WFXR

Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Just a horrible work environment.

Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

He constantly picked on certain people, retaliated when they reported him to human resources. The HR department is an absolute joke. Since he started, every reporter has left, broken a contract, or chosen not to renew. Management is absolutely awful. He only hires Black reporters and then treats them horribly. Management does not reflect their all minority reporting staff who are constantly being overworked and put in dangerous work situations. He gossips and brags about pushing reporters over the edge, and constantly talks down to people. Assistant News Director Thom Brewer is way worse. He's worked at every station in the market over the past few decades and still doesn't know how to do his job. He yells at people, and snaps at reporters, but loves cats.

Only one reporter since new management took over has stayed at the station.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

I’m going to start this with a few very simple words: DO NOT WORK AT THIS STATION! NEVER WORK WITH OR FOR KAY NORRED! NEVER WORK WITH OR FOR ARIKA ZINK! It’s really that plain and simple. Now for details. Imagine your worst day at work ever, and multiply that infinitely…you’ll only come close to what it’s like to work for this place day in and day out. My best day at this station was my last day when I walked out of the gates of hell. Kay Norred is a walking definition of a psychopath and narcissist. She acts all nice and sweet as can be on the surface, and will stab you directly in the back as soon as you turn around. She has no consideration for your life or time outside of work. She expects you to function like a brainwashed robot. If she says jump you better ask how high or else you’ll be off her “A team” as fast as you can blink. You call out sick and she’ll guilt trip you on the call. Then she’ll make sure everyone in the building knows how unreliable you are because you used a sick day. This is only the beginning of a very long rap sheet of problems that nearly everyone at that station has had with her. I honestly don’t even want to waste too much time talking about the dumpster fire that the GM is. The only logical string of words you’ll hear come out of her mouth is “from that viewpoint” and “for that matter.” Most of the time she doesn’t even use that properly! She knows about all of the problems that people have with the ND and does nothing about it. She’s swept so many HR complaints under the rug that she could easily be sued so hard that Nexstar would go broke. Oh and I should add a little tidbit about the feud between the Chief Met John Carroll and the Morning Met. It’s been going on for 3 years. The chief hates the morning guy with a burning passion, and trust me, you WILL hear him openly talk about it ALL THE TIME. He has already had two great meteorologists leave the station because they couldn’t stand to work for him anymore. If you’re a meteorologist looking for work, you would be better off forecasting for little league soccer tournaments than working for John and the station. I’ll close with these words again: DO NOT WORK AT THIS STATION!

I know it’s easy to think someone may exaggerate their experience. I’m begging you, for the sake of your career, don’t work here. You will regret it. Do some simple research. It won’t take long for you to understand that WFXR is not the place you want to be.

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

There is no pride, managers thrive on politics and playing games, very disorganized.

This is what you need to know about the actual station without getting into the managers yet: The station is 4th place and very new (only a few years old) and is literally considered a joke by the other stations in the market. Other managers within Nexstar joke that WFXR is a tax write-off for the company. Viewers and even government agencies within the market have never heard of WFXR and that will make your life harder as an employee there.

The fourth place mentality keeps employees and managers alike from wanting to win. Morale is low because of the feeling of absolute defeat, even before you add in what toxic management does to the place.

Also, real talk: the station only has a two-hour morning news show and a one-hour news show at 10 p.m. No mid-morning, mid-day, 4p, 5p, or 6p. They have a little digital show they just launched in the evening, but if you are wanting to get real-life news experience of what it is like to turn content for multiple newscasts a day ... you won't get it at WFXR. The other stations are equipped with SEVERAL shows and run circles around WFXR.

Morning reporters will have the closest real-life news experience with multiple live hits. Dayside reporters, forget about it. You won't have ANY deadlines or opportunities to be live unless you are turning something for the digital "show" (not real life newsroom experience compared to other reporters turning stuff and going live for 4p,5p,6p shows). Nightside reporters will have the opportunity to go live at 10 p.m.

Here is something else major you need to know: the viewing area is EXPANSIVE. There are five major areas that make up the market: New River Valley (Blacksburg and everything west of it), Roanoke area, Lynchburg area, Danville area, and Lexington area. All of the other stations have invested heavily to make sure there is a bureau in each area to cut down on drive times/exhaustion and increase response time. However, WFXR has not fully invested in this idea. What this means for you: if you are a reporter, you will be driving A LOT, you will get burned out from having to drive so much. From a producer perspective: if breaking news happens in any city that isn't Roanoke, you will be 100% beat by the competition because it will take your reporter an hour or more to get there whereas the other stations have bureaus a few minutes away. WFXR managers keep talking about getting a Lynchburg bureau and have hired an NRV bureau (he mostly does sports though) ... but the other stations are lightyears ahead.

Okay on to management:
First off, if you ever are contemplating working at a station where Kay Norred will be your boss: Run, don't walk away. However, if that isn't an option for you, the following is what you can expect...

She will not be direct with you, passive aggressiveness is her specialty. If there is something she doesn't like about you or thinks you need to improve, she won't tell you right away. Instead, she will make fun of you or spend her time making passive aggressive comments about you. As soon as you leave a room, she will talk about you to others. There isn't a single person at the station that I didn't see her smack talk. She is CONSTANTLY rolling her eyes and bad mouthing her employees and will let anyone who will listen know how much she doesn't trust her team.

She may appear sweet and genuine to your face but never trust her. She will find a way to use what you say against you, whether professionally or personally. Literally, nothing that comes out of her mouth is honest or genuine (think Regina George from Mean Girls). A co-worker witnessed her telling a reporter that she did a great job on her package, then turned around and told someone else she actually didn't like it much at all. So if you are someone who craves honest feedback, you won't get it from her. You will never know whether to believe what she is saying to you.

HUGE NOTE: She is a stickler about being on time. If you have to work for her...remember be early, not late. If you are even 1 minute late or even on time (not early), she will make fun of you publicly and talk about you.

She doesn't have a life outside of work (no pets/kids/husband/family/hobbies, etc) and it shows because she has zero perspective on what life outside of work is like. She works long hours, never uses sick days, comes in on the weekends, and rarely takes a vacation -- which is fine because it's her life EXCEPT she will expect the same of you. She LOVES to boast about the long hours she puts in. She thinks of herself as a martyr in that way. Kay works so much... so she must stay on top of everything, right? Nope. She works 12 hour days but is somehow always still behind. She rolls her eyes when people ask to talk to her during the day and is constantly complaining that people are stealing her time. She blames others for not getting her work done. So when elections, special events, really anything rolls up...all plans are incredibly last minute and thrown together.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: She is VERY forgetful. So if you tell her something, make sure she writes it down in her notebook, otherwise, it will be like the conversation never happened.

Also, if you are looking for a news director who is willing to jump in the trenches with their team, Kay is not that. Most newsrooms have several managers to help with day-to-day but at WFXR the ND and maybe assignments manager is all you have. But if you dare ask Kay to do something that she believes is beneath her ND duties, she will tell you a little story about how pilots don't have to land planes to get a passenger a sprite.

She LOVES playing games with people's lives and plays politics in the newsroom. She has an "A-TEAM" made up of a few of her favorites. She even held a secret meeting with these employees and told them "they were chosen not hired." But don't be fooled, if you make it on this A-Team, she will still talk bad about you behind your back. But as an A-Team member you will be expected to never talk bad about her and emulate her by working long hours and never complaining. All of her new hires are her "friends" aka loyalists from other stations. It's less like working for a news director and more so working for a cult leader. For those that don't like pretending like they are in cult just to survive, she is pushing them out the door by making their lives miserable or demoting them. She likes to say the following all of the time: You are either with her or against her.

Kay is also extremely religious and will shove God and the bible down your throat any chance she can get. She must mention prayer, God, and the Bible 1,000 times a day. If she knows you are religious, she will use it against you. Kay told one employee she thought she was a "God-fearing" woman and "someone like that" shouldn't be concerned with officially having a job title (having it publicly announced), even though that person was already promised the job.

She is also very terrible with communication. New hires will show up out of nowhere without an email from Kay, others will disappear with no word from Kay. An evening anchor team and morning team was swapped, with no words/explanations from Kay. The lack of communication creates rumors and stirs distrust.

The chief meteorologist John Carroll is the other decision maker in the newsroom. He is also a snake in the grass. He is constantly rolling his eyes behind the news directors back about decisions and griping about adding extra shows for severe weather, really he will gripe about any decision that isn't made by him. He rules his weather team with an iron fist (micromanager, much?) and talks bad about his weather people to anyone who will listen. The worst is how much he hates the morning meteorologist and how uncomfortable that makes everybody else. He will openly talk bad about him in the middle of the newsroom and do everything in his power to make the morning meteorologist mad. He openly talks about wanting the morning weather guy fired to anyone who will listen.

John is very similar to Kay in that he has no life outside of work (no spouse, kids, hobbies, nothing) and will work long hours and work on the weekend. But you better believe he is going to tell everyone about how long he worked, even though it is voluntary and it's because he has nothing to go to at home. He expects his weather team to be the same. Every time anybody on his team requested vacation days or called out sick, he would complain to anybody who would listen and would always remind people that he never takes vacation days. He would also imply his employees that took sick days were faking an illness. In conclusion, if you are going to take a spot on the weather team, be prepared! You have been warned.

The GM Arika Zink makes zero sense with her decisions. She is a nice lady, but incredibly incompetent. She keeps toxic and/or lazy managers around in and outside of the newsroom who are hurting the station and its employees. Arika not only keeps them around, but she also PROTECTS them. The HR violations that happen at WFXR are horrendous.

The station needs managers who are going to clear the air, be true leaders and leave the politics and games at home. The station needs someone who will want to win and will constantly encourage their employees to be better. They need a leader who believes and trusts them. Truly, Nexstar needs to replace the GM, ND, and every other department head that is there right now with new energy and proven leadership. Until that happens, stay far away from WFXR.

Sexual Discrimination, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Every single news manager at this station is an incompetent moron and corporate knows it, too. The best part? They don’t care. The GM, Arika Zink, should’ve been fired YEARS AGO! In fact, she's not at all qualified to be a leader or manager of anything. The News Director, Kay Norred, causes all kinds of drama. She talks about her employees behind their backs to other employees and is very vindictive. If you’re not loyal to her - watch out! Oh, she’ll also hold grudges against you if you’re sick and have to call into work. She’ll also call and harass you and say you don’t sound sick and won’t talk to you once you do return to work. It's very childish behavior. Plus, she and the chief meteorologist are having relations outside the office. Corporate knows about that, too. But again, they don't care. It’s disgusting and overall, an unprofessional place to work. Also, this place breeds incompetence and things go wrong everyday. You’ll never get ahead here because you’re constantly worrying about what kind of drama you’ll be dealing with for the day. There's never a plan for the newscast because managers never know how to plan for the day. And if there is a plan, it's never executed well. This station is full of amateurs. Plus, there's only a morning show and 10pm. Its been operating for 3.5 years and the GM will continue promising midday and afternoon shows but don't let her fool you... it’ll never happen. My co-workers were wonderful and we tried our hardest to put on a great show every night but management constantly got in our way. Management never helped us achieve anything. Worst leadership I’ve ever encountered. Oh, and the station is DEAD LAST in the market. I loved my coworkers when I was here but management will make your life a living hell. And to top it all off, this is a Nexstar station so don't expect half decent compensation. They won't pay you half of what you're worth. DO NOT COME HERE. PERIOD.

DO NOT COME HERE!! UNEMPLOYMENT IS BETTER.

Sexual Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

Terrible work environment. Unnecessary stress and zero drive to do any actual news.

If you see any open jobs here DO NOT APPLY. The management is awful. The news director has been outwardly violent and threatening to reporters and producers. The GM has no idea what she’s doing and thinks everything is going great. HR isn’t even an option. Corporate will thwart complaints. The level of incompetence there is astounding. It’s a miracle the place is still open. The anchors are vindictive and impossible to work with. This is the worst place I have ever worked. Period.