Cut and pasted from another board out there: (Thank-you Mike)
"CTV Newsradio. Yup, the legendary calls are to be buried even further. That will make it easier to "brand",  they'll say. In reality it means they can synidcate more easily. And THAT means cut staff more easily.  Also headed for oblivion (it is to weep) CJAD and CFRA."

This was posted on that other board October 26, 2015.


 

ONEIL wrote:

Share holders come first....and it sucks.  380 jobs by the end of November...what a nice way to greet the holidays.  But, we've seen this before.  I wonder when they'll start chopping inefficient management?  After all someone hired all these people...they should be the first to go.

Well, at the risk of people saying I might have been one of those "inefficient managers" - I think it is unfair to generalize that the employees getting fired weren't doing their jobs or were bad employees when you say: "after all someone hired all these people".

From personal experience, I can tell you that "these people" about to be fired are a numbers game. I went through this with Astral three times. It was about letting enough people go to reach the amount of money they wanted to save. In one of the last rounds it was $350,000 after I was told a few months earlier I had to slash enough people to save $250,000. When HR was handing out envelopes I always thought the last one had my name on it because in radio it's not IF but WHEN you get fired. 

Well in the fourth round my envelope was handed out the day before about 10 or 12 people were herded into the boardroom and told they were terminated in front of each other. By all accounts it was a brutal scene of anger, tears and embarrassment. To add insult to injury, they had to wait in the room until HR came back to bring them one at a time to an office to receive their severance package. 

I pleaded with them not to do it this way. I also told them (upper management) that none of the people being fired deserved to be let go. Astral saved about $500,000 in salaries that day. They wouldn't listen. But the next day they called me at home to say they would never do a mass firing like that again because it was too hard on the staff - really what were they thinking - oh and not once in that brief conversation did they ask how I was handling my termination.

All this to say we should never assume that in mass firings like this the victims deserved it. That they were incompetent or their bosses were wrong in hiring these people "in the first place". 

Been there ... these people who will lose their jobs, deserve our respect, our compassion and our help in offering them advice and contacts so that they can find another job (if there are any out there that exist). 

People on this board forget sometimes that the victims of mass firings are members of this board or frequent this board to learn about what is happening in the industry.Is it really fair for people hiding behind funny names (I know there are reasons and the rules say it is ok) but if you're going to kick someone when they are down, say they deserved to be fired because they didn't like their show or their radio station, trust me it hurts more than you can imagine - especially when these attacks are basically anonymous.

I know, some will call this a boo hoo hoo posting. I'm not talking about the shots taken at me. It goes with the territory. Sting, yes but not surprising because many of those comments were made while I was employed so when I was terminated and the same things were said, well it was expected. And, if I may say, looking back, I can understand why and that I may have deserved some of them ... but the days after people are terminated, maybe people on this board can hold back their venom and show some compassion.

And, if I may say this, from experience, unless you have been a manager or PD, you don't understand the stress these people go through leading up to the mass firings. These are their co-workers, their friends and they have to look them in the eye every day knowing that on such and such a date or "tomorrow" they have to give them the news that will tear their lives apart. There is nothing worse than going home and telling your spouse and your children that you've been fired. 

Remember that when posting about the latest round of Bell Media employees or commenting on those who lost their jobs. 

And don't post how you would rather quit than do the terminations because that isn't an option. When managers accept their position they know they have to "hire and fire" people. It's the shit part of the job.

When you fire people, you have to also manage the "survivors" and talk with them, Let them express their anger at losing friends and colleagues. Ten people get killed in a bus accident there would be grief councillors at work the next day. Fire 10 people and management ignores the pain and starts telling the staff how they have to pick up the load, do more with less. You've all heard the message. This is wrong. This is not what employees need to hear while looking at the person's coffee mug on their desk or sweater over their chair because they were escorted out before having a chance to take their personal belongings. 

On the last round of cuts in the newsroom I held an impromptu staff meeting at the end of the day to explain the firings were over, why they happened and it was ok to be angry. During the meeting someone made a snide comment about an unpopular colleague who got let go and people laughed. I chastised them for that comment and their reaction, reminding them that person was going home to tell their family they was now unemployed. They apologized and then moved me to tears when they asked me "how are you doing?".

I just fired 10 of their colleagues and they asked me if I was ok. Told them their thoughts should be with those no longer employed and that they should call them to give them support.

The most important thing you can do when people in your radio or TV station are let go is to call them ... just to say hi, let them feel human... let them know you care ... let them hear your support when their world is falling down around their feet ... It means the world to them - I know because that is how I felt when I got those phone calls after I was let go. 
 

And then there are the managers, program directors, news directors and others with titles who sit there and let all of these cuts be made.
It's OK, I've still got mine...
Been through this too many times  but fortunately, Karma always gets the assholes in the end.
And then they whine about all the years of service they've given the company and how they're being dumped....just like the people they dumped over the years.
If someone comes in and slashes your department so that you no longer can get the job done, you also should "fall on your sword" in support of those unjustly terminated.
I have several high profile examples of this and they know who they are.
The day Karma came to get them, they wailed and gnashed their teeth about how unfair it was, yadda yadda yadda.
It makes me feel pretty good when they go to apply for a job and find someone whom they fired sitting in the hiring chair.
A couple of people in those positions with whom I worked and supported despite asshole bosses tell me nothing feels better  telling them when they ask for a job:  "Not in a million f**king years!"
 

Before you sign anything, call (416) 216-5900 and ask for W. Carroll

The radio courses at Humber College were set up by Phil Stone when he left CHUM for teaching.  So, to figure out the curriculum he walked the halls at CHUM Toronto noting the different departments.  Each then became a module of his course.
Would I still recognize it today? (I did train in TV at Humber in 1972/73, but I was too self-conscious on camera & changed to radio. I understand now that I'm old and distinguished...'Ahem'...I made a mistake all those years ago...)
I thought the wisest part of the tv training was the radio work they insisted we learn and practice.
Are those principles still being taught?
Everybody used to know how to do everything in the radio station when we were kids all those AM years ago.
Does anyone in any department not have a specialty today?  (Do they understand what's done two floors away?)
A crash course for execs could be set up in a hurry...

I did the Humber 'thing' 'til I discovered experience would mean more to a potential employer than a diploma.  Learned that on a Friday.  Quit the course on the Monday.  Had a job in North Bay within a couple of months.  3 semesters at Humber helped me land the job though I must say.  Phil was a great guy.  David Spencer too.

To ALL those losing their livelihood and income and thus seeing their families left to hang out and dry in the wind Merry effen Christmas.

I can hear those shareholders now...en masse..."Are there no prisons?  Are there no workhouses?"  Heartless pricks.

Last edited by Old Codger (November 10, 2015 3:32 pm)

Want to know why radio is in trouble with consolidations?
Here's a look at the US. Trouble is brewing. And data doesn't lie. http://wp.me/p4nCD6-D3
Allan Slaight and Jim Waters now appear to have been the most brilliant Canadian broadcasting geniuses having sold at the top of the market when they did.
 

Last edited by Mark Elliot (November 12, 2015 7:10 pm)