It's odd that unhappy CBCers don't quit their terrible jobs By PETER WORTHINGTON The Toronto Sun August 7, 2008
If almost half of the CBC's 10,000 employees show signs of high-level psychological distress and job unhappiness, think of what we CBC listeners and viewers go through.
As reported by Sun Media, a "wellness" survey at the CBC shows massive job dissatisfaction, despite CBC employees getting better pay, better pensions, more job security than colleagues in private-sector media.
Some 33% of those participating even indicated they intended to quit their job -- but that's likely empty rhetoric, because they're unlikely to get as good a deal on the competitive job market these days. Especially media jobs.
Poor dears, some 12% of CBC types said they were treated rudely and meanly by fellow employees and their bosses. Some even were "hated" and got death threats. Their only recourse was to take sick days.
Unhappy campers indeed. Try taking too many sick days in the private sector when you're not really sick, and see how long you last.
The survey is enlightening as it is startling, because the CBC is sort of socialism personified.
Job satisfaction is low because there is no accountability.
Public taste or preference is irrelevant at the CBC, which does its own thing without regard to what the public wants.
The Mother Corp. knows best. It forcefeeds listeners and viewers with what it thinks they deserve. If the public doesn't like it, let them write letters or phone Rex Murphy on CBC Radio Sunday afternoons.
That's quintessential socialism.
Bitching by those who work in the media tends to be a normal fact of life. But in the private sector, unhappiness is more often related to being unable to do the job in a way that the individual finds rewarding.
In the newspaper business, it's tradition for reporters to grumble if their story is spiked: "Damn editors wouldn't know a good story if it jumped up and bit them on the butt," is the refrain. When editors play the story big, the reporter praises their judgment.
At the CBC, no one gives a hoot. They live on public money -- money the rest of us pay in taxes. The job satisfaction ratio has to be low when it's only the bosses and not the public who need to be pleased.
The CBC's early mandate was to help unite Canadians -- a Crown corporation held at arm's length from government. In some ways it has divided and alienated Canadians more than unite them.
When he was PM, Pierre Trudeau (who embodied a lot of socialist ideas), even complained the CBC was fostering separatism in Quebec. He was right.
When she was MP for Vancouver-Kingsway, Hall of Fame journalist Simma Holt urged that the CBC be sold, calling it "sleazy, mediocre, bad, dangerous and divisive."
In the bad old days of the Cold War, the CBC was a favourite for KGB infiltration or exploitation.
When one CBC type was mentioned in Parliament, he was defended by the observation that he couldn't be a pawn because he'd won journalistic awards.
If the CBC had to depend on public support for its income, it might be more accountable.
As it is now, it should not be allowed to bid against the private sector. That is, not bid for Olympics, hockey, football, because it just raises the costs.
If the CBC ran quality programs that the private sector finds unprofitable, it would better justify its huge bureaucracy at public expense. As it is, endemic unhappiness at the CBC is unlikely to be cured by mandatory "respect seminars," soft chairs to relax in, or a full-time staff dedicated to stress counselling.
Post-traumatic stress disorder at the CBC! What next for employees? Danger pay?
Too bad they don't release the results of similar surveys among employees of the Quebecor chain, which now owns the Sun as well as several other media properties, including several TV stations. It would probably show much the same results as employees struggle to deal with massive cost cutting, pushing more work into the hands of fewer workers. It would also be interesting to see some historical studies about the relative job satisfaction ratings from several years ago, likely around the time that wheezy old gasbag Worthington was editor of the paper.
I found Worthington's CBC article to be very entertaining and there is very little to argue with.
That's because, as usual, there are little or no facts in Worthington's arguments...just more of his highly opinionated wheezing on a subject near and dear to the heart of his corporate masters.
I worked there for one week, and coudn't take the backbiting and sitting around doing nothing all day. People complained when forced to get off their butts and actually do something. The average person in the dept. I was in did maybe 2 assignments a day, working less than half of their 8 hour shift.
I've worked for a number of union shops in different industries, but that one has to be the worst.
Mr. Worthington's comments and interpretation of the survey information accurately reflects my (vicarious) experiences with the CBC operation in a major city. My girlfriend worked for them as a news writer and producer. I was from private broadcasting.
I was like a "Heinz 57 mongrel" at a pedigree dog show whenever we would attend CBC staff functions or dinner parties.
The trivial things they could find to complain about with respect to their working conditions and pay scale never failed to floor me.
Meantime, the mindless tech who dragged camera cables along the sidelines for the football game made almost twice my salary due to overtime!
Further, after a few drinks had loosened their tongues, the news dept staffers came across as being patently anti-American and so left wing you'd have have sworn they had been trained at the Fidel Castro Institute of Media Studies. Since half my family is from the US, it always made for some interesting conversations as I fended off their BS that would make the USA seem like it was the "Great Satan."
I genuinely enjoyed tangling with them, although my girlfriend was always given a pretty hard time about it at the office for days after. Later, in deference to her need to remain employed in a workable atmosphere, I used to bite my tongue at those parties and keep my mouth shut while rolling my eyes.
So guess their PC ways actually achieved their goal.....silence opposing views.
Mr. Worthington's comments and interpretation of the survey information accurately reflects my (vicarious) experiences with the CBC operation in a major city. My girlfriend worked for them as a news writer and producer. I was from private broadcasting.
I was like a "Heinz 57 mongrel" at a pedigree dog show whenever we would attend CBC staff functions or dinner parties.
The trivial things they could find to complain about with respect to their working conditions and pay scale never failed to floor me.
Meantime, the mindless tech who dragged camera cables along the sidelines for the football game made almost twice my salary due to overtime!
Further, after a few drinks had loosened their tongues, the news dept staffers came across as being patently anti-American and so left wing you'd have have sworn they had been trained at the Fidel Castro Institute of Media Studies. Since half my family is from the US, it always made for some interesting conversations as I fended off their BS that would make the USA seem like it was the "Great Satan."
I genuinely enjoyed tangling with them, although my girlfriend was always given a pretty hard time about it at the office for days after. Later, in deference to her need to remain employed in a workable atmosphere, I used to bite my tongue at those parties and keep my mouth shut while rolling my eyes.
So guess their PC ways actually achieved their goal.....silence opposing views.
Hammie
Yes, yes, yes...we all know how your uncle Jake had a third cousin who worked in the CBC cafeteria in 1966 and once saw Earl Cameron not eat his brussel sprouts and concluded that everyone who worked at the CBC was therefore (a) wasteful and (b) a communist. It's all highly amusing, but ultimately about as useful to the ongoing debate about the need for the CBC as the other debate about whether Lloyd Robertson is actually still alive or whether CTV is just using a digital clone of the old fart that they've manufactured in Bell/Globemedia lab.
The interesting point in all of this whining all boils down to one thing...money. The fact is that CBC people have been, historically, better paid than their private broadcasting counterparts (i.e...they get a living wage, as opposed to having to live on KD) always winds up breeding all kinds of resentment amongst the private radio types. As such, there are plenty of those people who project their own frustrations about their own lousy salaries and job prospects onto the CBC counterparts.
As for Worthington, he's certainly been a guest on a number of CBC programs over the years...ask him if his scruples about the Corp's alleged political bias prevented him from cashing his cheques.
Tuned in this morning to CBC Daybreak North on Shaw Cable to catch the 6:30 wire copy special and......bupkiss……nada…..47 seconds of dead air followed by a minute and 10 seconds of bad elevator music, followed by a breathless host fresh from his morning constitutional on the ole porcelain hopper telling us they're having a little trouble getting their newscast from Kelowna and he assured us they're looking into it.
Has this arrogant, self important money pit of a national radio service finally experiencing a work to rule?
Oh…..by the way......another disgruntled private radio guy, here.
Tuned in this morning to CBC Daybreak North on Shaw Cable to catch the 6:30 wire copy special and......bupkiss……nada…..47 seconds of dead air followed by a minute and 10 seconds of bad elevator music, followed by a breathless host fresh from his morning constitutional on the ole porcelain hopper telling us they're having a little trouble getting their newscast from Kelowna and he assured us they're looking into it.
Has this arrogant, self important money pit of a national radio service finally experiencing a work to rule?
Oh…..by the way......another disgruntled private radio guy, here.
REDDS
Lemme guess...you were listening to scalp stories because your own station cut its CP wire as a cost reduction measure, right?
Of course, we all know that mistakes never occur on private radio stations. And on the rare occasion where an error does occur, it's either God's fault or the person responsible is instantly fired and their family is thrown into a pit of hungry wolves, right REDDS?
And all those statistics showing declines in the numbers of hours tuned, especially among young people, while CBC ratings continue to climb in major markets across the country are just figments of the imaginations of those commies at Statistics Canada and BBM. It's all part of giant conspiracy to keep your wages low and your job prospects dismal, REDDS. Thank God you discovered it when you did.
While MightyThor clearly didn't read my post, as my Aunt Jessica did not work there... I did, I would disagree about the communist leanings in the building. I mean Bill Davis seems like a Communist in Alberta Anything that doesn't toe the party line appears to be a threat in the great state...I mean province of Ralph Klein.
But Thor's refusal to admit or accept that the CBC is wasteful, and that the salaries are far too high and the workload too light is typical of the opinions in the building. I sat in a room and listened to people griping about how hard they work, while not working! Come talk to me after I've had 5 assignments and missed my lunch, without being paid some ridiculous fine for missing my meal break! News is supposed to be unpredictable, and if the people really wanted the best product, they would take the forced meal break and other mindless rules and shove 'em.
Sometimes it's a busy day and some times it's slow, but don't kill the momentum of a story so you can drive back to the hub and grab your sandwich, or demand your overtime pay because you finished the day 7 minutes late. But as I said, I've worked for many unions, and the leaders feel they have to win new concessions each time a new contract is forged, so when you've already got everything you need and more, you start to ask for the silly stuff, and just to end the action, you get it. It creates a workforce of petty, jaded, presumptive and mediocrity-driven individuals. ...
Okay, any doubts I'm a Communist have surely been driven away!!!
I worked at CBC (in eastern Canada) for almost 20 years, and spent another five years or so in private radio and TV. It's true that some, but certainly not all, CBC employees feel "entitled to their entitlements", and would last about 20 minutes in the private sector, 19 of which would be spent whining about the fact they were expected to produce something that day. The sad thing is that current management thinks everyone who comes to work there now will become one of those freeloaders, and refuses to commit to them beyond short-term contracts, causing unncessary angst, not to mention backstabbing in an attempt to impress management enough to get one of the few permanent jobs available. Sure, the salaries are good (especially on the radio side compared to those in private radio), but it ain't the workplace it used to be, and certainly not one to aspire to. (And anyone with a private sector background is given no respect for that experience.) To those CBC employees who fear a Harper majority government and what it would mean to the CBC: you should worry more about the bizarre decisions being made by your superiors. At the rate they're going, there won't be much left for Harper to get rid of, if he ever gets the chance.
Just give Rex his own show on Public Television in Buffalo; trade George to MUCH; put Ronnie and Grapes out on waivers where they will be snapped up and.... flush the rest.
Peter could wear his medal when he's anchoring in Kitchener.
While MightyThor clearly didn't read my post, as my Aunt Jessica did not work there... I did, I would disagree about the communist leanings in the building. I mean Bill Davis seems like a Communist in Alberta Anything that doesn't toe the party line appears to be a threat in the great state...I mean province of Ralph Klein.
But Thor's refusal to admit or accept that the CBC is wasteful, and that the salaries are far too high and the workload too light is typical of the opinions in the building. I sat in a room and listened to people griping about how hard they work, while not working! Come talk to me after I've had 5 assignments and missed my lunch, without being paid some ridiculous fine for missing my meal break! News is supposed to be unpredictable, and if the people really wanted the best product, they would take the forced meal break and other mindless rules and shove 'em.
Sometimes it's a busy day and some times it's slow, but don't kill the momentum of a story so you can drive back to the hub and grab your sandwich, or demand your overtime pay because you finished the day 7 minutes late. But as I said, I've worked for many unions, and the leaders feel they have to win new concessions each time a new contract is forged, so when you've already got everything you need and more, you start to ask for the silly stuff, and just to end the action, you get it. It creates a workforce of petty, jaded, presumptive and mediocrity-driven individuals. ...
Okay, any doubts I'm a Communist have surely been driven away!!!
So, in other words, not only do you have at least two different names under which you post here in an attempt to buttress your arguments, but you're also looking to blame the workers at CBC for the fact that they have reasonable (i.e. living) wages and the fact that you have to work your butt off for the pittance you recieve in private radio.
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Anything that doesn't toe the party line appears to be a threat in the great state...I mean province of Ralph Klein.