Horseshoe

An inside look at a major television network in Chicago.

  

Horseshoe

They stagger in one by one, most of them clutching a Starbucks cup in one hand, and a notepad in the other. The exterior seats are chosen first, no one wants to be front row center. Today, only a few weeks into April, WXKN is announcing that they are about to undergo unscheduled layoffs. The smaller positions were the first to go, but now with the picking slim, everyone is in jeopardy.  After several minutes, all of the chairs in the conference room are filled, except one. Sales managers and local-sales account executives exchange timid glances, some sipping their coffee while others scribble aimlessly. Everyone pauses when Noah Gillespie finally walks in, the network’s president.

             Welcome to WXKN in Chicago, a local and national news station. Gillespie stands at only 5’6”, but his presence exudes much more. Dressed in a grey suit with navy tie, he sips from a bottle of water before sitting.“ It’s not my position to tell you that everything is going to be fine, it isn’t. Just do what you can to make sure you’re not on the wrong end of it.” Noah only sits for a second before he gets up and exits the room.

The rules of advertising changed, and many companies are drastically cutting their spending sent aside for advertising. Some of Chicago’s top agencies have plummeted to the bottom of the market share, while some major news networks are canceling their early morning newscasts. The recent falls from grace leave many thinking that things can only go up, however each day they keep heading south.

            The sales and marketing department of this network is situated on the fifth floor, and is shaped like a horseshoe. On one end sits business development and on the other, sales. In between these two territories sit the managers, encased in the most lavish offices on the floor. The members of the business development crew do not have offices; they are packed in cubicles with walls so short that coworkers essentially stare at one another. Their computers are outdated, and along with the rugged televisions most of the sales team keep in their office, belong in a broadcast museum. The sales team has been updated to laptops, but nothing compares to the luxury the title of manager brings. Their walls are lined with plasma televisions, and the rest of the office is furnished with the latest technology and trendy Hon office-furniture. New aged computers and modern furniture distinguishes the royalty the managers are a part of. On one side of the hall a kitchen smells of coffee at all hours.

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            Inside her office, Julie Parsons, the business development manager, sits in the dark. She leaves her lights off at all times, saving energy supposedly, but only making her appearance more daunting than it actually is. She is short and thin, but possesses an intimidating presence. At any given moment she is doing one of three things: talking on the phone, pounding away at emails, or going into or out of a meeting. She is always busy but never working, instead she is telling everyone else how to. When asked a question or making a statement she is ambiguous, often using terms like “yadda yadda” and “whatever” in the same sentence.

            Her assistant, call him, Ryan Noble sits in his cubicle, wincing every time his phone rings or an e-mail comes his way. Ryan used to work in radio but took a job at the network, feeling it was a better career path even though he was demoted in the process. His role is to reach out into the local market and attract and find new clients to advertise both on air and digitally. This usually means he spends his day cold-calling leads, and often, shadowing Julie on her meetings. On these meetings Julie treats him like the pawn he is, making it clear to the client Ryan is her subordinate by insisting that he drive her and sometimes carry her briefcase. While Ryan is presenting his presentations, she often takes control. When she speaks over him, he just bites his tongue and looks forward to the fat lip of tobacco he will enjoy after dropping her off. On his rides back to the network, Ryan stuffs his lip with Skoal venting his frustrations to anyone of his friends that answers their cell phone.

            In the sales side of the horseshoe Jake O’Brien screams into the receiver, his hot breath building condensation with his slurs. Jake is an account executive, and in his tenure at the network has brokered a laundry list of accounts with major clients. He marches through the office like a bulldog, his haphazardly shaped goatee and pudgy chin adding to the effect. Jake is well liked, but everyone knows and respects his temper. He sees a shrink every Friday and isn’t afraid to talk about it, or his drug problem. In between making sales calls and meetings he sneaks to the bathroom for a quick snort here and there. Jake loves pushing himself as close as he can to the brink of death, only to see if he can make it back.

Around the office Ryan, Julie, and Jake have a lot of unavoidable contact. Ideally all three would work together, combining their efforts in order to promote the network while also offering a lending hand to one another. In reality the three colleagues isolate themselves from one another in profound ambivalence. Their daily routines cross several times daily, yet seldom acknowledging one another as they try to stay clear of Noah. The truth is everyone is scared. The falling economy has hit the advertising sector like a wrecking ball. All of the old tactics are out the window; the business is now more cutthroat than before. Everyone does what they need to do to survive, and the weak are sent home.

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April 21, 2009 and Noah’s warning becomes a reality. In total, nine members of the sales and marketing department are disposed of. It is almost an even split between the two sides, the managers are all safe, for now, with the business development team losing the extra man. A majority of those losing their jobs are in the beginning of their careers, but some are tenured employees. In each case, the victim had assumed that they were secure only to find out otherwise. Employees aren’t the only ones to go. Seldom used computers are disposed of, and the office now only employs two printers instead of five. Everyone is told to ration office supplies; orders for new supplies will not go through until the end of summer. Mundane articles like paper clips and post it notes are treated like gold. The community coffee machine is hauled away; it was seldom used these days since the supply of Styrofoam cups was cut off mid January.

            The recent development has a lasting effect on Ryan, Jake and Julie. The entire office is in a state of havoc, everyone is scrambling to make sure that they are not next on the list. They have little control over their future. One Tuesday morning, an account executive walks into her office only to find that someone has hijacked all of her business cards. Less than twenty-four hours after the lay offs, the remaining employees flood the tenantless cubicles and offices like sharks. Lamps are the first prize stolen, followed by chairs, replaced by their shoddy counterparts. Ryan is the most affected by this heightened state of emergency.  He arrives at the office two hours early, and makes sure Noah notices he is the first to arrive and the last to leave each day. He wears the appearance of a broken man; the rings around his eyes darken with each passing day. The youthful complexion that made him a hot topic among female co-workers has faded away.

Julie sneaks through the office hoping not to be noticed; having invited the now departed into her office to break the news, even avoiding the weekly sales meetings that now house a much smaller audience. One victim having caught wind of her fate confronted Julie, only to retreat from her office covering her face to hide tears.  Noah is a silent killer and delegates all firing duties to Julie. When ones walks into her office they find themselves crossing an eerie divide that has served as the fatal last steps for several employees.  The layoffs have little affect on her; all of her subordinates are just a number to her. At the end of the day they just need to make her look good, while making her rich by selling on-air and digital media in the process. Jake’s true colors show with the recent developments, within hours of hearing who is no longer employed he attaches himself to their former clients. Jake enjoys taking advantage of anyone or anything regardless of circumstance, and he is in high spirits realizing all the things before him that he can pillage. The demise of the network has transformed the workforce into a gang of disheveled monsters.