Working at Dish?

Over the past few days I have been getting complaints from a number of people that work from Dish Network upset that they have to work on Christmas.

While I can understand the frustration of working on one of the most magical days of the year (especially if you have kids) I can also understand why Dish is making them work. Running a company like Dish Network is a 24 / 7 operation. And as much as everyone would like the time off they can not just shut down everything and take the holiday off.

But even with the holiday blues it seems as there are other issues at Dish Network which might not make it the best place to work. Yesterday Glassdoor.COM announced its list of the best and worst companies to work for, and Dish Network was listed as one of the worst, while Southwest Airlines was picked as the best place to work in the USA.

On Monday Night’s Charlie Chat they had the Dish Network singers, Jim Defranco said he didn’t know that Dish had such great signers. Charlie was wondering why they were singing instead of working, when I saw it I took it as a joke, but now seeing these company rankings perhaps it wasn’t a joke after all.

I would think that working for a company that brings entertainment to millions could be a fun place to work, but that obviously is not the case. Dish has turned itself around a lot in 2009, hopefully they can turn around their employee relations in 2010.

Go FCC!

The FCC has been doing some things lately which are very consumer and satellite friendly. Word is coming out now that the FCC is looking to close the loophole that allows cable providers to withhold programming such as sporting events from other providers including satellite companies.

The FCC is seeking to close the “terrestrial loophole” which allows cable companies to get around access requirements by distributing programming via landlines instead of using satellite technology to distribute the programming.

For example Comcast’s SportsNet Philadelphia is not available to satellite customers, meaning that those with satellite can not watch sports teams such as The Philadelphia Phillies, Sixers and Flyers.

The FCC would like to eliminate this loophole so that satellite and other cable providers can purchase and air the programming.

The timing comes at an interesting time as Comcast is seeking to buy the controlling interest in NBC Universal from General Electric. It was once expected that the closing of this loophole could be one of the conditions put on the company in order to get approval in the NBC Universal deal.