Anyone who has had to fire someone at work will tell you that it is a complicated process.
Unless they’ve done something really horrible, you can’t just give them their marching orders and show them the door. Rather, it is a long and painful process to “manage” them.
But it seems Nine’s top brass have discovered a novel way to justify the abrupt dismissal of a senior member of staff – and it’s so clever that the entire network is thinking: “Am I next?”
On Monday morning, The Australian’s James Madden Nine’s ousted Queensland news director revealed Amanda Paterson she had lodged a complaint with the Fair Work Commission alleging that the media giant had unlawfully dismissed her.
Paterson, a 31-year Nine veteran, had apparently been unceremoniously sacked in a seven-minute meeting with the company’s new head of news. dear fiona for three alleged minor transgressions.
One of them, believe it or not, was not having finished all of their internal online training.
Anyone who has had to fire someone at work will tell you that it is a complicated process. But Nine News Queensland executives have found a novel way to justify the abrupt sacking of news director Amanda Paterson (pictured), and it’s so clever the entire network is thinking: “Am I next?”
Inside Mail learns that panic spread through the newsroom when the rank and file learned of this pretext for Paterson’s sudden dismissal.
You see, most of them (and I assume most of you too) hadn’t bothered to complete their training modules. Some didn’t even know they existed.
At lunchtime, countless staff members were trying (unsuccessfully) to access the intranet to perform required tasks.
But they couldn’t get in. Was Russian hackers? No. It turns out that half of the company had suddenly decided to upgrade with their modules.
I can’t imagine why!
Of course, Inside Mail has completed more than its share of internal training on commercial television… and we’re surprised that failure to complete it is a fireable offence.
After all, many people can’t even understand them.
Many of the topics (such as market monopolization and modern slavery) do not relate to working in a newsroom, while others effectively force employees to recognize the importance of their bosses checking their phones before they can finish the course.
Paterson, a former ACA reporter, was told she would be fired for three alleged minor transgressions. One of them, believe it or not, was not being able to finish their internal online training.
The only thing these modules “train” anyone in is the art of fast-forwarding videos.
What’s more… we hear that Nine staff members were last reminded that they needed to complete them “a couple of weeks ago,” just before Paterson came under fire.
His other alleged infractions apparently included failing to get a staff member’s contract extended soon enough and a “light-hearted” joke about the recent removal of “morons” from the network.
We’re sure that employees in Nine’s newsrooms, which were once full of colorful language, particularly in the run-up to deadline, are now also watching their p and q, as well as their f and d.
- Read Steve Jackson and Peter van Onselen’s full INSIDE MAIL column tomorrow