'Psychological and social insecurity' at NTR because of 'human -orual' reorganization

The controversial reorganization of the Omroep NTR in 2019 and 2020 « laid the foundation for a high degree of psychological and social insecurity. » This is evident from the research report on the working culture at the NTR of Bureau Decoz & Co that is Monday published on the website of the broadcaster.

« The way in which the redesign was carried out has not only been experienced as radical and damaging for people by many respondents, but also as damaging for the organization, » said the report, which in particular holds former media director Willemijn Francissen.

The report notes that the reorganization opted for an 'editorial model', which had to ensure that the NTR could work 'production -oriented, agile, flexible and project -based'. The reorganization led to the appointment of fifteen editors of just as many editors, where, according to the report, there were favoritism and lack of managerial qualities in the new editors. « Employees are often hired on functions on the basis of loyalty, whereby acquaintances or friends of managers are favored. »

The publication of the research report took a long time because of the great needs of employees to talk to the researchers. Initially, Decoz & Co expected to have around sixty conversations, but 130 people had registered within a few weeks. Ultimately, the researchers had 104 conversations with 145 (former) employees, about a third of the number of permanent employees at the NTR. « About half of the respondents have indicated that they are struggling with stress, sadness, trauma, mourning and a sense of injustice to this day because of (…) the way in which the redesign was performed. »

'Hurtful'

Especially the way in which employees were fired or left during the reorganization has put a lot of bad blood within the NTR. « More than ten situations have been mentioned in which employees suddenly received a settlement agreement, » the researchers write. « The conversations about this were conducted without an announcement or under a different pretext, often at a location outside the Mediapark, for example in a cafe or at the media director at home. Respondents mentioned qualifications as 'intimidating, person -oriented interventions', 'robberies', 'hurtful', 'continuous pressure' and 'man -oriented'. « 

I am disappointed and shocked about the way in which the report was created

Francissen says in a written response that the results of the investigation 'vote sad'. According to her, the image is in line with the critical research report that the Van Rijn Commission published last year on cross-border behavior at the public broadcaster. It already showed that NTR employees were more negative about managers and the management than the rest of the public broadcaster. The Van Rijn report led to so much unrest within the NTR that the Supervisory Board decided to follow a follow-up investigation into the reorganization of 2019 and 2020 and work culture. To make room for that, Francissen temporarily resigned in July last year.

« I am disappointed and shocked about the way in which the report came about, the entire process there and the conduct of the former Supervisory Board, » said Francissen. The entire Supervisory Board resigned at the end of last year after Decoz & Co reported in an interim reporting 'a considerable number of reports of a serious nature' about Francissen. Nevertheless, Decoz & Co would not have wanted to hear her side of the story. « The researchers did not spoke to me because this did not fit within the design of the research, in which » there was no room for hearing. « 

Koos van der Steenhoven, the new chairman of the Supervisory Board, presented the NTR report on Monday to the employees of the NTR. He apologized for 'what recently went wrong a little longer ago. Wounds have been beaten that cannot be healed easily for many.  » He invited everyone to talk to him about « unprocessed processes or about abuses that could still exist today. »

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