Credit: Harry Cunningham via Unsplash
Sackings won’t necessarily flow from the internal review at Nine Entertainment which revealed a widespread culture of bullying and abuse of power.
Insiders have confirmed that acting CEO Matt Stanton told staff, in a company wide video call, the review itself won’t result in immediate disciplinary action.
The company would need to look into specific complaints.
The media group launched the inquiry of its newsroom culture following allegations of abuse of power and “drunken, lecherous behaviour”.
The review recommends the board of directors issue a statement to all current and former Nine employees acknowledging the harm caused and commitment to cultural change.
Nine Entertainment’s poor workplace culture is marked by systemic abuse including bullying, discrimination, harassment and sexual harassment, according to an independent inquiry.
The findings of the review, via consultancy Intersection appointed by the company, show half of Nine employees experienced abuse of power.
The company has a lack of leadership accountability and significant distrust in leaders at all levels of the business, according to the review.
One respondent to a company wide survey: “ We used to talk about being bullied, harassed or publicly humiliated like you’d talk about the weather. Now when I look back it horrifies me how normalised it had become.”
Another said: “This place is run like a boys’ club, and I say that as a male. The ‘cool kids’ (those in charge) are woefully underqualified at best.
"Decisions are made daily based on personal preference of friends/favours instead of to benefit the business/show/ other employees. An absolute joke of a management structure and I’m shocked it’s taken this long to be looked into.”
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