WEAU

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Terry Hughes is the GM and has chased off great talent. Why is he still there? I understand this is a small market...and people move on, but I've never seen a micromanager at GM like him. Our morning team won an Emmy back in late 2019 during a winter storm. The one and only Emmy by the station ever. Not one is still there today. I went through 2 News Directors in less than 2 years. Eau Claire's a great starter market and really a great city, but just be prepared.

The News Director, Janis Harper, was hired as part of the leadership team to go to Anchorage, Alaska to turn KTVA 11 News around. Ratings did not improve after several years and the station went out of business in July of 2020, shortly after Janis left for her new job in Wisconsin. Under her leadership, I experienced poor communication and a high level of frustration in the newsroom.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

A lot of holdovers from the previous news director thought things would get better under new leadership...They were wrong! This woman is straight up clueless, no wonder the last station she worked at closed! She will pretend to like you and then go behind your back when you begin to call out her decision making.

The only two god things about this station are the rank and file staff, and the learning you will get to do in what will probably be your first job. Aside from that, you will be miserable due to management which probably won't change.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

She doesn't care about her employees, she acts like she cares and if they don't follow her to a T she will be passive aggressive. She has favorites, and it shows. Under her leadership, you will work 6 days a week, and 12 hour shifts due to "scheduling errors" meanwhile, it's her messing up and not owning up to it. She is also very hypocritical.

You will meet some great coworkers, but overall the environment is very toxic. They will backstab you more times than you can count.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

WEAU is a great starter station but typically no one stays after their first contract. In the time that I've worked there moral has significantly decreased, people are fed up and want to walk out, and on top of it we don't make a livable wage. The creative service manager and the production manager and wonderful and collaborative and listen and communicate. The news director and the general manager or two of the most toxic individuals I've ever had to work with. We thought that when our previous news director left things would be better, but it has only gotten worse and I've been told to pick my battles because there will be retaliation and that nothing will change until there are different people in those positions. However, the anchors and reporters and other personnel of the station are wonderful. The station is a good place to learn for a first job and then move on once you have experience under your belt.

Many full-time employees have second jobs to make ends meet, the handling of the pandemic was great in the first few months and then significantly changed course, they only care about the reputation and not their employees.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

It honestly depends on the day whether it's positive and fun or negative and toxic, and that directly correlates to who the news director is and if she is in the building