Green Tea

I had a surreal conversation with a friend the other day who was telling me all about the “Green Tea” blog.

She (excited): “Is it you?”
Me: “Of course not. I’m not that stupid.”
She (disappointed): “oh.”
Me: “Is it any good?”
She: “Well, she’s a good writer. It’s very depressing, but it’s interesting to read what’s going on in there.”

Week one was madness. Week two was more under control. Week three, we’re all getting into the groove.

Small victories, mind you. Maybe not something the average person would notice on the air, but there’s a lot less frustration involved with getting it up there now. We are trying our best.

Last week I thought I was having a nervous breakdown. I have never had one before and have no idea what it feels like, only that I had constant headaches and stomach aches and wasshaking and couldn’t sleep at all and cried often for no reason. I got to go home for a day so I had a glass of wine to knock me out and I slept for 20 hours and when I woke up I didn’t feel like crying anymore.

Which is just as well. I mean, this shit is bananas. What a goon! I go to the gym 3 times a week. If I’m coming in, I’m coming in through the front doors, and I’m bringing Cathy Sprague with me. Get behind me, Cathy!

I keep hearing about the positive audience feedback we’re getting. I just assumed it was CBC propaganda. But I kept hearing it, so I did a bit of digging and saw some of the audience reaction reports myself.

Amazingly, they are true: most people are happy with what they are seeing on TV and hearing on the radio. There are very few complaints. Of course, good ratings for Star Wars are a no-brainer, but we really have to take the CFL ratings to heart and learn something from them.

Everyone is learning. This secondment at gunpoint is great experience for people who work in areas not directly related to production. They get to see what it’s really like.

For those of us who come from production, it’s a great way for us to get reacquainted with our craft, get hands-on with some of the new stuff, and evaluate things we usually see from an arm’s length (or further). For some managers, its been a real eye-opener to experience how their people actually work. This is all for the good.

I read rumours in the media about everyone getting back to work Oct 1 or 3 or 10 in time to mount a respectable TV season. I’ve heard all of these dates and more. But you guys know and I know that that’s all guessing until negotiations start again.

My Doylometer went down a few points this week, until I read this today, which caused me to spit pink champagne all over my doubloons, Stursberg’s doubloons, and George Smith’s monacle:

“I’ve been accused of shilling for management, shilling for CTV, shilling for the union and helping ‘CBC-haters.'”

Get behind me, Doyle!

35 Comments

  • Anonymous says:

    Ouimet said:

    “Thanks for the comments, guys. I appreciate you taking the time to write.”

    Well, that settles one debate. Based on that dismissing, bureaucratic response, you have certainly proven yourself as the epitome of middle-management. Well done. Straight from the manual of “dismiss and move on to message.” I wasn’t convinced before, but I am not confident you are a middle manager. On the down side, middle managers aren’t very well informed and are only tasked with carrying out the dirty work of senior management. So, you clearly aren’t THAT plugged-in to what’s happening. But, hey…thanks for coming out.

  • Anonymous says:

    i’m a listener. have been for 5 or so years. i listen most of the length of the day.

    i miss jurgen’s voice, i miss brave new waves, i miss music for a while. i miss knowing what the tracks are, and the trivia about them. i miss the anecdotes and warmth.

    but i do not miss the opera. why do you play so much opera cbc2? you’re destroying vast swathes of potential demographic. put it on another station, or for download, or on a single show in a more easily avoidable timeslot. (like that gaping wound it makes in the weekend). it’s horrible to wake up to, and terrible to gain consciousness to over the course of the morning.
    Please! enough with the opera!

  • Anonymous says:

    Quimet, Seems to me you are getting off on rubbing stats in the locked outs faces. Get a life. And next time you are in a room with Strusberg and or Robinovitch…tell them to FUCK themselves…from me.. because I doubt I will be around much longer to have that honour.
    And managers.. I know you are reading this…. FUCK OFF.. your next when there is nothing left of CBC, whats the point of having you assholes around.

  • Qiqiqtiqtuq says:

    What the heck happened to Ouimet? Body snatchers? Until now I thought most of your posts were insightful and honest. But this one makes me think perhaps you need to take some time off. Or go to confession. Because suddenly you’re spinning sumthin’ awful honey.

    Regarding ratings.
    I live and work in a region where CBC has a mandate to provide aboriginal language programming…and usually provides 11 hours of such programming a day. That includes regional newscasts and national international news in the same aboriginal language. Radio is really important here…and the CBC is just about all you’re going to have for daily news, especially if you are an elder or a unilingual aboriginal. I’ve heard a few Anglophones say they like having a morning show in English. But most of them also recognize that in a region where English is a second language for probably 89% of the population, the corporation is falling far short of it’s mandate. And people are wondering where the tax dollars for this programming are going? To pay bonuses to people like Susan and Rob?
    So most people here could give a flying rat’s ass about the corporations CFL game ratings (ratings which were based on a game broadcast with no local blackout, from what I understand.)
    They want their regional programming back…and they want their aboriginal language newscasts.

  • Anonymous says:

    As for the “positive letters from listeners / viewers” – I can only speak for myself, but I havn’t complained directly to CBC audience relations, but I have complained to MP’s. The CBC is a crown corporation, the government (and all Canadians) is the shareholder. The programming on CBC Radio One, Radio Two, the website, and the rest of CBC is so bad right now, in my view it warrnats complaing directly to the shareholder, as I doubt complaining to “audience relations” will do anything.

  • Ouimet says:

    Thanks for the comments, guys. I appreciate you taking the time to write.

  • Anonymous says:

    I know it’s tough for some managers who basically have to do scab labour or lose their jobs (the old “following orders” defence), but if you want to win the respect of your locked-out colleagues how about committing to donate every penny earned above your base salary to a charity of your choice? Then we’ll know that you’re sincere. It’s very easy to be sympathetic when you’re raking in the cash. Our cash.

  • Anonymous says:

    Your Katrina coverage has been spectacular.

  • Anonymous says:

    You really don’t have to boycott the blog. You can also use it. I don’t care about her, but she is either A) feeding info from these pages to her boss or B) the managers are reading it first-hand.

    So what the hell; use the blog to tell management what YOU are thinking. It’s like a free mainline forum! Are you pissed at Fred? Hoping there is a fire alarm in the Broadcasting Centre? Fed up with the mind games? Tell ’em what you think about them here!

  • Anonymous says:

    Here’s a message for management. At first, I was worried about not working. But, right away, I was offered a great job outside the media. It’s not what I made at CBC. But, with picket pay, my deferred mortgage, and what I’m making from my new job, I’m actually doing better now than I was two months ago. I’m getting lots of exercise, catching up on my reading, getting to know my wonderful colleagues, and quite frankly, not missing work or the small-minded managers. So, just so you know, this is one person you’re not getting to…one person who is enjoying the “reality” of my situation (see the Fred and Krista memo to understand this reference). Hear that? It’s me whistling “Sunny Days” as I head back to my real friends on the picket line.

  • Anonymous says:

    Here’s a little reader feedback.
    I call for a complete boycott on Ouimet. All we are doing is letting management in on our inner most frustrations with this situation and giving him or her a platform for a management message. Now that the managers are allowed to stop and talk on the line, do we really need Ouimet? I say no. BOYCOTT OUIMET.

  • Anonymous says:

    Wrong person in the wrong job at the wrong time.

  • Anonymous says:

    For management to suggest public response to its scaled-down, unprofessional, niblet-sized programming has been good is counter-productive to what senior management has been trying to achieve with the federal government for years. Management has been telling the Liberals they need more money to improve programming….that it’s crippled by the current funding formula. But, here’s CBC management now, essentially saying to the Liberals…’we don’t need more money…look we’re doing just fine; public reaction is good; and we’re doing it with only 10% of the regular workforce’. Does CBC management not realize the federal bean-counters are watching and listening to every word they say? Any good journalist knows you should watch what you say now, because it can be used against you later.

  • Anonymous says:

    “So keep writing, asshole.”

    Perfect. The response one would expect from a 12-year-old “manager.”

    Like I said earlier, Omelet, we KNOW that feedback has been horrible. Non-stop complaints on the phone and hundreds and hundreds of unanswered and largely unopened emails.

  • Anonymous says:

    Ouimet:

    Regardless of how much fun this is for you getting your groove back, you are a scab. Plain and simple. You are a manager doing a bargaining unit member’s work and that makes you a scab. You should be embarrased. People are suffering outside financially and physically because of a failed neo-liberal ideology in which everything is juged by market forces. They have familes who are suffering by extension. The people will prevail. Scabs will not.

  • Anonymous says:

    ouimetski… are you actually a management hire or are you APS?
    how many managers are working in your area- how many APS?
    just wondering… some sympathetic mgr. types are starting to get quite chatty bout who does what – however, haven’t heard much of what’s going on in the online dept.
    hearing that it’s mostly APS folks doing it — is that right?

  • Anonymous says:

    The Worm has turned.
    You started out as a reluctant and plucky little soldier on the inside. But after 3 weeks of being suckled at the breast of Mother Corp (hope your cheque yesterday was a big one) you are turning to the Dark Side. Yet there may still be hope’¦. Run, Hide or at the very least cover your backside. The Corporate pole is seeking you out.
    But if you find you are practicing the phrase, ’I was only following orders’ or using the word ’œprudent’ a lot ’“ it may already be too late.
    See ya-Lordy, wouldn’™t want to be ya.

  • Anonymous says:

    And then Susan M. corrects herself by saying she’s sure “he” (meaning Wide Mouth Mason) won’t mind her error.
    Laugh or cry? Tough call.
    Bwahahaha.

  • Anonymous says:

    It’s a very interesting web you’re weaving here, ouimet. Informative, eloquent, at times infuriating.

    I’m not a part of CMG so I’m still working as a reporter in Montreal.
    Whatever the listener feedback might be during the lockout, I can tell you that I have heard several FACTUAL errors on the air, and as a proud employee with I find this shameful. I have heard the Houston Astrodome referred to as the “Dallas Superdome”, I have heard the musical group Wide Mouth Mason being congratulated on Alberta’s centennial, even though they’re from Saskatoon, and many other small errors thst would never happen if the regular people were doing the work. The CBC has a pretty well-written guide of standards and practices, and it has for all intents and purpose been chucked out the window during the lockout. So it’s great if replacement managers are getting in touch with their inner broadcaster, but it’s damn sure not doing the public any good.

  • Anonymous says:

    Ouimet: At first, I thought you were benign – maybe even trying to be helpful – but this post really makes me dislike you.
    First you think we’re dumb enough to believe that when you set this blog up in November of last year, you didn’t use your real last name? Why would you have worried back then about revealing your identity? Stop with the references to being female already. You do my gender a disservice.
    And now you seem to think we’re stupid enough to believe you’re not shilling for your bosses – who also know who you are by telling us the audience reaction is positive?
    Puhlease.
    Most of the audience reaction I see has people who think the shampoo commercials are too sexually explicit.
    I don’t think I’d get my validation from there if I were you.
    Anyone who appreciates a good radio program is no longer listening to Rob and Susan in the mornings – I guarantee it. Even if they wanted to, they wouldn’t be able to hear it anymore through their bleeding ears.

  • Anonymous says:

    So sorry to hear that you’ve been feeling stressed, my dear. Whereas I am so relaxed I’m almost catatonic.
    My day starts when I feel like waking up, a morning coffee outside in this gorgeous weather we’re having. Get ready to head downtown-doesn’t matter which bus I catch-I get there when I get there. Sign-in, grab a sign, catchup with some colleagues and do a little walking & talking. A couple circuits and take a break, grab some free coffee, maybe some free food on offer, a little entertainment and some walking. Did I mention how gorgeous the weather is? Maybe put in 4,5 6 hours-see how it’s going-I’m in no rush. The rest of the day’s my own. Home again, home again jiggity-jog.

  • Anonymous says:

    Just in reference to the EAP… their number is on the CMG website. And if you do seek counselling, it is covered.

    Thought that was an important bit of info.

  • Anonymous says:

    The only way you’ll be “carried out on a stretcher”, is if they work you to death, and I suppose that’s possible given the hours you’re all putting in. I’m certainly not coming after you or anyone else inside – and when it’s all said and done I won’t be holding any of you responsible. I try to stay away from these blogs because occaisionally something just makes my blood boil. I know you’re trying to look at the positive side…but your congratulatory tone really got under my skin.

    I’m glad you’re through the danger zone on your nervous break-down, but between management’s excellent adventures in journalism and the crap I have to listen to from people who hate CBC (note to them: I just work here. Take it up with your MP if this isn’t the way you want your tax dollars spent) I’m about to have a nervous break-down of my own. Anyone know if EAP is functioning? Damn, I wish I’d kept one of those magnets with the freakin’ number.

    I may be close to losing my grip, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to cave. I’m not, and I won’t. I’ve had enough of watching young talents getting their chains yanked everyday. That’s what really makes me nuts.

  • Anonymous says:

    Ouimet,

    I have to admit it. I like you. I have called you a fake in the past, and maybe you ARE a Tokyo (Toronto) Rose. But I still like you.

    I think you care and you’re not afraid to call it as you see ’em.

    I just wish your chutzpah was having an impact on the Inside. Not sure if you are trying hard enough on that front. However, I do appreciate your efforts to keep us informed Out Here.

    You have my vote on replacing Bobby, Dick or Jane. You seem to appreciate the work we do and realize it is not easy. I’m not convinced they do.

    You might be right about audience feedback. I have had friends who say they miss “their CBC”, but then go on to say they rather like the increased music on CBC radio and they don’t mind watching BBC. A nice change, they say.

    How depressing.

    A little warning, though. Don’t get carried away with your “success”. CBC managers have been desperately clinging to the odd bit of positive audience feedback for years (oh yeah, and the recognition for all that award-winning journalism, too). We have all heard that ratings don’t matter, that core audiences DO, or the fact that the really important people–the decision-makers and the chattering classes–are still with us, if the vast majority of Canadians aren’t.

    It’s all crap and you’re falling for it, too.

    Don’t assume that what you are all doing in there is okay–and that our audiences are okay with it, too.

    There just isn’t that much of an audience left.

    Management has taken a huge gamble with this one….and it may have cost us all our collective futures.

    Die-hard fans aside, the lockout has told what little audience we have left–and the wider audience we once hoped to attract–that we don’t care and operate under the assumption we can put anything on the air and think it is “ok”.

    We are so close to being irrelevant, it’s scary.

    Perhaps radio audiences will come back, they have no where else to go. TV, well, I am not so optimistic. CTV and Global have been dining out on our scraps.

    I’m angry about that because for almost two decades I cared deeply about our television audience. This lockout is the latest in a series of dumb-ass management decisions (cutting TV local news, dropping late night and weekend regional newscasts, creating the compromise called Canada Now…and now we are supposedly going back to local/regional news as a priority). It is enough to make your head spin.

    Management made this bed and I think they should sleep in it for awhile. I am in no hurry to go back inside.

    I don’t think they have had enough time to appreciate how much fun it is to work hard for an audience that just isn’t there.

    Get used to it, folks. There is plenty more of THAT down the road.

  • Anonymous says:

    But you honestly can’t believe the CBC internal feedback is indicative of how people feel about what they are seeing and hearing.

    Why wouldn’t it be? Have you ever read it? The audience is pretty savvy and is not afraid to speak their minds. It may not be scientific, but it’s a pretty good way to get some raw reactions.

    And what I saw was a report for high-level managers only. Unfiltered. I would have expected a lot of angry calls.

    I’ve heard the political postcards and letters alone are in the hundreds of thousands.

    Really? I wonder who told you that? Let me guess – CMG?

    ************************************

    My point was that the people who are calling CBC feedback and or audience relations are not the angry viewers and listeners. They are venting their anger elsewhere.

    As for the hundreds of thousands of cards and letters, it was not CMG who told me that, it was a friend who for a Cabinet Minister.

  • Anonymous says:

    Hello Ouimet from Neutron again. Thanks for the post on rating- either the internal spin doctor is spinning internally or you in particular are just part of the process being used for such.
    First about the CFL ratings. Yes they were high but reality is the audience wanted football and would’ve tuned in to whatever station that had it, CTV, Global or CBC. The reality of the ratings is Tony was called in earlier this week to HO and the CFL wants to increase advertising rates and its advertisers in return want quality game content, picture & audio quality – not acid trip coloured fields with walky talkie intercom on the sound. Don’t forget advertisers are paying for it . CFL is gonna pull the rug on us if things do not get addressed (the competition is already screaming victory on this issue – its embarrassing)- thus now negotiation talks have resumed.
    Secondly I respect you personnally (I will not post your name here)but I am worried on how management is using you. You posted earlier that at the brown noser meeting that you were worried they were gonna want your head for posting some of the things you did – they do want your head but presently you are of more value to them blogging during the lenght of this blog – evidence is their recent inclinations on what you should post – what happens after the Lock-Out will demonstrate this reality. PS heat is forming on the ice with Hockey night in Canada. Hope we get results in present negotiations as time is not on us & we really need that revenue especially after losing it last year.
    On thing for sure is being realised internally about their present 1st level managers who were hired based on their previous jobs as experts in the editorial or technical arenas. Those who failed to fill in satisfactorily on struck work are now viewed as useless for strike support – its the reason the majority were hired as managers in the first place (it sure wasn”t because of their management experience & skills as they did not have any before their promotions and we habve paid the price as demonstarted in the surveys Bobby commissioned. The problem I see right now is that after the flushing of the useless the re-hiring method practice probably won’t change. They still view qualified 1st level managers as those who first and foremost be able to do struck work instead of truly managing people properly. As we know due to our reputation there probably will be more work stoppages to come. But who knows – maybe Bobby will properly read the Laval University study this time and do more than just double internal communication budgets to solve the problems as opposed to simply dressing pretty over the resolve in the eyes of the board.(oops they I say too much)

  • Laurence says:

    My only thought is: New Orleans is the biggest news story for a long time. Probably bigger than 9/11.
    And we’re not covering it.
    CBC mentions it, for sure, but we’re not covering it the way we HAVE to. This is why exist at all.
    Everybody, get over yourselves. We can’t contribute to anything in the condition we’re in.

  • Anonymous says:

    ‘Everyone is learning. This secondment at gunpoint is great experience for people who work in areas not directly related to production. They get to see what it’s really like.

    For those of us who come from production, it’s a great way for us to get reacquainted with our craft, get hands-on with some of the new stuff, and evaluate things we usually see from an arm’s length (or further). For some managers, its been a real eye-opener to experience how their people actually work. This is all for the good.’

    All for the good? You bet it is! If managers who were previous production people are back in productions, that is great. Too often they have been making assumptions about production that were based on their decade+ experiences.

    As for the non-production people doing production, I can only hope this is actually happening. Also, I’m hoping their not let off easy; have them do EVERYTHING. Like that, they’ll better understand attempting to ‘automate’ production (a la Parkervision) and just how unworkable that is when we wish to maintain high production values.

  • Ouimet says:

    But you honestly can’t believe the CBC internal feedback is indicative of how people feel about what they are seeing and hearing.

    Why wouldn’t it be? Have you ever read it? The audience is pretty savvy and is not afraid to speak their minds. It may not be scientific, but it’s a pretty good way to get some raw reactions.

    And what I saw was a report for high-level managers only. Unfiltered. I would have expected a lot of angry calls.

    I’ve heard the political postcards and letters alone are in the hundreds of thousands.

    Really? I wonder who told you that? Let me guess – CMG?

    I’m just talking about what I saw with my own eyes. It surprised me, too.

    Um, I’m not Sherlock Holmes, but is your friend not going to know it’s you now?

    Yeah. This is my way of telling her. She’s a good friend.

    I’m usually pretty calm and even handed when it comes to this dispute…but I have to admit my temperature is starting to rise.

    I know you don’t have too many positive angles to work on, but please, keep a cool head. I’m only trying to look at this positively. I don’t want to be carried outof here on a stretcher.

    None of us chose this. None of us think we’re doing a better job than you. Trust me.

    When they are done with you, you’re history.

    Maybe you’re right. So maybe I should stop writing? I thought about it many times. But some things I have seen and heard recently lead me to believe that these lockout web sites stand a chance to make a difference. So keep writing, asshole.

    Earlier this year Radio News won two gold medals at the New York Festivals for its tsunami coverage.

    If I would’ve had enough foresight, I would’ve called this “The New York Tea Makers” and then maybe I would get a little more respect here in the snake pit.

    “It’s from New York – it’s gotta be good!”

  • Anonymous says:

    Earlier this year Radio News won two gold medals at the New York Festivals for its tsunami coverage.

    CBC’s coverage of Katrina is a embarrassment, and you folks inside who think you are holding it together ever so well should be under no illusions. Instead of news specials and hearing from our best reporters, we’re treated to the Antiques Road show. Radio is doing no better.

    Shame on all of you for bringing such disgrace on CBC!

  • Anonymous says:

    Bullshit and lies. We KNOW what the phone-callers are saying. Don’t you think we have people reporting to us! Enjoy your sad little lives. You’re going to be living with them for a hell of a long time.

    As for you, travel light. When they are done with you, you’re history. I’m not talking about what they will do when they find out who you are; I’m talking about what they will do when they are through with you. A turncoat is a turncoat is a turncoast.

    So long, Bullshit Artist. Don’t forget to remove this link from your resume.

  • Anonymous says:

    Ouimet, you are a good writer.
    Now, I guess whoever said Green Tea to you knows who you are.

    As for the listener response…not a lot of negative feedback is not the same as happy listeners. I’d chalk it up to (a) fewer listeners and (b) people who know what’s going on, so doubt a complaint would lead to change.

    In rural areas, erudite CBC junkies are turning to country music stations.

    The loss of CBC might actually help bridge some gaps in Canadian society, but not in the good way.

  • Anonymous says:

    Um, I’m not Sherlock Holmes, but is your friend not going to know it’s you now? I think most people would remember that conversation. I’m just saying.

  • Anonymous says:

    I remember when the original Sounds Like Canada was going down the crapper, the management types kept visiting staff to read positive letters from listeners who apparently loved the disjointed two hours and mishmash of mini-programs… of course, the real story was kept under wraps — that is until the second season revamp and the letting go of a certain former program director with no journalism radio experience.

    The letter reading stopped soon thereafter.

    So all I can say in response to the audience feedback is caveat emptor… or are you guys just hearing from the diehard fans? Y’know, the ones senior management wish would die so they don’t have to deal with their threats to go to the ombudsman over the mispronunciation of ‘kilometre’?

    If so, senior management should hold a big ol’ tea party for these folks in Fort Dork.

  • Anonymous says:

    Ouimet, I’m glad to hear you are getting in the groove (not). But you honestly can’t believe the CBC internal feedback is indicative of how people feel about what they are seeing and hearing. C’mon. The people who ARE NOT happy are writing Rabinovitch, Paul Martin, their MP, the Board of Directors etc. etc. And I’ve heard the political postcards and letters alone are in the hundreds of thousands. So, don’t go getting all Stockholm Syndrome on us. Caused it’s a skewed view from the inside.

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