After 34 years, 2 months, countless rounds of layoffs and buyouts, and many bad owners with the Chicago Tribune, I woke up saying, "Hey, I've gotta file for unemployment today."

Like most of my colleagues, I'm being furloughed 3 weeks in the next 2 months. Our collective sacrifice, negotiated by @ctguild in a tough series of Zoom meetings, saves the company less than it just gave a departing executive.

So while she's spending cash the company claims it doesn't have, I'll be on my first furlough week, absorbing what will amount to a 7 percent annual pay cut in the span of 2-1/2 months.

I look forward to returning to help tell Chicago's stories.