79 redundant people

79 people is a lot of redundant people in English TV. Is it too many people? Not enough people? The right people? The wrong people? Just how redundant are they, anyways?

No idea.

Nothing to do but wait for the bump bump bump and watch the new hires and uni grads get booted out to Wellington Street, blinking in the sunlight.

A lot of people read this blog. If you lost your job today, I’ll pay you to make a Tea Makers desktop wallpaper, which I’ve always wanted. I’ll pay you for your time and post it here with your name and a link to your résumé or whatever and quite a few people will see it and maybe one of them will offer you a job.

Not much, I know. My condolences.

April 21/2006 8:30am addendum:
Someone has already taken me up on the offer I made last night. The artist wishes to remain Anonymous. It’s not exactly what I expected, but I’m trying to remain flexible.

Click this picture for the fullsize version, and then right-click that and choose “Set as Background.”

I still need more. Judging from the hour I received this one, I suspect the artist was at home, drunk. While part of a long artistic tradition, there’s no need to do it on your own time. It’s a cloudy Friday and there are 79 people sitting in front of expensive computers with pounding hangovers and nothing to do.

Why not make me a desktop wallpaper and a few extra bucks?

What are they going to do? Fire you?

14 Comments

  • Anonymous says:

    I’m sickened by the loss of these great people too – and I’m just an ordinary viewer …..

  • Anonymous says:

    as one of the design dept. that was let go, I’m going to milk those #@!%$^ for as much as I can. How sad that I really believed that they couldn’t get any stupider. Good luck getting funding for no in house productions.

  • Anonymous says:

    “…and the mandate certainly isn`t to become a middleman clearing house to buy outside productions to put it in the air ( we could go to Blockbuster`s for that).”

    Blockbuster?

    Isn’t that where our talentless programmers go for those big event movies?

  • Anonymous says:

    Even if they do save all the money they think they will, $1 million seems a little low compared to what they’re giving up.

  • Anonymous says:

    1981: 11 vice presidents at the CBC
    1990`s: Trimmed thru Perrin Beatty CBC has gone down to 4 vice- presidents.
    2006: 1/3 less in funding, 1/3 less in staff BUT CBC is now top loaded with 11 vice-presidents AGAIN ….and 79 production personnel is suppose to balance the budget?????
    The CBC mandate is not a govt mandate, it`s a parlamentary mandate…and the mandate certainly isn`t to become a middleman clearing house to buy outside productions to put it in the air ( we could go to Blockbuster`s for that).

  • Anonymous says:

    It’s tough to tell what will happen. I think you’re right, Justin. As freelancers, they will make more money per project, but with no job security or salary, they’ll be sweating during the off months.

    Like most of us.

  • Justin Beach says:

    I’d also add that my guess, based on what good freelance designers make, is that the CBC won’t save a nickel on this. They will likely end up hiring alot of the same people back, as freelancers/casuals and paying them far more than they do now – all to free up real estate that will simply sit empty.

    I’d also like to put a plug in here for this. Which I’d like some input on, it’s not a perfect plan, and it wouldn’t necessarily have had an effect on the layoffs but – I think it address’ a little more than either the “kill it/privatize it” or the “give it more money” plans.

  • DEW says:

    Then I would at least hope that CBC Senior Management would be willing to follow BBC’s example on this, and make the names of those cut loose known for the same purpose: making it known that it was penny-pinching, not competence, that was the issue with the Toronto 79.

  • Anonymous says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/designvision/careers/production/index.shtml

    This website gives some information on some of the roles of Production Designers at the BBC. Most of it appears to be done on a “freelance” basis.

    The BBC Vision website does provide an searchable database of these freelancers, and their previous credits. I guess it’s one way the BBC supports those that have been outsourced in the past.

  • Anonymous says:

    And BBC has been rocked by massive layoffs in the past year.

    Something to aspire to….

  • Ouimet says:

    No other network, and especially not the BBC, as they were sure to point out.

  • Anonymous says:

    Yes, that was me.

    The e-mails said that no other network still has its own in-house production department. Maybe that was something to be proud of, something to take care of.

    As my mother used to say, ‘If everyone else jumped off the roof, would you do it too?’

  • Ouimet says:

    Is this you?

    Since you wrote that, I have been reading the emails. As crazy as it sounds, you might be right.

    I felt sick today, too, and not a little stunned.

  • Anonymous says:

    I said it before and I’ll say it again…one more step towards aquisitions and the end of the CBC as we know it. Read the e-mails: the big cheeses are singing the praises of the ‘independant producers’ who bring their own production staff with them.

    It’s the end of an era. The only glimmer on the horizon is Bev Oda, and even that may be too late.

    The only ‘mandate’ here is to decimate the place so that it looks good on paper -lean and mean, look how much $$$ we saved them! – and then take the big completion bonus and leave the smoking shell behind. And on to the next big ‘project’.

    I felt sick all day today, and it’s not going away. And I don’t even work in the Design Department. What a sad, dark day in the CBC’s history.

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