Standard employees told to go on annual leave

The Standard Group has asked all its permanent employees to reduce their pending leave days as the media house embarks on austeriry measures in the wake of an anticipated drop in 2017 profits by 25%.

In a memo to staff, Group Head of Human Resources Nicholas Siwatom expresses concern that leave ourstanding has been accumulating forcing the company to carry a heavy burdern and urged them to proceed on their leave as the year comes to close, noting that it is important and healthy for employees to take time off from work.

“It has been noted that leave outstanding is accumulating and the company is carrying a heavy leave burden. It is important and healthy to take time off from work to take your leave and we approach the end of the year you are advised to plan with your manager/ supervisor your leave to ensure that you clear your pending leave or carry forward at least 5 days,” Mr Siwatom says.

It is not clear when employess at the Standard Group are reluctant to take their outstanding leaves but there have been reports that the company is planning to shed off more employees to reduce its wage bill in the face of dwindling fortunes.

However, the situation is not unique to the Standard Group. Across the media world, most employees re often reluctant to take leave to protect their interests and justify their relevance in the newsroom with the main culprits being editors and senior reporters.

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This, in most cases, forces employers to buy leave days at premium rate when journalists are laid off or change jobs, which has served to encourage them not take a break.

But, at the same time, restructuring process in most media houses in recent years have seen them operate at the bare minimum in terms of personell, making them unable to accomidate annual leave for its dependable journalists, a situation that was compounded by this year’s prolonged elections process.

However, as a sign that things are not rosy at the Mombasa Road-based Standard Group, the media house recently restricted access to non-core online platforms such as Whasapp.