This is a follow-up post to last weeks Northwest Airlines List Of 101 Ways To Save Money. I apologize for not updating this story sooner. I have had to remind myself that I am a tech recruiter first, and blogger second.

Unfortunately I did not get on the National Public Radio (NPR) segment of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell me. They were able to get quotes from a union rep and for as much as I wanted to get in the story they made the right choice.

To hear the segment go to This Week’s Show. Then look for:

“Bluff the Listener” "Thanks for nothing, corporate overlords!" Three stories about good intentions gone awry in the business world.

While not getting on the show was a bummer NPR does have on their front page “Links Heard On Air” with a link to this story Northwest's Advice to the Laid Off: Dumpster Dive. There is also a 2+ minute audio of the piece they did which includes comments from those that received the material. At the bottom of the story is a link to my blog posting. Very, very cool.

There has been a lot of attention to this story. Last Friday I had 1,100+ visitors to the 101 tips. As I type this at 6:00 pm central time I have had 6,100+ visitors just today.

Frankly I find this all a little overwhelming. What I thought was an interesting local story has brought 55+ links from other sites, quite a few comments, and 85 email messages. I am slowly responding to the email.

The most frequented question I have been asked is, “What do you think of this?” As I said in the original post I found that many of these “tips” are reasonable actions people could take to save some cash.

The problem is that the material was given to those losing their jobs. If I had been a recipient of the material I would have wanted someone’s butt on the chopping block. And not some mid manager person, a ranking official.

For those who have said the workers were being overly sensitive I ask them this question, “If it had been you how would you have reacted?” I doubt they would have laughed.

The problem I have from where I sit is that this was a complete failure on NWA’s part. So they really did not check the material before it was presented? Geez, that’s an awful lot of trust to put in an outside vendor.

My understanding, and I may be wrong, is that the 150+ page packet was going to be the standard packet moving forward. Can you imagine if this happened to more than 50 employees and not in three small towns?

Finally, even NEAS (the firm who put the material together) is saying that the material was prepared by someone else. Were they aware of what was prepared? Have they passed this same brochure on to other clients? Better yet, who did prepare it?

I lied, one last thing. I have been asked which “tip” I thought most about. #53 Bicycle To Work. Dude, they don’t have jobs!!!

I have gone through my referral pages and I always hesitate to point out one site over another. Some sites have referred quite a few people but only have the original story. Other sites have been either more original with what they wrote or have had great comments on their site.

Here are a few of the many worth taking a look at:

From the local crowd here in Minnesota:

-Metroblogging Minneapolis: Northwest Airlines to employees: go dumpster diving!

-City Pages Blog: Frugal Flyer

-MNspeak.com NWA Says 'Screw Your Dignity'

From the national crowd:

-Funny Business: Distributor of NWA's "101 Ways To Save Money" apologizes--sort of With a copy of the NEAS “apology”.

-SmartMoney.com: northwest to laid-off employees: dig through your trash! A special award for this one, many stories have had a picture of a person digging or sitting in a dumpster. This one comes with Oscar the Grouch From Sesame Street in a NWA trashcan.

-STL Recruiting: 5 More Ways to Save Money If You're A Northwest Employee I know Jim well and he is not serious about his tips. He is just taking the original 101 steps another step to show the absurdity.

-Lifehacker: Ask the Readers: Cut your expenses when things are tight?

-FatWallet: Money Saving Tips from Northwest Airlines

-Don’t Mess With Taxes: In case of an emergency firing, dumpster dive

-Super Happy Funtime Blog: And People Thought This Was INSENSITIVE????