From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …
Banking boss nabbed for bullying. Who’s the big banking executive under investigation for bullying a female staffer? From what we hear it’s a nasty case …
NT bureaucrats face the chop. There’s plenty of nervous public servants in the Northern Territory as the government prepares to hand down a mini-budget to mark its first 100 days in office. Union types reckon they’ll cut massively from agency budgets and non-government agency funding, outsourcing a bunch of public service jobs. “A merry Terry Mills Christmas in the Territory?” asks one.
Christmas Party Watch #1. Meanwhile, Christmas is tough if you’re a public servant — even if you still have a job. As one bureaucrat reports: “We pay our own way for Christmas, Cup day and milk in the tea rooms. If the boss wants to lay on a cake for a celebration or some booze at Christmas it comes out of his own pocket, not claimed on expenses. For this we get slagged as ‘fatcats’ — gimme a break.” We’ll keep that in mind.
Christmas Party Watch #2. It’s not all doom and gloom if you work online. The CEO of Flippa.com, Dave Slutzkin, tells us he’s taking 60-odd staff away to the beach for a couple of nights — drinks and food included. “It’s a nice chance for all of us to celebrate our progress and relax a little before jumping back into our pretty enjoyable work in the New Year,” he says. Lucky them.
Christmas Party Watch #3. Mining, too. “At my workplace the Christmas party is fully funded; food, grog, kids amusements, band, buses from up to 100km away,” says one employee of a NSW miner. “They even have a second party for those who have to work when the main one is on.”
#ClickFrenzyFail. Yeah, so that didn’t go so well last night. Of those retailers who signed up to the Everything Must Go discounting drive that is Click Frenzy — and paid up to $30,000 for the privilege — many saw their sites crash under the traffic load. One Crikey reader tried to join the fun: “Having been sent the PR sheet on Monday I tried several times yesterday to get on to no avail! I could read about all the specials on offer but no luck in actually purchasing anything! Total waste of time?” Perhaps.
Where’s George? Out west. We found George Negus, the former TV current affairs trailblazer who still gets paid by Channel Ten as a consultant despite his show — and dozens of journalists since — getting the chop. As this ad in The Australian today reveals, Negus and his wife are preparing for a trip to the Kimberley next year — and you can go with him. There’s plenty of ex-Ten staff who might now have the time to join him …
Boss needs spruiking in March. There’s been rumours for a while that music’s boss, Bruce Springsteen, is headed to Australia for a tour in March. But according to one spy who phoned the 3AW Rumour File, finding a promoter is proving difficult.
March may not be a good month for Bruce Springsteen to tour Australia. Neil Young has already announced a tour for that month. It also coincides with the Byron Bay Blues Festival and Golden Plains Festival which are bringing out a whole heap of big names who play other gigs apart from the festivals.
Negus does this kind of thing all the time. His last was the Trans-Siberian train journey, which could have been ok (other than the price) because it is his old reporting grounds and lots of interest other than just pretty scenery.