KOAT

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

How many times can the previous complaints be echoed. It seems like Hearst doesn’t seem to care.

If you’re looking for a station where you’re over worked, unhappy, and want bosses who enjoy seeing you hate life, then come on down! You’re the next contestant on KOAT.
Grand Prize is making it the length of your contract without quitting because of the toxicity that is Greg Shepperd.

Sexual Discrimination, Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Greg Shepperd and Melissa Williams (Assistant ND) are who of the worst and stupidest managers I have ever worked for. They constantly berate staff unnecessarily for the absolute smallest things. They constantly make the work environment hostile that people don’t want to come into work. You can never do good or do anything right for these two. It’s a “damned if you do/damned if you don’t” type of newsroom. They micromanage everything to such a degree that we almost have to detail everytime we take a breath. They don’t talk to each other, and Melissa and Greg each tell us opposing orders and they each get mad if you do what either says. It seems that they treat those of minority worse than others as they always seem to be more in trouble than anyone else. We can’t work on any investigative stories because Greg and Melissa are afraid of lawsuits. Neither of them know what investigative journalism is. They think that a public record request about crime numbers is investigative. These two seem to have made Hearst believe they are the best thing since sliced bread. Well, they aren’t these two shouldn’t be in the positions they are in. Greg and Melissa need to be gone.

Don’t let Greg and Melissa trick you into coming here. I realized my interview was all smoke and mirrors when I started. They flat out lied to me about many things to get me to come here. I regret it every day.
Steer clear of KOAT until Greg Shepperd is gone.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Greg Shepperd is one terrible news director. My experience in production with him was terrible. He would always talk down to us making the atmosphere unprofessional. He would borderline call us stupid without outright saying it. He would blame others for his mistakes just so he would have a clean slate. He kisses corporate’s butt and throws a fake smoke screen to make it appear that everything here is fine. It isn’t, everything here is terrible

Corporate needs to wake up and get rid of this man. His micromanagement, abusive, fake attitude has made the place a joke to work at.

Sexual Discrimination, Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

I have never worked under such poor management. All 4 managers+morning EP always make errors, which interfere with our personal lives, but they don't care. These ”grown-ups” ALWAYS find someone else to blame. Talented people have left because of the toxic work environment and negativity. People don't feel good working in this newsroom. I found more happiness working fast food! Over a dozen negative comments, but nothing has changed. That should tell you something about KOAT and HEARST.

We don't get any feedback. It's only when you don't perform the way they want you to, that you’ll hear about it. You can't be creative here. They tell you how they want your story to be. Now that everyone has jumped ship, management is finally starting to appreciate the few still around. Most would say, ”with chaos comes opportunity,” but it feels like I'm doing business with fakes. I want to work where people cared and were appreciative from the beginning.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Greg Shepperd has pushed out so much good talent because of his terrible, abusive management style. He likes to hide behind his watch and ignores his staff and doesn’t care. I’ve seen him force people to work 4am to 11pm the same day/days in a row because he can’t staff a newsroom. Morale is terrible, as he talks down to his employees. He is more concerned about what is happening nationally rather than let reporters do enterprise stories. He doesn’t let reporters do local news, it’s always localize national news. He has terrible news judgement and shouldn’t be a news director.

The rest of the newsroom staff are awesome who try to put together a good product, but are always met with the stupidity of Greg.
Don’t come here until Greg is no longer at the station. Don’t let him fool you during an interview either.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Morale sank after Greg arrived due to his pompous and disrespectful attitude. We knew what was coming as there were Arkansas websites with dozens of comments about his reign of terror at 40/29 in Fayetteville. The previous assistant news director here left 40/29 for Albuquerque because of Greg, and left here within weeks of Greg's arrival to get away from him again. Similar stories of his treatment of staff there happened again here and we lost some good employees who didn't want to deal with him anymore. He brought in a former minion from Arkansas to be his assistant news director. She is little more than a female "yes man". People have also been passed over for promotions and are choosing to leave as they see no room for advancement.

Many of the people who have left during the Greg era moved on to Top 25 markets. Most of the reporters, producers, photographers, and other staff still here are good hard-working people who do their best to try to make this station succeed. There are good stories to be told here. The market is really big and KOAT has a helicopter which can be used to get to breaking news far from Albuquerque. The general manager is great, but unfortunately is retiring this year. Greg's three years will be up in August. Hopefully he will move on by then and this station can get back to being a place where people want to work.