About this web site

My last 2 months of being locked in at the CBC have been surreal, to say the least. Part of it was my own fault for starting this blog, at times the only thing keeping me sane, and at times a booster shot of paranoia, fear, and doubt.

But I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I’m still not sure what it all means. I’m not sure if I helped or harmed, if I was part of something substantial or just cheap entertainment. Part of me wants to keep going, and part of me wants to shut up. But all of me is tired.

Within hours you guys will be back inside. I think this is a good time for me to take a break, at least for the time being. I want my life back.

Maybe I’ll return, maybe not. Maybe my time is better spent trying to change things through my actual job, rather than by being a mystery gadfly.

I had to lie to a lot of people to keep this web site going. Quite a few of them are people I respect and admire. I caused them some real migraines and they wracked their brains trying to figure out what happened.

Sorry about that.

I want to thank everyone who took part in this spontaneous online conversation. Thanks for your honesty, and even for your dishonesty. I learned a lot from all of you.

I never expected anyone to read this web site. But when you came by the thousands I tried to step up and write something worth reading. It was way harder than I ever imagined it would be.

A lot of people are really curious about my identity, I know. They want to know what department I’m in, or where I fit into the food chain, if they have seen my face crossing the line, if I am made by a committee, or if I am even real. But if you read this all over again it’s obvious that I am real. I was always real, and all you ever got was me trying to tell it straight.

Because the truth is that I could be anybody.

That was the whole point.

16 Comments

  • Justin Beach says:

    I’m in Camp 3 – I’m not ‘burned up’ about the last 2 months, nor have I forgotten. I want to build a stronger CBC for the future and now that the lock out has ended, I’ve turned my energies that way.

  • Anonymous says:

    I’m the anonymous who reminded Ouimet that she/he (I still think the whole female guise is a ruse) had promised the story of the manager post that was removed. If Ouimet has reconsidered, I guess that’s OK (although it makes me wonder about its authenticity in the first place) and my curiousity will eventually die. Just like a lot of people’s passion about the whole lockout seems to be dying as we all settle back in. It’s too bad… I get the feeling that there are 2 camps of workers now – the ones who are forgetting about the last 2 months and the ones who are so burned up about the lockout that it could damage their health. There’s got to be a middle ground here.

  • Anonymous says:

    To the anonymous who left the snarky note at 11:03 … get off Ouimet’s case!

    As a CBC news producer who’s back inside now – and been working hard – I’d like to say thanks to Ouimet.

    This site has been much appreciated over the last 2 months – and I hope you/she continue(s) the blog.

    I find Ouimet’s voice refreshing and insightful. Such a relief from the soulless, minute-manager-lite pronouncements we have come to expect over and over again from higher-ups… It’s nice to be intelligently & candidly engaged, for a change.
    So, thanks!

    If the rumours are true – that Rabinovitch will be walking the plank sooner rather than later – maybe IMMINENTLY – I hope more people like Ouimet make it closer to the top.

    Thank you for you passion, panache, and clarity – gives me *some* faith in those charged with managing this place.

    Take care Ouimet :)

  • Anonymous says:

    Ah. So the wishes of another manager trump your own word.
    Why am I not surprised?

  • Ouimet says:

    You said at one point you’d tell us why the one management poster removed his/her post from this blog. Any chance of us finding out what happened there?

    Yes, I did promise that. But the author, CBC Survivor, asked me to just let it lie. So I will.

  • Anonymous says:

    to anonymous that says its just a beginning….

    Congradulations to you for respecting yourself, taking lunch, saying no to feebies on overtime. If everybody could just do the same, and stand for what they fought during the past 8 weeks of lockout, then we would show management that we really are “hard ass’.

    When I saw this morning what was left of my signing bonus, I almost broke into tears…. CBC is so vicious that it even took that bonus to repay itself for the long term disability insurance. The decency would have been to at least wait for a full regular pay to the employees before starting to repay itself!

    After seeing this, you bet I won’t let them go with anything free on my part!!!

  • Donny the Cleaner says:

    To YAA:

    Hellooo…
    No, I’m not Ouimet. I was actually hoping that she is still single!

    :-)

  • Anonymous says:

    There’s a comment on Drone’s website that sums it up. Many managers still don’t get what a horrible destructive thing this lockout was, just that senior management screwed up the optics of it. To any managers reading this, yes, we won the PR war. That was important for us during the battle. But, the real point is this is a battle that should never have happened. Forget about who won and who lost what. Think about the damage. It’s not about optics and it never really was. It’s about being fair to your workers and public broadcasting.

  • Anonymous says:

    Someone said: “Did anybody else find it odd how there was basically no recognition of the last 8 weeks…”

    Yes, they acted as if we had just been away for the long weekend.

    Well, I’m recognising it. I had to do some unscheduled overtime today to put right some of the stuff they did over the last 8 weeks and it’s going on my timecard. No freebies anymore.

    I also took my lunch today at the proper time, though there was pressure like before to delay it to get things working. I felt the old habit kick in, to put the work first, but then I thought, “no”. And the world didn’t come to an end.

    So they don’t seem to have changed at all, but I have. This is just the beginning.

  • Anonymous says:

    In television, Tony Burman wrote a note. Many people thought it was sincere, many thought it was bullshit. Either way, he acknowledged the lockout.

  • Anonymous says:

    Did anybody else find it odd how there was basically no recognition of the last 8 weeks, save for that sheet about what to do if we’d forgotten our passwords?
    I’ve heard lots of people bitch and moan about how they hope we don’t have to go to pizza parties or “town hall” style meetings or whatever, but at least that way we’d have gotten some management uncomfortableness out of it all. I really feel like some recognition would have given this whole thing a little bit of closure (not too much, just a little)

  • Anonymous says:

    You said at one point you’d tell us why the one management poster removed his/her post from this blog. Any chance of us finding out what happened there?

  • Justin Beach says:

    Sorry to hear you are sigining off. Still, it’s good to know you’re in there somewhere. I hope we’ll hear from you again – in one way or another.

    Cheers,
    Justin

  • Anonymous says:

    Yes, you could be anyone, and that IS the point. It’s a good one, too.

    I haven’t agreed with you about everything, Ouimet, but I haven’t disagreed all the time, either. I’ve admired your thoughtfulness and your willingness to see the situation from many angles. If more in management had that kind of intelligence–or integrity–it would have been a very different time.

    See you on the inside. Maybe you’ll make tea for some of us?

  • Anonymous says:

    Dont worry “Mo” we’ll be back in your store soon

  • YAA (yet another anonymous) says:

    Don’t reveal yourself, for your own sake and for ours.

    It would change my world if I found out you were Donny the Cleaner.

    (But I would rush in on Tuesday and shake his hand!)

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