Read the grovelling after-hours email Channel Nine boss sent to staff after bombshell review was handed down

A Channel Nine boss has acknowledged staff are ‘hurting’ in an out-of-hours email sent to TV workers, as the network tries to stem growing discontent in workplace culture over the handling of a scathing review. suppress.

Nine Entertainment television news and current affairs head Fiona Dear, who took over from former news boss Darren Wick after his sudden departure earlier this year, sent the email at 8.29pm on Monday.

The email was sent four days after an independent report found Nine’s workplaces had ‘a systemic problem with abuse of power and authority; bullying, discrimination and harassment; and sexual harassment’.

Ms Dear, who has yet to schedule an all-staff meeting to discuss the findings of the report from workplace consultancy Intersection, wrote that she was “proud” of the way her team had told the “incredibly painful story”.

“I wanted to say how proud I have been of the professionalism you all showed in telling this incredibly painful story last week and the way you have handled yourselves since the report was published,” her email says to the staff.

“You have continued to deliver high quality journalism despite what we are going through as a team and as a wider business.”

Some insiders said this News Corp that Dear’s late email bore similarities in the timing of Wick’s resignation letter, sent at 7:36 p.m. on a Friday in March.

The Australian has reported that multiple insiders from Nine’s newsrooms across the country have condemned the “terrible leadership skills” of the company’s executives in the wake of the report, saying they feel “betrayed”.

More than 120 past and present employees participated in the evaluation and reported experiences of inappropriate workplace behavior within the company.

Although the alleged perpetrators have been named, no action is planned against them, despite staff claiming they were told the names would be passed on to Nine’s board.

It is understood staff were subsequently told that because the review had been carried out by an external company, none of the complaints would result in action being taken against individual perpetrators without a separate internal investigation.

Insiders reportedly said so News Corp Mastheads that names of employees accused of bullying were mentioned in an open chat thread.

Daily Mail Australia revealed last week that 60 Minutes reporter Dimity Clancey, Melbourne newsreader Tom Steinfort and A Current Affair weekend presenter Deborah Knight were some of the most vocal critics of management at a staff meeting.

Sources said Clancey was outraged by the company’s lack of action and complained that many Nine staffers had spent hours “pouring out their souls” complaining about specific people, but that Nine again failed to act.

60 Minutes star Dimity Clancey was outraged by Nine’s response to a damning independent investigation which found the media empire has ‘a systemic problem with the abuse of power and authority; bullying, discrimination and harassment; and sexual harassment’

Nine’s board said the report made 22 recommendations to overhaul its culture and committed to implementing all of them.

The recommendations include revising and updating the company’s code of conduct, exploring an external complaints management system, establishing a best practice process for recruitment and updating mandatory training on inappropriate workplace behaviour.

But angry staff said the recommendations did little to address the very personal complaints raised during the investigation and no action was taken against those who had behaved inappropriately.

Nine’s acting CEO Matt Stanton said on Monday there was an “active investigation” into allegations of bad conduct.

Nine’s boss, Tory Maguire, sent an email to staff on Monday afternoon saying that ‘the key findings in the report are disturbing to read.’

“Nine’s leaders are exploring what needs to happen to embed the changes needed to ensure everyone at Nine enjoys a safe, respectful and positive working environment,” she said.

More than 120 past and present employees took part in the survey reporting a toxic culture in the workplace

“The first step was an unequivocal apology from our chair Catherine West on behalf of the board, acknowledging the widespread inappropriate behavior in the workplace, the harm to our people and Nine’s past inadequate response to that behavior.”

Nine Radio chief executive Tom Malone, who oversees 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR, held a meeting with staff on Tuesday to discuss the review’s findings.

The survey found that 57 percent of staff in the media company’s broadcast division had experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment in the past five years, while a third said they had been sexually harassed in the same period.

The company’s toxic culture was enabled by “a lack of accountability from leadership; power imbalances; gender inequality and a lack of diversity; and significant distrust in leaders at all levels of the company,” the report said.