ETOnline: Low Pay, Immature Leaders, Toxic Company, and Plentiful Layoffs
Pros
Laid back office. Fun co-workers.
Cons
Low pay, plenty of colleagues and my own managers denied any type of raises after years of working at Entertainment Tonight and despite being #1 in ratings. Overpaid execs and producers relative to the minimum wage and overworked rest of us. CBS should be ashamed of how ET operated, or maybe things are better now, I have no idea since it's been a while. But turnover was always high, worker appreciation didn't exist, and everyone had to fight HR for any type of raise. They weren't even asking for a %3 once a year, more like how about a %3 raise every 2-3 years? Their answer, always no. I saw managers quit on the spot after being denied a raise after working there for 4 years! Yet the rest of the execs and very highly paid producers would, I'd assume, get raises, but I'm sure even they had to fight for a measly %3 per year raise. It was modern day wage slavery at ET and the operation is run separately from CBS as I found out later on, which explains why they'd manage everyone by fear and other employees who worked directly for CBS seemed happier, with better pay and benefits. They even had us using our personal computers for work when we were told to be "on-call" for breaking news over the weekends. So get this, if you were out to dinner over your weekend and some celebrity died, you'd have to go grab your personal laptop and find someplace that had wifi to work. If you were driving and got a call, guess what, turn your car around and go home to work or go find a Starbucks with wi-fi! They didn't provide work laptops or wireless wi-fi until a couple years into this on-call mess when another newer employee complained about the policy. I hope this show isn't run the same way now. I'm sure it's better now, but I have nightmares about this place. I remember being in the car getting a call and having to cancel my plans that night to post news on the website. It was a nightmare and we never had a choice to not be on-call. Some departments were staffed so thinly that those workers ended up being on-call every other weekend, compared to another department which was once every 5 weeks or so. I'm sure the Production Assistant pay starts at $15 an hour, or some small amount above min wage. God knows if anyone is actually happy working there. The attitude when I joined was "well, everyone wants to work here so this is how it is and your pay sucks." And also, "If I give you a raise, I'll have to give everyone else a raise." Yikes. Run away from this place. I'm sure CBS itself is better to work at but not ETonline...not if it's run as a separate entity with no oversight. It's probably better now but my personal experience I'm writing about is %100 accurate. Just trying to warn you if you apply for a job here, don't stay very long because they don't value anyone. It's a shame because competitor networks with less revenue and lower ratings seem to pay, more plus people are happier working there. It makes zero sense in this industry.