Boss supplies condoms to stop staff baby boom
Australia’s largest radio company Southern Cross Austereo gives condoms to its staff in Perth to discourage them from having babies, an executive has revealed.
Speaking at the mUmBRELLA Perth conference, Linda Wayman, who is boss of SCA’s two Perth stations Mix 94.9 and Hit 929, told the debate on recruitment and culture that of her 100 staff, a third are either on maternity leave or covering a position for someone who is.
She said: “Thirty five per cent of my staff at the moment are on a maternity leave contract or maternity leave and that’s significant.”
And she revealed: “We do have a big jar of condoms at work. I’m not lying, I’m not exaggerating. I do encourage people regularly, to have sex with condoms. That is a big area of focus for me, encouraging people to have sex with condoms.”
Wayman’s comments come ahead of International Women’s Day, which takes place this Sunday. Southern Cross Austereo is one of Australia’s biggest broadcasting companies, with radio interests including rock network Triple M and Today’s Hit network, which rebranded from the Today Network late last year.
Wayman told the audience she tried to support staff who were new mothers but was opposed to any legislation entitling them to come back in part time roles.
She warned: “I don’t agree with the union push at the moment that women coming back to work, automatically should be allowed to come back part time. I’d love to, but I’d be lying if I said that was wonderful. It’s an idealistic and anti-commercial stance.”
Wayman said parents who continue to work must face the fact that they will be under pressure, and that the idea that work-life balance could easily be achieved was “bullshit”, the media, marketing and entertainment website mUmBRELLA reported.
She said: “We do try to be flexible. We have all sorts of arrangements at our work place. In some industries it’s a very difficult thing.
“I’ve been in the same position myself twice. It is very very tough. You have to make a decision, ‘I’m going to have a baby and then I’m just going to go for it’.
“There’s no such thing as work-life balance, it’s bullshit, you just do it. Make the decision to do the best you can.”
She told the conference that it was also up to spouses to do more to support working women. She said: “As a leader I do my best to help women and men who make those decisions.
We had a breakfast host who had a huge work ethic. She had a baby, then another one. She used to do breakfast, then the house cleaning because her husband wanted to go surfing. I offered to go and shove a vacuum cleaner up his arse because that’s how supportive I am of our female staff.”
