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It's Bitch About Work day, apparently. An employee of MTV (the company that Mika Salmi is not the head of) sends along the following gripe:

Everything at MTV Networks sucks. So we keep hiring big ticket folks. And firing people with huge severance packages.Yes, here on the ground at MTV Networks they are trying to save money in the most bullshit ways:

1) Staff hiring freeze is still on (duh).

2) A "moving" freeze. Some folks were hired and stuck in random cubes on odd floors. They were promised moves when space opened up. Well, space has opened up, but there is a "moving" freeze because paying people to move your computer and your shit costs money. So, my support staff remains on other floors. In cubes for random departments. And there are empty desks/half empty offices all around me.

3) An office supply crackdown. Now all of our requests for office supplies don't go through our departments, but one main office. You have to fill out so much paperwork and fax it to a number of people just for pens. That is a sign of corporate desperation.

Shit here is pretty bad.

We went against our usual grain and asked a source for confirmation on this. The reply: "It's true. They took away our Advil." MTVers, we sympathize deeply. Deeply. What other deprivations are you enduring to finance Tom Freston's massive payout? Have they switched to an inferior brand of coffee in the breakroom? Do the tampon machines steal your quarters without providing tampons? We want to know.

UPDATE: Another tale of degradation after the jump.

Other cuts include: no more ordering bottled water (they have a handy section on the intranet on how to order our own water using personal credit cards); all temps must be approved by the EVP of human resources and/or network president/GM (most execs just end up gonig w/o a temp assistant as they have to provide business justification for having one); half the items in the supply catalogue are forbidden; budgets have been cut across the board including for travel, meals, and, yes, even shows; and departmentmlunches/dinners have been cut. We truly have become the banana republic of entertainment companies.