STAFF SLATE ‘TOXIC’ PAPERS

By Phillet O’Fish

SCROOGEQUEST comics in Cumbria now seem hellbent on trawling the internet for information…cut and pasting it…printing it out on paper and then charging readers to buy it back off them days later for circa £2!

The internet in print…how’s that for a sustainable business model?

For some time, the Chronic has been calling this type of Churnalism ‘Fast Food News’.

“THE WORST RATED MCDONALD’S IN CUMBRIA,” screamed an article yesterday and shared on “news” websites here in deepest, darkest Cumbria.

The offending article again relied entirely on the rantings and ratings of reviewers on Tripadvisor as some sort of definitive Michael Winner’s guide to quality.

The article went on to list five rubbish McDonald’s “restaurants” in Cumbria to “avoid” – Ulverston, Kendal, Penrith, Whitehaven and Workington.

Noticeably, the article overlooked the glaringly obvious fact that there are thousands of satisfied McDonald’s customers using these takeaways who NEVER leave a review on TripAdvisor.

The newspaper also cherrypicked a number of cutting quotes from hard-to-please customers:

“The place was filthy with no sign that anyone cared,” burbled one.

Our local rags also seem to take a perverse delight in outing local takeaways that have been given a lowly one-star rating.

Despite this trend for naming and shaming one-star businesses, there is one corner of the internet that Scroogequest Churnos never ‘scrape’ for stories or public reviews.

Sites such as Indeed and Glassdoor, for example, allow employees past and present to lift the lid on working life under certain employers.

Taking a leaf out of Scroogequest’s book – what, the Chronic wondered, did reviewers have to say about the innumerable pleasures of working for, er, Newsquest?

On Indeed, the company had a “low” ranking for happiness and pay.

It was also voted “below average” for how meaningful staff found their work; job satisfaction; stress; appreciation; flexibility; support and belonging.

On Indeed, staff ranking the newspaper company with a lowly ONE STAR rating called it a “Micro managed, toxic culture with more management than staff and meetings for the sake of meetings.”

Different reviewers headlined it as such: “Horrendous. Horrible. Stressful. Really awful. Dysfunctional. A Narcissistic company. Worst place I’ve ever worked.”

The comments on Glassdoor weren’t much better…

“A move away from journalism to clicks and page views,” said one reviewer.

“Poor pay and constant cuts” was mentioned in 42 reviews.

“Incredibly poor management” was cited in 22 reviews.

Asked to name the upside of working for Newsquest, one wrote:

“Coffee machine in office!”

Others said:

“The constant threats of redundancy make you continually fear for your job. Eventually, people are laid off and that seems to be an ongoing thing with Newsquest.”

Nine reviewers mentioned: “Antique managers”.

A further nine referenced: “Low salaries in a dying industry”.

Others said: “Workload can be too much at times”.

“Doing the work of three people.”

One reviewer went further:

“Expectations were not communicated effectively meaning you had calls outside of work hours asking for stories to fill the paper for the next day.

“No progression. No support as a trainee journalist. Ridiculously low pay – would get more working in a supermarket despite going through four years at uni.”

Surely, the salaries paid at the company must compensate?

Er, nope!

By the looks of Newsquest’s salaries, young Churnos might consider themselves better off flipping burgers at McDonald’s instead of coming up with questionable judgements about the “worst” ones in Cumbria.

One member of staff complained that Scroogequest was so tight-fisted that journalists had to PAY for a copy of the paper that they PRODUCED.

It wasn’t even delivered to the office either – they had to schlep out to get it from a local shop!

It wasn’t all bad news though.

Overall as a place to work, Newsquest was awarded a surprising 3.5 stars out of 5 on Glassdoor.

The 3.5 rating is artificially bolstered by the fact that a number of rose-tinted former employees have left glowing reviews reminiscing about working life in the good ole days before the cuts.

A number of staff in less challenging roles than Editorial, such as delivery drivers, have also given their glowing opinions.

We can only imagine that these must have been written by the thousands of ecstatic, well-paid members of staff who can barely sleep on Sunday nights – so desperate are they for the working week to begin?

There’s also a curious number of ‘Arslikhan’ reviews.

One reviewer left this highly complimentary assessment of life at the US-owned company, see below.