tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600560384355436278.post2850669292970560390..comments2024-02-24T15:19:02.095-08:00Comments on SPARK NEWS: RECENT SURVEY SAYING WBUR IS A FLAWED PLACE TO WORK MISSES THE POINT • AUGUST PPM RATINGS FOR DALLAS, HOUSTON & PHILADELPHIAKen Mills Agency, LLChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792966356989583664noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600560384355436278.post-30228727531507471802018-09-12T08:26:30.822-07:002018-09-12T08:26:30.822-07:00I take no position on whether or not WBUR's cu...I take no position on whether or not WBUR's culture needs to change, but I think there's some interesting facts I can add to the discussion.<br /><br />I started as a work/study student at WBUR in 1996. I left a FTE employee in 1999. There are at least a half-dozen people who worked there when I started who are still working there today, in 2018. Probably more like a dozen or two. It speaks to how the culture obviously works well for some people.<br /><br />I've stayed in touch with many friends who still work there, and my impression is that the culture isn't all that different from when I was there. (well, after accounting for the usual societal culture shifts over the last twenty years) That tells me the original hard-charging, "we expect the best and demand the best because we are the best" culture is still there that was originally implemented by Jane Christo and very much reinforced by then-BU President John Silber. Silber was a brash, tyrannical egomanic, who demanded the very best and usually got it...and didn't care in the slightest whether your feelings were hurt. Now changing a culture at any company is very, very difficult under any circumstance. It's all the moreso when there's too much success, as WBUR has, to easily say "things need to change." So I'm not surprised that culture has persisted long after Christo's departure and Silber's death. And again, I can't say whether or not that culture DOES need to change.<br /><br />Finally, working at WBUR...even though I *was* a student, I didn't really feel like I was working for a college. I felt like I was working for a high-pressure news organization at the top of the game. That's great in some ways...it's like living in New York: if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Lord knows I learned things and earned credibility in those three years that still benefit my career today.<br /><br />But having worked for radio stations at other colleges, where the college is much more involved, it does mean the staff can have culture shock when students DO come in as interns or student employees. What was the accepted norm ten or twenty years ago is legally-actionable behavior today...but since you're off in a walled garden of a successful news radio station, quite possibly you haven't been engaged enough with ins and outs of higher ed to see the culture gradually shifting over that time. That's not an indictment nor an excuse, just a potential explanation and perhaps a salient point in figuring out better "best practices" going further.Aaron Readhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07971835990882097517noreply@blogger.com