almost witty

After doing some work for a programme, I was invited to their end-of-work party. Despite all the offers of free food’n'wine there, I elected not to go essentially because I wouldn’t know a soul there, and everyone else there would be too busy networking or chatting to their friends and work colleagues to talk to me.

So did I make the right choice in not going? After all, my New Year’s resolution was never to turn down a social invite…

It’s Monday. I should be at work - but like a lot of other staff, I’m joining a lot of colleagues and going on strike. For the first time ever. Or as I prefer to term it (since striking invokes rather painful images of the Miners’ Strike), I’m not going to cross a picket line.

I’ve been struggling to articulate just why I’m going on strike - after all, the strikes will not do anything to stop the job cull, and the unions have been a tad overzealous in their demands. The BBC is a tad bloated, and needs trimming back. But I think currybetdotnet and Media Guardian outlined the reasons best as to why I’m not working. Put simply, the cull isn’t organised - it just seems utterly random and designed to make the BBC smaller, not necessarily better. With random culls, people who should be let go in order to advance the BBC probably won’t be. Although this argument does run to ground somewhat when you realise everyone else in every department is probably saying the same thing.

Tensions have been somewhat high in the workplace, even in a relatively easy-going place like BBC Wales. A prank email that ostensibly came from a friendly union organiser mentioning stun grenades did not go down well with some humour-disabled colleagues. Apparently, the unions aren’t even talking to BBC journalists (very mature!) and some union people are “using handheld video cameras to film the trickle of workers who ignored signs urging them not to cross picket lines” - rather Orwellian if you ask me. I just hope it doesn’t descend into some bitter inter-necine civil war a la Revenge of the Sith.

It’ll be interesting to see just how many people do go on strike. There has been a rather ferocious propaganda war alternatively claiming solid support, and then weak support.

It’ll also be black fun watching various live BBC channels struggle to broadcast as normal. At the stroke of midnight, BBC News 24 started playing “Recorded” news bulletins from BBC World, its’ international commercially-funded news channel.

Of course, down here, it only took 5 minutes to make sure that most of the websites I work on wouldn’t be affected by the strike. Indeed, only one will be arduously affected.

The final word goes to the head of BBC Human Resources, Mr. Stephen Dando. Spotted via The CopyDesk, here is one of his lessons:

“When instigating changes, involve everyone in the organisation. The biggest resistance is to missives that are externally driven, or come from the top down.”

Obviously, easier said than done when push comes to shove.

The BBC has opened up some of its rich variety of content feeds via BBC Backstage - as they term it, you can build what you want using BBC content.

I’m nowhere near technical enough to do anything except gasp and marvel at the combining of BBC News + Technorati + Wikipedia, tagging any BBC News page into del.icio.us and other online delights.

There was apparently an opportunity for “an internal BBC-staff-only iteration of backstage.bbc.co.uk for members of the BBC’s new media departments.” - shame. Someone could have told me so I could pitch my idea for a grand mangling of TV schedules with Instant Messaging…

Mind you, I also work for a company where the head of a major department wants to respond to an email from a spammer after some link-swapping - all he was after was a better PageRank from Google by getting a link from the BBC to a San Diego spamming company…

So it has come to pass. BBC staff are to strike over job cuts.

I can’t help but feeling that strike action is a wonderfully antiquated way of making your voice heard, and somehow very apt for the BBC. Some parts of which are screamingly looking forward to a brighter (if less staffed) future - and some parts of which are still firmly rooted in the past, firmly resisting any notions of change with their head stuck in the sand saying “Digital convergance? What digital convergance?”

And of course it won’t have the slightest effect. Screens won’t go blank thanks to automation and privatisation, half the public won’t see anything amiss beyond more Only Fools And Horses repeats, and 25% of BBC staff will still end up on the dole queues. Including me, most likely.

Call me a Thatcherite, but I don’t think the unions have been particularly helpful in demanding as a baseline negotiation that there be no compulsory redundancies. Since the management seemed hell-bent on reducing the size of the BBC. Not much the unions can do about that, is there? No-one is guaranteed a job at the BBC, and there are thousands of youngsters desperate to be where I am. Poor deluded fools. Then again, what else could the unions do but fight battles the old-fashioned way, in the face of a management that is determined to put through these changes?

Mind you, the BBC isn’t helping matters. It hasn’t tried to explain its’ actions, or do any point-scoring with the unions. For instance, the Unions point out that none of the management are going - it’s all production staff. The BBC could point out that some management are going - if any were going, indeed. Also, the BBC hasn’t even bothered trying to persuade staff members not to vote for a strike.

We’re in an interesting situation where both parties feel that they have to take radical steps, the management want to change things (and lose staff at the same time), and the unions don’t seem to want things to change. At least, not to the extent of biting the bullet that some people do just have to go.

For most of my life, I’ve occasionally dreamt of being at a news desk during a major exciting story dealing with adrenaline, demands for instant stories and pictures and real instant deadlines - like a General Election results programme, for instance. And tonight, Matthew, I got my chance.
(continue reading…)