Is there any good way of going about lay-offs? Nope. I know a lot of senior editors and while people constantly get removed for screw-ups and non-performance, lay-offs are not those. Here, people, usually hard-working ones lose a job because of reasons beyond their control. But even then, information can play a huge role.
Telling employees that you have more lay-offs scheduled through a third-party seems strange and to many not honest. I have been lucky that I have worked under editors who believe at (a level of, any which way) transparency. Most of them have at least. I have always had issues with people who protect non-confidential or work-related ‘information’ – whether that is company information on employment or a phone number. No I don’t always want to know what launches are around the corner or detailed financials, but if times are tough I would like to know what the hell is going on and openness there is something that I respect.
When that trust breaks down, that reflects on the quality of reportage and the confidence of even your best resources. And trust can break down – and then the stories and the leaks start. Some true and some patently absurd, but because of the situation you actually even listen to them. There are stories that people have been called back from assigned for a ‘talk’ or that the really high-cost senior resources haven’t cut back. And confidence levels drop to the point that numbers start to fall. As do profits and it all becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
It doesn’t have to be this way, you know. But the trouble is that the business books will probably look back and write about this as a case-study in ‘How not to’ and that, frankly, is the worst condemnation you can get.
PS: It appears that other than the ICL, Subhash Chandra’s other ‘venture’ (which was a JV) is also facing trouble and is on the block with the JV partners looking to cede management control. Hmmm…
EDIT: Typo in headline corrected - 'Soiled Undies' I guess is the best interpretation and what I really wanted to say in the first place.
Showing posts with label Layoffs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Layoffs. Show all posts
Monday, May 04, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Media Layoff Watch
The silent layoffs are over, the big boys have begun laying off employees. In the hundreds. Last night UndieTV laid off 114 people - mostly from the defunct MetroNation Delhi channel (that said, their tie-up with the Kasturi's for MetroNation Chennai goes on apace) but there were some lay-offs from 24x7 and India as well. At Times Of India, following the depressing 30 per cent pay cuts which has several employees rather pissed off (whenever I meet a Times reporter at a Presser all they can do is bitch out their employer - so much for employee satisfaction) they have also been layoffs - 87 people across the country have been let go. Of course, there are still lack of mad people at Times though, because according to this post they want to sell a stake in their Broadcast operation valuing at $200 million. Which is a lot more than the other, much larger networks, are worth. Just to see Arnab screaming and shouting and being put in his place by various Pakistani journalists.
This is the start of the high profile editorial lay-offs, hudreds of people in ad sales and marketing functions across channels have been laid off over the past few months as well. If you have any news about lay-offs or were laid-off yourself email me at presstalk (at) gmail (dot) com or just leave a comment. That said, I will not publish libellous or derogatory comments. If you feel treated unfairly, you are a journalist so you should be able to put it into words properly.
This is the start of the high profile editorial lay-offs, hudreds of people in ad sales and marketing functions across channels have been laid off over the past few months as well. If you have any news about lay-offs or were laid-off yourself email me at presstalk (at) gmail (dot) com or just leave a comment. That said, I will not publish libellous or derogatory comments. If you feel treated unfairly, you are a journalist so you should be able to put it into words properly.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Interesting...
There is a thing about other people's letters, but before I post the latest letter/post/rant of 2009 with which I have no connection, it seems that the print media industry has caught one break. It seems the trip to Anand Sharma worked in more ways than one as DAVP rates also climbed 15 percent. Just before elections too, which will see a flurry of Bharat Nirman adverts. But, this below is classic, you know and I know that not much will happen and this isn't half as entertaining as people having an anger fit at the Press Club in the heart of the capital, but what the hell...
It will be a sight to see journalists unionise again, but given the rampant socialism on display nowadays, it won't be surprising. I'm wondering, maybe that is why Communism is the most effective civic in Civilzation IV. Anyway, I wonder who drafted the mail and in an aside I have to admit that journalism on the whole has benefted from the scrapping of the wage board which has a major element in the rise of salaries over the past five years. Yes, it reduces job security, but it allows good journalists to be paid decent sums of money.
Anyway, this letter is being sent to a guy who is a closet Commie at heart and loves employee power. Especially those ones who are murderous goons.
By the way, remember this shindig from a year ago.
EDIT: While a letter was sent, a friend told me that Amin, who is a firebrand trade-unionist always ready to jump on an anti-industrialist bandwagon claims that no such letter was written. Taking back the claim or are some of those who were let go stoking the fire?
--------------------------------
Letter to Labour Minister
Dear Shri Fernandes,
I am writing to you on a serious matter which requires your immediate attention and urgent action.
Newspapers all over India have launched a massive dismissal of journalists and other employees, giving the excuse of the recession hitting theirr evenue. Topping all these newspapers is the Hindustan Times Group that has removed more than 100 journalists and other employees in just one fortnight in January. The Hindustan Times Group has a long historyof the anti-labour practices that peaked about six years ago when over 350 non-journalists and some 50 journalists were thrown out of job overnight. The matter was raised in Parliament and is now pending in the Court.
From the same time, the management is forcing all journalists and non-journalists in regular employment on wage board pay-scales to resign and accept contract employment. Those who opposed were sacked, creating an atmosphere of terror and uncertainty that frightened many to surrender to the whims and fancies of the management.
The Hindustan Times Group is indulging in the same type of malpractices forwhich Satyam is in the news these days. It has been forming companies after companies and shifting employees from one company to another without obtaining their consent or completing the legal formalities, so as to indulge in fudging of accounts and escape the statutory obligations. The malpractice of shifting the regular employees as contract labour that is now not limited to only Hindustan Times and Times of India groups but it has also spread across the newspaper industry as a tool to scuttle the statutory Wage Board awards.
The latest instance of removal of senior journalists from Hindustan and Hindustan Times was the most shocking violation of the trade union and human rights. Most of these journalists were physically thrown out of their offices and that too in less than a month or two of renewal of their contracts for three years. The management has been putting two letters on table - sign the resignation letter and take three months' salary or get dismissed with just two months' basic salary. Most of the victims had no option to sign the resignation to get a little more money as they were not even allowed to think before taking the decision.
One employee in Lucknow suffered heart attack while senior lady journalistS hailbala, who had been serving Hindustan for more than three decades, was manhandled, molested and physically pushed out of office by a senior resident editor, after forcing her to sign on the resignation letter. She has lodged a complaint with Police, but no action has been initiated so far. Among those humiliated, sacked and not even allowed to collect his belongings from the office is Vinod Varshney, the Bureau Chief with 37 years of standing in Hindustan. Those thrown out along with him include Shripal Jain, senior assistant editor, Subodh Mishra, senior news editor, Ira Jha, news editor as also special correspondents and reporters Anil Verma,Rajiv Ranjan Nag, Vivek Shukla, Sandeep Thakur, and Virendra Mehta. Similar incident of sacking of the senior journalists and other reporters is going on in various centers of Hindustan like Lucknow, Patna, Dehradun, Ranchi, Banaras, Muzaffarpur, Meerut, Kanpur and Agra. Those victimized in this manner include 15 from Patna, five each from Lucknow and Kanpur, six from Dehradun, three in Banaras, two each in Ranchi, Muzaffarpur and Agra.Similar malpractices are being followed in the group's two other newspapers - Hindustan Times and Mint. The latest to be thrown out are Rathin Das, special correspondent in Ahmedabad who was asked to fly to Delhi for an official meeting and forced to resign as soon as he arrived, while a very senior journalist of Mint, was similarly rendered jobless.
I therefore request you to kindly look into the matter and take necessary action at the earliest.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
MOHAMMED AMIN
General Secretary,
CITU
Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)
------------------------------
NOTE: As written above, Amin claims he had nothing to do with this letter.
It will be a sight to see journalists unionise again, but given the rampant socialism on display nowadays, it won't be surprising. I'm wondering, maybe that is why Communism is the most effective civic in Civilzation IV. Anyway, I wonder who drafted the mail and in an aside I have to admit that journalism on the whole has benefted from the scrapping of the wage board which has a major element in the rise of salaries over the past five years. Yes, it reduces job security, but it allows good journalists to be paid decent sums of money.
Anyway, this letter is being sent to a guy who is a closet Commie at heart and loves employee power. Especially those ones who are murderous goons.
By the way, remember this shindig from a year ago.
EDIT: While a letter was sent, a friend told me that Amin, who is a firebrand trade-unionist always ready to jump on an anti-industrialist bandwagon claims that no such letter was written. Taking back the claim or are some of those who were let go stoking the fire?
--------------------------------
Letter to Labour Minister
Dear Shri Fernandes,
I am writing to you on a serious matter which requires your immediate attention and urgent action.
Newspapers all over India have launched a massive dismissal of journalists and other employees, giving the excuse of the recession hitting theirr evenue. Topping all these newspapers is the Hindustan Times Group that has removed more than 100 journalists and other employees in just one fortnight in January. The Hindustan Times Group has a long historyof the anti-labour practices that peaked about six years ago when over 350 non-journalists and some 50 journalists were thrown out of job overnight. The matter was raised in Parliament and is now pending in the Court.
From the same time, the management is forcing all journalists and non-journalists in regular employment on wage board pay-scales to resign and accept contract employment. Those who opposed were sacked, creating an atmosphere of terror and uncertainty that frightened many to surrender to the whims and fancies of the management.
The Hindustan Times Group is indulging in the same type of malpractices forwhich Satyam is in the news these days. It has been forming companies after companies and shifting employees from one company to another without obtaining their consent or completing the legal formalities, so as to indulge in fudging of accounts and escape the statutory obligations. The malpractice of shifting the regular employees as contract labour that is now not limited to only Hindustan Times and Times of India groups but it has also spread across the newspaper industry as a tool to scuttle the statutory Wage Board awards.
The latest instance of removal of senior journalists from Hindustan and Hindustan Times was the most shocking violation of the trade union and human rights. Most of these journalists were physically thrown out of their offices and that too in less than a month or two of renewal of their contracts for three years. The management has been putting two letters on table - sign the resignation letter and take three months' salary or get dismissed with just two months' basic salary. Most of the victims had no option to sign the resignation to get a little more money as they were not even allowed to think before taking the decision.
One employee in Lucknow suffered heart attack while senior lady journalistS hailbala, who had been serving Hindustan for more than three decades, was manhandled, molested and physically pushed out of office by a senior resident editor, after forcing her to sign on the resignation letter. She has lodged a complaint with Police, but no action has been initiated so far. Among those humiliated, sacked and not even allowed to collect his belongings from the office is Vinod Varshney, the Bureau Chief with 37 years of standing in Hindustan. Those thrown out along with him include Shripal Jain, senior assistant editor, Subodh Mishra, senior news editor, Ira Jha, news editor as also special correspondents and reporters Anil Verma,Rajiv Ranjan Nag, Vivek Shukla, Sandeep Thakur, and Virendra Mehta. Similar incident of sacking of the senior journalists and other reporters is going on in various centers of Hindustan like Lucknow, Patna, Dehradun, Ranchi, Banaras, Muzaffarpur, Meerut, Kanpur and Agra. Those victimized in this manner include 15 from Patna, five each from Lucknow and Kanpur, six from Dehradun, three in Banaras, two each in Ranchi, Muzaffarpur and Agra.Similar malpractices are being followed in the group's two other newspapers - Hindustan Times and Mint. The latest to be thrown out are Rathin Das, special correspondent in Ahmedabad who was asked to fly to Delhi for an official meeting and forced to resign as soon as he arrived, while a very senior journalist of Mint, was similarly rendered jobless.
I therefore request you to kindly look into the matter and take necessary action at the earliest.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
MOHAMMED AMIN
General Secretary,
CITU
Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)
------------------------------
NOTE: As written above, Amin claims he had nothing to do with this letter.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
A spot of good news!
Mining in the Aravali's have been temporarily stopped. Refer this post and the fact that ToI carried the same pic in the front pages of the Delhi and Chandigarh editions today (I had sent the pic to someone there, though I carried the image here well before that). Hopefully, the destruction of the hill range has come to a stop. Plus, to answer a constant cribber, yes I didn't publish that comment, but that said several people close to the owners were removed. They had a 'Pets' vertical run by a 'cousin' (or relative) which was shuttered and several people close and even related to the portals management were let go.
I don't think sentimentality played a role in those mass layoffs nor should it in any layoffs. Recently, a rather successful publisher in a media group, a guy who turned around a dying publication a couple of years ago was let go. Anyway, soon after the layoffs I went to Shillong on a holiday and upon returning joined a proper newspaper. Sure, people will say I parachuted in there too, but for crying out loud, I'm no JC, so use what you got! Anyway, thanks for reading the story though, glad to know some people do!
I don't think sentimentality played a role in those mass layoffs nor should it in any layoffs. Recently, a rather successful publisher in a media group, a guy who turned around a dying publication a couple of years ago was let go. Anyway, soon after the layoffs I went to Shillong on a holiday and upon returning joined a proper newspaper. Sure, people will say I parachuted in there too, but for crying out loud, I'm no JC, so use what you got! Anyway, thanks for reading the story though, glad to know some people do!
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
A lesson from history.
This is a story, maybe it is not, maybe it is a work of fiction. Or it is a true story embellished with incidents that might or might not have happened sometimetime in the past or bits from other stories that have been internalised by me. Anyway, I have seen a downturn before, many, many years ago and I've survived lay-offs before. This story is from that distant past, a time before the 'War on Terror' and when everybody was more innocent. Again, to send tales of virtue and vice over to the debauch writer of this blog you can either leave a comment (not everything will pass through the filter) or email to presstalk (at) gmail (dot) com. By the way before that, please take some time to appreciate this picture, I'm still ROFL.
In 2000 after graduating from college, my mother who was genuinely sick and tired of finding my stash every second day insisted I get a job. I ended up at a large dot-com that for reasons best understood to me must remain un-named (they still survive and still are run by a bunch of idjits). It was a job. A good job at that! I was a twenty-year old who although he had been using the internet for four years only understood the true meaning of high-speed internet at my place of employment. This was 2000, well before Torrents but we had Napster, and my god, after the sex and the drugs, Napster gave me all the Rock n’ Roll (and weird Japanese porn/anime) I could ever want.
The pity was that the HP CD-R’s (the old 16x blue and white ones, remember those young ‘uns?) cost Rs 40 a piece and when you earned Rs 5K a month, and even accounting for the fact that Malana cost a hell of a lot less those days, that very fact meant that even buying a few blanks every month was a strain on my resources. Anyway, I won’t carry on about how I got addicted to internet porn and every evening after 6, we used to plan eight player racing on NFS: Porsche Unlimited. That remains the only NFS I have ever finished.
Anyway, the afore-mentioned dot-com had an insane hiring policy. They hired and hired madly. New project needing a new engineer, so what if we have one lying around doing nothing, we’ll hire a new one. Better still, the place had a legion of vapid pretty girls entering data, maybe once a week. Not that it mattered, lots of cute girls are better than none. And they had me who understood just about passable amounts of code and could bedazzle most people with stoned philosophy. In an aside, the recent events surrounding Michael Phelps prove that potheads can do whatever they want to – from extreme athletic achievement to becoming President of the US. I get the munchies just saying that!
Anyway, to repeat this was 2000, well it was 2001 by then. There must have been around one million internet subscribers in India and my organisation had over 500 employees or one for every 2000 internet users in India and trust me that job made me an aggressive, rather a maniacal internet user, which I am to this date.
Anyway back to the story, dang, I can’t maintain a straight thread. Suddenly in the middle of the year, just as summer started, a rumour about layoffs began to spread. The dot-com bust had happened in the US and its effects were being felt in India. The Internet was not this magic rainbow with a pot of gold at the end of it and well, the price had to be paid. We were all summoned in batches where the girls got really teary eyed on being told that there would be layoffs. The guys were not stoic at all there was all-round panic, especially the potheads worried about how the next run to Kasaul would get funded. We were told to wait for emails announcing the cuts.
I began burning tons of CD’s, started to wipe the servers clean where I had hosted random stuff and in the process I wiped out the homepage for one hour or something – no access logs were kept those days, but not out of malice. Unlike one guy who removed all the RAM modules from about 50 computers. Someone else put a logic bomb in the server which disabled the site for a day, other guys defaced the home page. I said something about panic and anger earlier, methinks?
I didn’t get an email. Many people I know did. I am not saying I deserved one, I did do my job well and was definitely more productive than 90 per cent of the office, and I’m pretty sure I was smarter than 99 per cent of the office, but still… I mean I didn’t exactly hide and smoke, heck I didn’t hide and roll. Then again, despite my abysmal attendance in third year I never got held back. I just rode my luck very well, but what do they say of making your own luck.
Anyway, over half the people were laid off. It was very awkward being a survivor. I’m not saying (well I just did but, you know what I mean) that I was much better than the rest, but the guys who were laid off felt a resentment. Upset that most potheads had retained their jobs (again refer above to M.Phelps and B.H.Obama) while the good boys and girls had been asked to move on. It was an Internet company after all – there is no place for ‘clean’ people but many of the cute girls also lost their jobs. That was quite sad, really sad.
I don’t think there are any lessons to be learnt in this tale. Well, other than the fact that potheads are achievers, but that is a moot point in Indian journalism. At least in some of the more responsible parts of the English media in India today. Anyway, jobs are being cut, protests are happening screens are being smashed – though LCD’s don’t exactly smash as well as good ol’ CRT’s. There is no proper way to fire people but rational hiring practices could help. By the way, the organisation I spoke of laid off people again! So much for learning about layoffs.
Anyway, the organisation I work for currently has been shedding ad-sales strength rapidly. Mind you, these were the ad-sales people going for south-east Asian tours every few months when the times were good. There have been a lot of tears shed, but the end result is that there is a lot of space that has suddenly opened up in the parking lot. How much longer before editorial gets hit?
In 2000 after graduating from college, my mother who was genuinely sick and tired of finding my stash every second day insisted I get a job. I ended up at a large dot-com that for reasons best understood to me must remain un-named (they still survive and still are run by a bunch of idjits). It was a job. A good job at that! I was a twenty-year old who although he had been using the internet for four years only understood the true meaning of high-speed internet at my place of employment. This was 2000, well before Torrents but we had Napster, and my god, after the sex and the drugs, Napster gave me all the Rock n’ Roll (and weird Japanese porn/anime) I could ever want.
The pity was that the HP CD-R’s (the old 16x blue and white ones, remember those young ‘uns?) cost Rs 40 a piece and when you earned Rs 5K a month, and even accounting for the fact that Malana cost a hell of a lot less those days, that very fact meant that even buying a few blanks every month was a strain on my resources. Anyway, I won’t carry on about how I got addicted to internet porn and every evening after 6, we used to plan eight player racing on NFS: Porsche Unlimited. That remains the only NFS I have ever finished.
Anyway, the afore-mentioned dot-com had an insane hiring policy. They hired and hired madly. New project needing a new engineer, so what if we have one lying around doing nothing, we’ll hire a new one. Better still, the place had a legion of vapid pretty girls entering data, maybe once a week. Not that it mattered, lots of cute girls are better than none. And they had me who understood just about passable amounts of code and could bedazzle most people with stoned philosophy. In an aside, the recent events surrounding Michael Phelps prove that potheads can do whatever they want to – from extreme athletic achievement to becoming President of the US. I get the munchies just saying that!
Anyway, to repeat this was 2000, well it was 2001 by then. There must have been around one million internet subscribers in India and my organisation had over 500 employees or one for every 2000 internet users in India and trust me that job made me an aggressive, rather a maniacal internet user, which I am to this date.
Anyway back to the story, dang, I can’t maintain a straight thread. Suddenly in the middle of the year, just as summer started, a rumour about layoffs began to spread. The dot-com bust had happened in the US and its effects were being felt in India. The Internet was not this magic rainbow with a pot of gold at the end of it and well, the price had to be paid. We were all summoned in batches where the girls got really teary eyed on being told that there would be layoffs. The guys were not stoic at all there was all-round panic, especially the potheads worried about how the next run to Kasaul would get funded. We were told to wait for emails announcing the cuts.
I began burning tons of CD’s, started to wipe the servers clean where I had hosted random stuff and in the process I wiped out the homepage for one hour or something – no access logs were kept those days, but not out of malice. Unlike one guy who removed all the RAM modules from about 50 computers. Someone else put a logic bomb in the server which disabled the site for a day, other guys defaced the home page. I said something about panic and anger earlier, methinks?
I didn’t get an email. Many people I know did. I am not saying I deserved one, I did do my job well and was definitely more productive than 90 per cent of the office, and I’m pretty sure I was smarter than 99 per cent of the office, but still… I mean I didn’t exactly hide and smoke, heck I didn’t hide and roll. Then again, despite my abysmal attendance in third year I never got held back. I just rode my luck very well, but what do they say of making your own luck.
Anyway, over half the people were laid off. It was very awkward being a survivor. I’m not saying (well I just did but, you know what I mean) that I was much better than the rest, but the guys who were laid off felt a resentment. Upset that most potheads had retained their jobs (again refer above to M.Phelps and B.H.Obama) while the good boys and girls had been asked to move on. It was an Internet company after all – there is no place for ‘clean’ people but many of the cute girls also lost their jobs. That was quite sad, really sad.
I don’t think there are any lessons to be learnt in this tale. Well, other than the fact that potheads are achievers, but that is a moot point in Indian journalism. At least in some of the more responsible parts of the English media in India today. Anyway, jobs are being cut, protests are happening screens are being smashed – though LCD’s don’t exactly smash as well as good ol’ CRT’s. There is no proper way to fire people but rational hiring practices could help. By the way, the organisation I spoke of laid off people again! So much for learning about layoffs.
Anyway, the organisation I work for currently has been shedding ad-sales strength rapidly. Mind you, these were the ad-sales people going for south-east Asian tours every few months when the times were good. There have been a lot of tears shed, but the end result is that there is a lot of space that has suddenly opened up in the parking lot. How much longer before editorial gets hit?
Monday, February 02, 2009
Pink'ed!
Not me, but I hear that the proverbial 'Pink Slip' is going out over the coming week in a couple of large media groups to quite a few employees in the form of machine generated emails. Angry mails from senior editors are doing the rounds (great way to build up morale) and employees have all been told to buckle up - well, shape up. In several language channels, you know the way that some of them expanded there are hundreds of 'silent' lay-offs.
How bad is the scene? By some estimations between 1500-2000 jobs in the media sector in India have already vanished, but that includes ad-sales and marketing which make up two-thirds of job-losses by conservatiive estimates. And these numbers do not include 'internet' operations of media firms such as Firefly or Times Business Solutions which have been cutting back as well.
This is a small note, if you have been laid off or think your job is under threat because you don't work enough and spend the day reading crap like this, just know your rights if you're asked to go. The economy is down and the PR escape route isn't there anymore and don't think that 'Blogging' is quite an exciting way to make money either because this is a popular blog - I was amazed when I consolidated my feeds into one just to discover I have over 500 subscribers (yes, that is why I put ads onto the feeds) - but money... well, bits and pieces. Sure, it would be possible for me to consolidate and get something going if I wanted to because I have an established base, but then again that won't exactly mint money. I blog because I like the noise my fingers make when the bang on the keyboard. No seriously. I'm addicted to tappity-tap. Well, it is a better addiction than stuffing your nose.
Anyway, the comments and the email line are open if you hear of lay-offs please let me know and please vent if you want to. How was the procedure handled, were your resignation letters on your desk when you arrived, a la (unnamed company) SEZ employees? Or were you told that times are bad, or that you're a worthless gorm? Do you think your media masters are spending large sums of money on 'consultants' or on launching a television channel that is sucking up resources? Tell the world.
In the meantime, the rest of you, get back to work!
How bad is the scene? By some estimations between 1500-2000 jobs in the media sector in India have already vanished, but that includes ad-sales and marketing which make up two-thirds of job-losses by conservatiive estimates. And these numbers do not include 'internet' operations of media firms such as Firefly or Times Business Solutions which have been cutting back as well.
This is a small note, if you have been laid off or think your job is under threat because you don't work enough and spend the day reading crap like this, just know your rights if you're asked to go. The economy is down and the PR escape route isn't there anymore and don't think that 'Blogging' is quite an exciting way to make money either because this is a popular blog - I was amazed when I consolidated my feeds into one just to discover I have over 500 subscribers (yes, that is why I put ads onto the feeds) - but money... well, bits and pieces. Sure, it would be possible for me to consolidate and get something going if I wanted to because I have an established base, but then again that won't exactly mint money. I blog because I like the noise my fingers make when the bang on the keyboard. No seriously. I'm addicted to tappity-tap. Well, it is a better addiction than stuffing your nose.
Anyway, the comments and the email line are open if you hear of lay-offs please let me know and please vent if you want to. How was the procedure handled, were your resignation letters on your desk when you arrived, a la (unnamed company) SEZ employees? Or were you told that times are bad, or that you're a worthless gorm? Do you think your media masters are spending large sums of money on 'consultants' or on launching a television channel that is sucking up resources? Tell the world.
In the meantime, the rest of you, get back to work!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Elevator Talk
There is a reason I avoid most press events - mainly because I can't stand the company of too many other journalists - they think I'm a pompous ass (some of them think that because of this blog, but then again I think they're jealous because nobody reads their blogs) and I frankly don't do too much to detract from that image because very often I think many of the people I see at large gatherings of journalists (with some notable exceptions) are very, very stupid (but I'll deal with stupidity in another post). Because I am an arrogant, opinionated pompous ass, and I won't ever make any bones about it. But then again, you look at the top jobs in journalism today and it is a Who's Who of pompous asses (p.a, it does get too long and repetitive), with due apologies to virtually everyone. I mean other than maybe a couple of people - actually the ones with possibly the most power are fairly modest but the rest of the collective - and I have no clue what the collective would be called (any suggestions?) but they are.
Anyway, over the past few days I've met more than my fair share of journalists. Far too many of them, to be honest but everyone is talking about the same thing. Jobs! Even people who have no fear of losing theirs are talking. Downturn, downturn, downturn - it is the flavour of the month and the best thing are the numbers you end up hearing - 100 here, 200 there. The sad fact is that the good times are truly over and the bad times might be really bad. The worst thing is that unlike the Sakaal fiasco, most of this will be silent 'shedding' and I doubt that the media which made Naresh Goyal into the devil personified will report on this. Other than Mint and Business Standard maybe, but you won't hear anything on television I'm pretty sure at least for a while.
Going beyond, I know some of you read this blog think I'm a p.a or worse, but you're probably not as dumb as most. Heck, you can read my convoluted stream of consciousness despite the halo of last night's vodka tonics blurring it. But, if you are hearing of any lay-offs or pink-slips at media houses, send in a comment or an email. Silent shedding is insiduous in India and if we didn't let Naresh Goyal get away with it why should you let media owners? Don't restrict this to elevator talk!
Also check out (if you haven't already) Samreth's great post on the News X fiasco. Actually, his is quite a good blog. Much better than mine for example!
Anyway, over the past few days I've met more than my fair share of journalists. Far too many of them, to be honest but everyone is talking about the same thing. Jobs! Even people who have no fear of losing theirs are talking. Downturn, downturn, downturn - it is the flavour of the month and the best thing are the numbers you end up hearing - 100 here, 200 there. The sad fact is that the good times are truly over and the bad times might be really bad. The worst thing is that unlike the Sakaal fiasco, most of this will be silent 'shedding' and I doubt that the media which made Naresh Goyal into the devil personified will report on this. Other than Mint and Business Standard maybe, but you won't hear anything on television I'm pretty sure at least for a while.
Going beyond, I know some of you read this blog think I'm a p.a or worse, but you're probably not as dumb as most. Heck, you can read my convoluted stream of consciousness despite the halo of last night's vodka tonics blurring it. But, if you are hearing of any lay-offs or pink-slips at media houses, send in a comment or an email. Silent shedding is insiduous in India and if we didn't let Naresh Goyal get away with it why should you let media owners? Don't restrict this to elevator talk!
Also check out (if you haven't already) Samreth's great post on the News X fiasco. Actually, his is quite a good blog. Much better than mine for example!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Cost Cutting?
I was at a bar last night (or tonight if you're reading this in the next few hours) along with quite a few people from Undie TV and around midnight some of them were all getting frantic calls, it seems a late night mailer went out from Radika and Prannoy Roy. It contained the dreaded word - 'cost cutting'. What it said along with the fact that all NDTV senior management are taking 20% pay cuts are some rather ridiculous things - including advising employees to mind phone calls. Now call me a penny pincher - but there are better ways of doing things. I understand that travel budgets need to be cut at every major news organisation and trust me I work at one and we are trying hard and thankfully doing rather well, or so I'm told. At least my business division is. I understand that cost-cutting is a reality, but the best part of the NDTV mailer was about 'floaters' - some people work very hard but there are many people who 'float'. Now I wonder what that means?
Given that Metro Now is probably shutting down, I have received a couple of mails from panicked employees about what is going on, and not just with interns, but even full-time staffers, I don't think the next three months are going to be great. In fact, the media industry, particularly listed companies have been great practitioners of 'creative' accounting and might indirectly suffer the fallout of the Satyam saga. even though Ramalinga Raju surrendered so that he could avoid SEBI questioning, and I think he seriously underestimated the media fallout, but the media fallout might be rather bad both for him and the listed media industry.
More tomorrow, when the Grey Goose wears off.
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