Oddly enough, I only saw John Humphrys doing the 'hairdryer' once too (full disclosure: I used to work on the Today programme too, with Rachel, in another epoch). I suppose, given he must have worked with many hundreds of people, if we all saw him lose it once, that adds up to quite an output of heated air.
I can be blasé about him, because I wasn't in the blast zone - and he was far from the worst - but I've been there with other media types. And the only conclusion to be made is that this sort of behaviour belongs back in the misty past when Humphrys et al first tried it on and got away with it. Which sounds like a massive truism, but when you're actually feeling the heat, it can feel very different, like it really IS all your fault, and you somehow deserve what you're getting.
I think there's a status element to this sort of thing. Perhaps part of the reason producer John could shrug it off was that he felt himself to be essentially Humphrys' equal in the palpable internal class system of the BBC. I could never shake the feeling that the production teams, presenters, management were 'officers', and we, the studio technicians, were 'enlisted men', and women. Just like in the Army, we 'messed' separately. Not that there were physical barriers; we just 'knew our place' and seldom tried to socialise with people out of our ken.
When you add that to the mix, it's easier to understand how being in the firing line would have affected us. Oddly, just being aware of one's place in a hierarchy doesn't make any of the effects of the hierarchy go away.
It doesn’t. And the hierarchy exists in most workplaces. Which is why workplaces are not worth making your life, unless you subscribe to the hierarchy. I enjoy working with people with lives outside of work, where the hierarchy is only for the sake of getting the job done, and doesn’t translate to a major status imbalance between themselves and other humans. Although there are plenty of ways that manifests in all walks of life.
'Workplaces are not worth making your life' - oof, that strikes a big, jangly old chord with me because, if I'm honest, I've kinda done that a bit (hedging furiously).
Talking to my kids - now all grown up - about work, I've often said you can basically play it two ways: either get a job doing something you love (advantage: it doesn't feel like work; disadvantage: when you lose that job, or it changes, you feel bereft) or get a job doing something tolerable, that pays you enough to do what you really want outside work, whether that's raise the happiest kids ever/skateboard to an Olympic standard/truly appreciate wine/all of the above/whatever (advantage: you can ride out job loss/change/crappy bosses by simply getting another job; disadvantage: when work makes big demands, you can feel like you're spending your best years and talents in the service of someone or something you don't give a damn about).
Hence the 'unless you subscribe to the hierarchy' clause, right? Did I, committed Northern class warrior and balanced, chip-on-both-shoulders personality, subscribe? Dammit, yes I did - and, for a while, the hierarchy seemed to keep its side of the bargain, giving me a sense of contributing to something worthwhile and meaningful, better than the shipyard or the Army.
Ultimately though, I believe, it's not hairdryering that causes loss of faith in hierarchies, however much it reveals that there IS one; it's indifference. Where once you felt, in some small way, significant, the system, though it may talk incessantly about valuing people, acts otherwise. It has to treat you as a thing rather than a person, because it is crumbling and fearful and therefore we live in an age of repudiation of workers' rights. Capitalism is no longer at ease with itself. So if your boss smiles at you now, it's fake. Time to run, and find some strong stairs to hide under.
And don some bakelite headphones! It's interesting how some companies now make their structure quite flat. I think we are unique in working in some of the most massively hierarchical workplaces in the world. I remember that idea that Mark Thompson came up with a while ago that there would only be 5 layers of management in between the likes of me and the likes of him. How we laughed. How many layers is it now? They've reduced it from 512 to 403! Hurray!
I really loved the John Humphries intro to this piece😃
I was stuck particularly by the thoughts around friends I ve had some friendships in my life that have been difficult for some reason and are ‘hard work’. A friendship should be easy and enable us to pick it back up even years later as if no time has passed.
The best advice I was given was ‘dont stay around people who bring you down’. I have ended one or two of those kinds of ‘friends’ during my life and it’s rarely easy but with hind sight it’s been the right call every time…….
Oddly enough, I only saw John Humphrys doing the 'hairdryer' once too (full disclosure: I used to work on the Today programme too, with Rachel, in another epoch). I suppose, given he must have worked with many hundreds of people, if we all saw him lose it once, that adds up to quite an output of heated air.
I can be blasé about him, because I wasn't in the blast zone - and he was far from the worst - but I've been there with other media types. And the only conclusion to be made is that this sort of behaviour belongs back in the misty past when Humphrys et al first tried it on and got away with it. Which sounds like a massive truism, but when you're actually feeling the heat, it can feel very different, like it really IS all your fault, and you somehow deserve what you're getting.
I think there's a status element to this sort of thing. Perhaps part of the reason producer John could shrug it off was that he felt himself to be essentially Humphrys' equal in the palpable internal class system of the BBC. I could never shake the feeling that the production teams, presenters, management were 'officers', and we, the studio technicians, were 'enlisted men', and women. Just like in the Army, we 'messed' separately. Not that there were physical barriers; we just 'knew our place' and seldom tried to socialise with people out of our ken.
When you add that to the mix, it's easier to understand how being in the firing line would have affected us. Oddly, just being aware of one's place in a hierarchy doesn't make any of the effects of the hierarchy go away.
It doesn’t. And the hierarchy exists in most workplaces. Which is why workplaces are not worth making your life, unless you subscribe to the hierarchy. I enjoy working with people with lives outside of work, where the hierarchy is only for the sake of getting the job done, and doesn’t translate to a major status imbalance between themselves and other humans. Although there are plenty of ways that manifests in all walks of life.
'Workplaces are not worth making your life' - oof, that strikes a big, jangly old chord with me because, if I'm honest, I've kinda done that a bit (hedging furiously).
Talking to my kids - now all grown up - about work, I've often said you can basically play it two ways: either get a job doing something you love (advantage: it doesn't feel like work; disadvantage: when you lose that job, or it changes, you feel bereft) or get a job doing something tolerable, that pays you enough to do what you really want outside work, whether that's raise the happiest kids ever/skateboard to an Olympic standard/truly appreciate wine/all of the above/whatever (advantage: you can ride out job loss/change/crappy bosses by simply getting another job; disadvantage: when work makes big demands, you can feel like you're spending your best years and talents in the service of someone or something you don't give a damn about).
Hence the 'unless you subscribe to the hierarchy' clause, right? Did I, committed Northern class warrior and balanced, chip-on-both-shoulders personality, subscribe? Dammit, yes I did - and, for a while, the hierarchy seemed to keep its side of the bargain, giving me a sense of contributing to something worthwhile and meaningful, better than the shipyard or the Army.
Ultimately though, I believe, it's not hairdryering that causes loss of faith in hierarchies, however much it reveals that there IS one; it's indifference. Where once you felt, in some small way, significant, the system, though it may talk incessantly about valuing people, acts otherwise. It has to treat you as a thing rather than a person, because it is crumbling and fearful and therefore we live in an age of repudiation of workers' rights. Capitalism is no longer at ease with itself. So if your boss smiles at you now, it's fake. Time to run, and find some strong stairs to hide under.
And don some bakelite headphones! It's interesting how some companies now make their structure quite flat. I think we are unique in working in some of the most massively hierarchical workplaces in the world. I remember that idea that Mark Thompson came up with a while ago that there would only be 5 layers of management in between the likes of me and the likes of him. How we laughed. How many layers is it now? They've reduced it from 512 to 403! Hurray!
I really loved the John Humphries intro to this piece😃
I was stuck particularly by the thoughts around friends I ve had some friendships in my life that have been difficult for some reason and are ‘hard work’. A friendship should be easy and enable us to pick it back up even years later as if no time has passed.
The best advice I was given was ‘dont stay around people who bring you down’. I have ended one or two of those kinds of ‘friends’ during my life and it’s rarely easy but with hind sight it’s been the right call every time…….
Completely agree!