Salla Paajanen was fired from YLE after 26 years

202102: HELSINKI: SALLA PAAJANEN. Photo by Pasi Liesimaa / IL PASSI FLAME

News anchor Salla Paajanen, 57, has been dismissed from the Broadcasting Corporation. In an interview with the Society, he says he immediately understood what it was like when he was invited to a briefing last November with representatives and supervisors from the HR department. The event was held remotely. The chief shop steward and Paajanen’s own shop steward were also invited.

Co-operation negotiations concerning three news anchors were the third in seven years for Paajanen, which he had on Yleisradio.

All three regional news anchors were offered new jobs. In January, Paajanen told Iltalehti that he was the only one of the three who did not accept the new positions offered to him.

– I was now offered a job I did at the beginning of my career. At this point, I might already like something else. For the last seven years, I’ve been ‘working inside out’, he recently told Iltalehti.

For the first time, Paajanen was involved in co-determination negotiations due to Yle’s organizational reform, when news and current affairs programs aired the crowd in 2015.

For the second time, he was threatened with dismissal when the Current Second was stopped. He then applied as a news anchor for regional news.

Age affects

Over the years, in Yle, Paajanen has, in addition to the Current Second, also led Christmas gift supervisors, theme nights, Yle’s good and Castle’s sequels. However, the last few years were spent only in regional news.

At the Society, Paajanen says how he has experienced a change in treatment in his working life with his fifties.

– When 50 comes to the meter, there are no hottest hots on the job market. Today, the best before human date begins to go away after 40 years. Criticism goes pretty deep to the heart of knowing that it’s not about professionalism but aging that affects all people. That’s a tough thing, he opens the Society in an interview.

Rejuvenation surgeries did not only affect women, as male colleagues have also been moved away from television screens as they age.

Now Paajanen has left YLE and is still bright. In his own words, he is tuning into his future working life and its stains.

He also talks warmly about the memorable years on YLE.

– I got to experience really nice and professionally meaningful two decades in my work, but then too many changes started to happen for me. Now is the time to complete the last joint projects in news and current affairs, ie Yle UA, he commented to Iltalehti in January.