“It’s really dramatic in my industry right now,” explains Lufen, who recently reported a nasty ordealin the latest issue “M for Marlene”. “A lot of colleagues in Cologne at RTL and a lot of my colleagues at ProSiebenSAT.1 have lost their jobs.” She knows from reports that “tears were shed.”

“Hundreds of people were laid off,” the 55-year-old continues. It “often affects people who have been in their job for 20 years or more and who don’t even know where another job would be for them.”

Lufen’s guest agrees: “It cuts across many industries.”

Lufen’s interview guest Kristine Capek, who is also an active personnel consultant on TikTok (“the headhunter”), can only agree that it is a “dramatic” turning point in the job market: “It doesn’t just affect your industry, it affects many industries because many companies are in structural crises.” AI transformation and a persistent economic weakness would make things even more difficult. Those who suffer are sometimes “highly competent people who have been in the company for a long time and are now left with nothing and have to reorient themselves”.

The expert is particularly concerned about the human dimension of the disruptions: “What does it do to you when you have been successful for years, you lose your job, write hundreds of applications and barely get an interview?” She knows “that people then start to doubt themselves: ‘What’s wrong with me?’ That’s dramatic.” Something like that quickly turns into despair. Work is a very emotional topic. Hence their appeal: “We’re trying to approach it far too objectively. We have to pick up the people who are in the job market.”

The two large private German broadcasting networks RTL and ProSiebenSAT.1 have justified the planned and partly already implemented job cuts with the goals of a digital realignment of their companies. Last year, ProSiebenSAT.1 got a new majority owner in the MediaForEurope group, which belongs to the Berlusconi family. RTL Deutschland merged with the publisher Gruner + Jahr in 2021 and is now about to take over Sky Deutschland, which could have further influences on the job contingent in the media industry.