The deadline is up for Bari Weiss’ memo request from all CBS News staffers, but the Writers Guild of America East and CBS have asserted that employees can ignore it if they so choose.
The union, which represents most CBS News employees, said in a message to its members reviewed by TheWrap Tuesday that they will not be disciplined for refusing to respond to the “How Do You Spend Your Day?” memo request. If they do choose to respond, WGA said their feedback will not be the basis for a potential layoff.
Weiss’ request for updates from each staffer and feedback on “what’s broken or substandard” was scrutinized by employees and the union with members nervous their feedback could be used against them and could potentially serve as “a basis for discipline, discharge, or layoff.”
The WGA’s recent message assured members that they “will not be disciplined if you do not respond to the email, indicating that a response is optional.”
“The company further stated that if you choose to respond, it will not be a basis for discipline, discharge, or layoff,” according to the union message reviewed by TheWrap. “We intend to hold the company to these responses.”
CBS also stated in their response to the union that the memos will not be reviewed by AI, and the intention is that “only Bari Weiss and her Chief of Staff will see the responses, though they may have an obligation to share with other senior executives.”
Weiss initially framed the directive as a move to get to know her employees better, describing the newsroom as “a big place with functional titles and reporting structures that I’m learning.” She wrote that she was eager for staffers to share ideas in their memo for how to make CBS News “the most trusted and most consumed news source in the nation.” CBS clarified to the union that the memos are for Bari to get to know the employees and use them as a discussion guide as she meets with employees in the coming weeks.
Hours after the memo request, the WGA urged union members at CBS News not to answer the request until CBS provided more details on how the response would be taken into account. Amid the Paramount merger, executives at the company have said they intend to cut down the company’s workforce to cut costs, meaning layoffs are imminent.
The request came four days after Weiss took the reins at CBS News as editor-in-chief, following Paramount Global’s purchase of her website, the Free Press, for roughly $150 million.
