After allegations of harassment, SBT calls on Eliana’s director to save Chega Mais

Chega Mais will undergo changes for the third time in less than 45 days of airing: this time, under pressure due to low audience ratings and allegations of moral harassment against one of the attraction’s directors, the SBT leadership decided to remove the two responsible for lead the program so far. From Monday (29), the morning broadcast will be signed by Ariel Jacobowitz, until then responsible for the general direction of Eliana Michaelichen’s Sunday broadcast, who will leave the station at the end of June. Carlos Aleixo and Marcelo Kestenbaum, in turn, go to the refrigerator.

Kestenbaum, summoned by the executives of Silvio Santos’ broadcaster, didn’t even complete a month as general director of the electronic magazine. It debuted in the morning on April 4th due to a request made by Carlos Aleixo, first responsible for the attraction. Carlinhos, as his colleagues call him, had no experience in daily formats and had to ask the channel’s management to select someone with more experience to share the project. Aleixo preferred Letícia Flores, from Tá na Hora, but had to settle for Kestenbaum, who was in charge of Vem Pra Cá.

The arrival of Marcelo Kestenbaum, however, made Chega Mais’ internal problems even worse. Professionals, who previously complained about disorganization and the accumulation of duties without any additional remuneration, began to deal with excessive demands. In recent weeks, at least seven program employees went on medical leave — all were diagnosed with mental exhaustion, with reports ranging from burnout syndrome to excessive stress. The new management was the target of several complaints to the Human Resources department.

In its official statement, reproduced at the end of this report, SBT chose not to explain the reasons for Carlos Aleixo and Kestenbaum’s departure. Silvio Santos’ broadcaster only said that the two remain hired by the company, even without new projects at the moment, and that the new change of command of the morning show is so that the program can reach its “potential for growth and development”, with the changing directors would only be part of a “natural restructuring”.

The new director of Chega Mais has already been the target of harassment allegations

Chosen to try to overcome the crisis and the dissatisfaction of Chega Mais employees, Ariel Jacobowitz is not a name seen with much sympathy by his co-workers. Two years ago, he was responsible for causing a kind of strike among employees of the Eliana program, who decided to rebel in the face of recurring cases of moral harassment committed by the director. The case ended up with the Radio Broadcasters Union, which denounced the situation in a bulletin published at the beginning of 2022.

“On November 24, the Eliana program team was morally harassed by the program director, forcing workers to react. The switcher’s desk was closed and was only reopened after supervision went to the location at the request of the workers”, explained the collective, which states that situations of moral harassment are recurrent behind the scenes. “This has been happening for some time, without changing the attitude of HR and management, such as supervisors and managers who, as a result, we reached management, which has done nothing until now”, lamented the organization.

At the time, Eliana’s history of behind-the-scenes problems is not recent. The situation had worsened due to increasingly atypical working hours: professionals who worked on Sundays worked for up to 14 consecutive hours, and often had to stay at the station until the middle of the night. SBT, in turn, was not paying overtime for employees, having adopted the time bank system — in theory, the person would have time off proportional to the extra time worked.

Below, check out the full SBT statement about the new changes to Chega Mais:

The Communications Office informs that, from Monday the 29th, the “Chega Mais” program will be led by experienced director Ariel Jacobowitz. Until the month of June, Ariel will also continue to be the general director of the Eliana Program and from then on will dedicate herself fully to the “Chega Mais” project. We also inform you that Marcelo Kestenbaum and Carlos Aleixo will be available for other projects.

It is worth mentioning that for SBT, the attraction has enormous potential for growth and development and that to achieve this objective, it undergoes a natural restructuring for a project of this size, live and lasting four hours. “Chega Mais” continues with its objective of being a relevant, popular program, with information and entertainment in the mornings on SBT, and is already fulfilling its commercial mission of bringing in new advertisers.