iHeart Cutting Some Furloughed Employees
• With no immediate end in sight for the COVID-19 pandemic — and with it, the continued financial burden being placed upon employers everywhere, RAMP has learned that iHeartMedia has made the difficult decision to permanently eliminate the positions of an unknown number of employees who were furloughed back in March.
A staff memo from Chairman & CEO Bob Pittman and Pres., CFO & COO Rich Bressler, obtained by RAMP, laid out the situation, as it reads, in part, “As you know, last March, we took the difficult step of furloughing some employees, most of whom were in jobs that we did not believe would be essential until business operations reverted back to their former state. Clearly the downturn has been deeper and longer than originally expected, although advertising is beginning to recover and we are doing better than most in our areas. It is also apparent that as result of changed work habits and so much work still being done from home, we will not need all the jobs we once had; we will be working in new ways going forward and must align our organization with the future.”
The memo continues, “While we have brought back some of our furloughed colleagues, and will continue to bring back some others, we will unfortunately be eliminating a number of our furloughed jobs. These decisions were not made easily or quickly — and they are all painful. These are good people who really care about our company, and to lose any is hard.”
In closing, the memo states, “We wanted to share this information with you so you would be fully informed about what is happening in our company, and to let you know that we appreciate your dedication to the company and its mission, and all the hard work you are doing to keep us on the path of recovery and growth — not just back to where we were, but beyond.”
• If you or someone you know has been adversely affected by this news and want your contact information posted in RAMP, please email Kevin@RAMP247.com.
