From 1515 1633 Broadway, not the Viacom building where MTV has its headquarters (and films TRL, and has the MTV Store, where you can buy "old-skool" MTV T-shirts and advertise the network) comes one of the sadder company-wide initiatives we've seen in quite some time. We knew things at MTV were bad, but we didn't quite realize the extent of the misery; note the drama, the pathos, the passion:

From: [redacted at VH1]
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 6:38 PM
To: M_VH1_NY_1633_31ST FLOOR; M_VH1_NY_1633_06TH FLOOR
Subject: Water Coolers & Water
Importance: High

Hello All,
I have bad news. The water coolers are going back tomorrow in the morning. Shelly, I stop by tomorrow to tell you why.

I'm sorry. I fought hard. :-)
Good Night

And one employee's response, sent out to the staff, made it clear just how deeply these cuts will be felt.

WHAT??..............How they just gonna take back the water coolers. What kind of people take water coolers from people. This aint right!!! This is just wrong!

Seriously. Even small blog-media networks in Soho that generally don't do shit for their employees have water coolers. Or so we hear.—Doree

Earlier: What's Left At MTV After Slaughter