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UPDATE: I hear the layoff announcements could come as soon as Thursday…
Another hour, another source telling me about layoffs and cutbacks. I’ve already told you about Viacom‘s and CBS Inc’s. And at Disney/ABC, don’t dare include alcohol in your expense account meal. Now hundreds of layoffs are planned at NBC Universal. 
In the meantime, NBC has issued new draconian network and studio budget parameters, a second wave of cost-cutting following up on Jeff Zucker’s promise a month ago to tighten belts across the board. Staff inside the company are outraged at these new measures, after already being told two weeks ago to cut their travel and entertainment spending as much as possible. “Staff under Zucker and Silverman feel like a hatchet was used when a scalpel was needed,” one source tells me. As of today:
– No staff is allowed to have personal printers. Printers in individual offices are being removed to save on toner and paper. All printing will be done from a central location for each department.
– Each week Jeff Zucker in conjunction with Human Resources will be reviewing overtime charged by assistants, permanent and temporary.
– Everyone including department and division heads must drop a class when traveling. No exceptions. For the Super Bowl in Tampa, all executives attending are to travel coach.
– Six-month freeze on office supply spending.
– Federal Express: No “priority” service or Saturday delivery permitted.
- Layoffs, Layoffs & More Viacom Layoffs
- ABC Joins NBC And CBS In Cutting Costs
- NBC And CBS Cut Staffing & Spending; Murdoch Says News Corp Prepared Well
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Ha. Hey NBC employees, now you understand how the unions feel. Your bosses make a boatload of cash and you can’t buy a new stapler. And you’ve got to keep getting up to go to the printer.
Soon, you’ll be bringing your own toilet paper to work, instead of stealing it and bringing it home.
Those who are commiserating over these minor cost-cutting adjustments are probably high-maintenance pains-in-the-ass who should be on the chopping block when the day of reckoning arrives.
I mean, the f-ing difference between “priority” and “standard” FedEx’s is several hours where I work and for the most part, those who receive FedEx’s early in the morning don’t open them until later in the day.
Oh no, the office people will have to mingle with the rabble getting their print outs. If people at NBC consider the above a hatchet job then some of them are out of touch with the real world.
I am sure the office people can pony up for their own printer and paper. Office Depot or Staples have weekly sales.
I wonder how Jeff fits all this in between redoing the 15 room apartment in N.Y. he bought this year. In his own infamous words “it;s too expensive for them to get rid of me now”.
Does Jeff still have his own printer?
this is what a bad economy is supposed to do… make people realize that all the bells and whistles aren’t that important or necessary. this country has been spending beyond our means for years, it’s time we learn to live at a reasonable level.
Do you know how many people have their desks stocked full of supplies that are never used? (seriously, how often do you staple something? Bet you have a box or two of staples just sitting in that drawer…) Clean out everyone’s desks and file cabinets and you’ll have a stock room full of supplies. These cutbacks are just common sense.
I wonder if Jeff Zucker will agree to give up any of his $7 million in total annual pay to show workers that he is committed to cutting costs?
Anyone think so?
[cue laugh track]
I figure these genius cost-cutting measures will recoup NBC at least several hundred million dollars.
those with contracts feel so entitled, cutting those entertaining and travel expenses, they’ll be bitching for years. but, for the first time, they probably have no where to go so watching them squirm should be fun.
My prediction:
ABC and NBC will give back 1 hour of prime to affiliates within 18 months.
CBS will stick with 3 hours.
FOX…already lean and mean, baby.
Does “penny wise and pound foolish” ring any bells? The only reason a studio prunes day-to-day costs is because they can no longer assign them to the budgets of individual pictures. Remember, this is Universal, the company that charged “The Rockford Files” something like $50 to ship the show every week when all it involved was carrying a print from one building to another. Every expense at a full service film company is written off against pictures: every phone call, every meal, every ream of paper, every printer cartridge, every trip, every party, etc. That way, the individual producers have to swallow the cost overruns, not studio overhead, which makes the operations people look good and the stockholders happy. The company keeps collecting its fees off the top even as the shows are debited. The only ones who suffer are those who have profit participation. Like the auto makers hitch-hiking to DC, these cost-cutting measures are symbolic. And silly. When distributors start demanding a percentage of theatre concession sales, THAT’S when they’re really in trouble.
Ok here we go…
“All printing will be done from a central location for each department.” – NBC doesn’t seem to realize it still adds up to the same amount of paper and toner no matter where it is printed from. 60 scripts from 10 printers is the same paper etc. as 60 scripts from one printer….
“Six-month freeze on office supply spending.” – cutting down on paper clips and post-it notes never saved any company in the past, why should it now?
Are we sure this is a division of GE?
Because it sounds like the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus to me.
Wow, these seem like fantastic spending cuts to me… every little bit counts, and these are smart moves. Probably saves a couple of jobs, too, in the meantime.
Still sucks about the other layoffs, but I’d rather get rid of my personal printer than be handed the pink slip.
Nice rant Santayana — did you actually read Nikki’s report?
The new “draconian” measures were about the network and TV studio divisions, not the “picture” folks.
OH NOES!!!1! Flying coach to the Super Bowl!?!
RUN! IT’S THE MOTHERFUCKING APOCALYPSE!!!
Santayana hit the nail on the head – symbolic measures. These poseurs are just trying to claim empty pockets because they see an actor labor action on the horizon.
Lets hope BSNBC will go down too and of course the tingling man Mathews will not get a new contract.
BSNBC and the rest can suck azz !!!
Oh, the horror! Forcing them to travel COACH to the Super Bowl!???!?!
whatever are we going to do.
I’m going to watch the Super Bowl as well – from my living room. And it’s free!! I think those spoiled NBC execs can do the same thing. Just think of the savings right there.
Does “dropping down a class” mean Zucker will sit at the back of the private jet?
These measures may not sound like much, but when you’re dealing with something as large as NBC Universal, all of those small savings on shipping and supplies multiply extremely quickly. Also, I think some are forgetting about that important word ‘morale’. The execs going coach and having to share printers isn’t going to save NBC, but it’s important that the lower workers see that the execs are having to make sacrifices just like everyone else. Believe me, I’m sure a lot of the lower staff are having a ball laughing at the thought of the arrogant execs being forced to sit with commoners in coach.
Office supplies? That’s their answer to the financial crisis. Wow… that’s a finger in the dyke.
In regard to the printers… does taking individual printers away reduce the amount of printing an exec does? Won’t they just be using up the equivalent amount of consumables on the group printer?
Really seems like band-aid solutions.
“Staff under Zucker and Silverman feel like a hatchet was used when a scalpel was needed,” one source tells me.
No trouble seeing where that source is coming from politically, lifting The Messiah’s favorite cliche. Cripes — join the rest of the world, pampered babies.
Call the labor board. If you work overtime then you HAVE to be paid for it.
And there are fools out there that think the studios aren’t afraid of a SAG strike. Heroes being cnacelled will cost NBC more than toner.