Away from base

You do wonder about BBC job interviews for Salford. Do they ask applicants to commit to living within, say, 40 miles of their new base - or not ?

Paul Gaskin is the latest to apparently change his mind about moving. One presumes he was interviewed for the role of HR Director for the North around May this year -at time when "moving or not" was a big issue for all Salford-bound posts.

Paul came from Serco (he still hasn't changed his Linkedin profile), but had different views about job obligations and mobility when he first joined that organisation. He came to run HR for the Transport and Dubai division, when the company had won the contract to build the Dubai Metro. This from Serco Pulse, an internal website about inspirational leaders.

In addition to his UK duties, Paul was charged with strengthening the executive team in Dubai so it could manage this massive workload, and with forming new teams responsible for delivery. Within days of joining the division, he was on a plane to Dubai to see the challenges ahead of him. He concluded that the only way to succeed was to base himself there and manage his UK responsibilities remotely – effectively doing two jobs at once.