Morale on the newefloor has reached a vary low point. Réporters are feeling anxious and full of doubt about their future at The Advertiser. Individuals have bee] is close to becoming an occupational health and safety is ‘We think itis important to document these issues as clea] ‘management so that management and staff can work together to improve the situation, The issues are: ib There has been an increasing amount of abusive Several people have been publicly brought to tea} condescending lectures. There have been regula cannot do x, don’t bother coming in tommorrow”. Management must commit to cre necessary criticism should be succinct and to the| be addrestad, this should not be done in front of Individual's performance, this should be dealt wi at their best. Reporters feel there is alack of reasonable direct wasting too much time on stories that are not be| comprehend much of management's instruction: blanket banson certain words and subjects, and focus on, One ongoing conflict is that reporters a} politicians, anything that has been on radio, but those storlas are not covered. We also need to ki single story within our rounds every day, or what focus on exclusives. We need clearer communication about what ma that also Incorporates flexibility when stories chi confident that when circumstances beyond our not be verbally abused or blamed for that. Mana} reporters to take that isin conflict with what our pushed to the brink and the overall situation ue, ly as possible, in writing, and present them to ind bullying behaviour towards journalists. 's. Many have also complained of lengthy, threats of firing, usually phrased as “If you unacceptable. fe relationships with its reporting staff. Any ont. If there is a serious issue that needs to -olleagues. if there is a problem with an on an individual basis to help people perform jon and leadership from management. We are Ing used. Ithas become increasingly difficult to ‘There are many conflicting Instructions, lack of trust in the reporter to choose what to fe told to ignore press releases, stories from porters are still being severely reprimanded if low whether we have to cover off on every jer we should choose the important ones then agement wants. We need early, clear direction ge throughout the day. We need to feet introl change the direction of a story, we will jement often dictates an editorial line it wants. lcontacts say. Much of a day can be wasted ‘trying to find one person to say what management wants them to say. This ls not reporting, itis fabricating news. Workloads have become unrealistic and individu understand that daily news takes precedence, ot} lly impossible to uphold, while reporters er duties ~ special projects, liftouts, magazine work, ete. —are not being taken into account at all. They are reporting to: the chief of staff, the pictorial editor, online, section editors, the deputy chief of staff, the Sunday chief of staff, the editor, the ‘top desk’, and so on. All these peoplg have different priorities, deadlines and demands and do not communicate these to each other, putting the reporter in an impossible position.‘We can manage our ovm time, but we cannot mé nage having so many different bosses who all ‘want us to work to their own deadlines. We need to be able to tell the newsdesk how much ‘non-news' work we have and for that to be abe taken into account. This is not to be construed as whingeing. This needs open discuss complete their ‘ext work, and therefore how Reporters understand that journalism has never work long and hard to make sure the job is done. that the majority of it is “churnalism’ ~ sitting in as opposed to getting on the road, meeting peop} Many reporters feel pressured to never leave th Many people ~ because they feel overtime is no! from home. This is often unspoken but it should more. We think there needs to be discussion about whi unhealthy, and unproductive to expect us to be i not leave the office. We think that with better more trust we should be able to be both flexi These are the main points we wish to make. Side| + We feal management does not respect us at! meetings often include bitching about journ: wrong, Morale suffers deeply because of this, Reporters’ self confidence has also been bat point where itis unrecognisable, Changes se nothing else, so that individual weiting style i More direction and forward planning is nee: producing the stories that management fee! suggestions for lines to follow. Story Ideas people put in there the previous jon as to how much time people need to uch time they have to spend on news. ‘ena ‘nine tll five’ job. They are happy to However, the nature of the job has changed so front of a computer all day typing out stories, Je, working closely with a photographer, etc. irdesks, even to meet contacts, free ‘allowed ~ are now doing their extra work Ye recognised that this is happening more and tis expected of us, We think its unfair, arly, work late, eat lunch at our desks, and wptkioad management, less wastage of time and ind more productive, issues we want to point out Include: I, We hear often that conferences and lists, blaming them for everything that is going red by extensive re-writing of copy, to the mm to be made forthe sake of change and lost. d from the newsdesk. If reporters are not are worthy, they need to give us story Ideas or ‘The news diary appears to be an attempt at forward planning but It |s fundamentally flawed. fay then appear on the newslst, despite the fact more stries may have cropped up in thy meantime, The reporter is, again, put in an impossible position and is being denied the an effective planning tool. bility to manage thelr own workload. This Is not To summarise: We love our jobs. We want to do them environment, but that cannot be a blanket excuse for th needs to change and we want management to work wit I, We understand this will always be a stressful polities, the workloads, and the abuse. This us to make that change happen. We honestly belleve that ifthere is cukural change staff will be happie, wil work more effectively, and the paper will improve asa result.