CBS News staffers are “freaking out” over a mandate by the new brass at parent company Paramount Skydance for all workers to return to the office five days a week ahead of an expected cost-cutting bloodbath, The Post has learned.
The David Ellison-led company, which completed its long-stalled $8.4 billion merger with Skydance last month, is expected to send an email as early as Thursday that gives employees the option to return to their desks full-time or take a buyout, according to sources close to the situation.
“People are freaking out and wondering if they’ll survive at the company until Thanksgiving,” one of the sources said.
The person added that space is already cramped at CBS News’ headquarters at the Broadcast Center in Hell’s Kitchen, and that site will have to make space for “CBS Mornings,” which will soon be leaving its digs at 1515 Broadway in Times Square.
The Post exclusively reported in March that “CBS Mornings” — co-hosted by Gayle King, Nate Burleson and Tony Dokoupil — will move back to its dingy former home at CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street from the luxe digs at 1515 Broadway.
Paramount Skydance — home to CBS, along with struggling cable channels MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon — is looking to slash at least $2 billion from the budget, The Post exclusively reported.
The return-to–office mandate will facilitate the process by giving employees the option to “opt in” or “opt out” of the, sources told The Post.
Those who “opt out” will be expected to leave in mid-October with a buyout, according to the insiders.
“They are hoping to get a lot of attrition,” one of the sources said.
Currently, each business unit has its own work-from-home policy.
The Post reached out to Paramount Skydance for comment.
New Paramount Skydance President Jeff Shell, the former NBCUniversal boss, had instructed his lieutenants to begin making “kill lists” ahead of the mass layoffs slated for October, The Post exclusively reported last month.
Next month’s job cuts will coincide with Paramount Skydance’s third-quarter earnings, as well as an investor presentation by new management on its plans for the company, a source said at the time.
Shell told journalists at a press conference in Los Angeles last month that the cuts will be “painful” and will take place in one fell swoop.
“We do not want to be a company that has layoffs every quarter,” Shell said, citing constant waves of cuts under Paramount’s previous leadership.
“So, it’s going to be painful. It’s always hard, but we don’t want to be a company that every quarter is laying people off. It is important for us to get done what we’re doing in one big thing and then be done with it.”
