WSYR

An Overall Toxic Work Environment

The newsroom was an absolute mess. The News Director didn't like making decisions and when he did it seemed more like a rambling stream of consciousness rather than an actual plan. New producers were trained very minimally and it seemed they were just thrown into the fire. Certain reporters were given way too much slack to screw up, others were criticized for every little mistake they made. The only reason this station is still #1 is due to lack of competition and a number of talented people who are somehow keeping the ship afloat. I worked in production. I'm going to keep my criticisms of it to a minimum as my former boss (the operations manager) is about to leave the station, so the criticisms of him will soon be outdated. I will say that the biggest issue facing production is the amount of dead weight. There are a handful of people who have been there 20+ years, that make constant mistakes (but never admit to them), and have no problems throwing other people under the bus to make themselves look better. Part-timers are usually treated like garbage. They were usually barely making over minimum wage, scheduled horribly and had little to no protections by the union.

Like most Nexstar stations the pay was low and the morale was lower. Important note: it's a union shop. Union negotiations are particularly nasty. During the last negotiation in 2018 a regional manager reportedly said regarding the low pay: “if they can’t live on this, they should work somewhere else” and “it’s not indentured servitude.” Those quotes certainly helped the already low morale at the station. The negotiation ended with the union threatening to go on strike and Nexstar settling for a "loss" by giving employees a whopping 2 percent raise spread out over 4 years, and a $500 bonus that was already given to non-union stations.

I do want to add that there are a lot of good people to learn from at WSYR. The station has a number of veteran photographers that are great to work with and learn from. The chief editor is amazing as well, and she can teach you a lot about editing. The producers were (for the most part) the usual revolving door recent college graduates, some good... some not so good. As for production, some of the people can be helpful, but the department has its fair share of people who confuse experience with knowledge and competence.

If you do decide to work here, only go there to learn. Take all criticisms from management at face value, lay low and once you reach your ceiling, start looking elsewhere.

Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

I would see big stories only be given to specific, male reporters. The women are talked down to and made to feel like they can't do their jobs correctly. The newsroom itself is nothing I've ever experienced before. I had put my two weeks in and only lasted another week. The last straw was my boss telling me to "keep my mouth shut." I left that same night, right in the middle of a shift. They will continue to speak to you as if you are a dog if you allow it to happen. And I did for a year.

I don't think there is one good thing to say about how this station is run. Between the constant yelling and finger pointing, no issues were actually addressed, so no one ever learned from their mistakes. This is NOT a station you want to work at. Not only do they talk down to women, but I have heard that they recently wanted one of their employees to fudge a timesheet so they wouldn't have any overtime on it. But they still made them work the overtime. Fortunately, that employee still filled in the overtime on their sheet. And that's just the bare minimum. As soon as I turned in my two weeks, they started acting like I didn't exist. They treated me like a straight dog. They didn't care that I was leaving, despite me making their website the best it had been in years. I gave a year of my life, during a pandemic, to a station that couldn't give a rat's ass about me. DO NOT WORK HERE IF OFFERED. I promise, other, better opportunities will come.

Sexual Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

I felt as a woman I had to work every day to prove I could do harder news. My male colleagues would walk in and immediately be assigned the top story. There is definitely an old school vs. new school feeling at the station that led to some toxicity, but it was also wonderful. The photographers, some anchors, and some managers have been in the newsroom for decades. Some offered a lot of amazing lessons and really looked out for you, while others resented the change in the industry and took it out on you.