionists, writers and correspondents." (No serial comma, apparently, at Time.) They need to fire 10 people, Kelly says, which means that if the fewer-than-100 total number of reductions stated yesterday by Time Inc. PR is in fact true, the flagship mag — which already took hits on top managers and bureau chiefs and its London bureau in the last few months — is bearing a disproportionate burden this time, too.

The terse memo from the usually jocular Kelly — he can't be having much fun lately — is after the jump.

We need to reduce the number of staffers in the following three guild-covered categories: editorial assistants/receptionists, writers and correspondents.

Anyone in these categories interested in having a confidential conversation about a severance package should contact Kate Weiss in HR at extension 8618. We are looking for up to a total of ten volunteers across the three categories.

Volunteers can put up their hands anytime in the next two weeks. If we do not have enough volunteers by Monday, February 13, we will begin a process of involuntary layoffs.