Displacement activity

For BBC staff during the pandemic, Managing Director Bob Shennan has become a modern version of Cliff Michelmore - relaxed, avuncular, concerned yet good-humoured, pluckily present in Broadcasting House to host weekly Zoom events for all staff to vent their anxieties to various other Directors.  

At bit like Rishi, 'Covid' Bob has presided over generous solutions. Taxi to work ? No problem. Better laptop ?  Certainly.  Counselling on hydration ?  We'll sort it. 

But now there are senior managers less keen on looking Bob in the eye, virtually or face to face. He's also been put in charge of sending more departments out of London, to meet Tim Davie's pledge to move from 50% to 66.6666% working outside the M25.  

When Greg Dyke forced the BBC Barons to fill up Salford, they offered up their least totemic departments. Radio sent 5Live, TV sent Children's and Religion, Engineering sent R&D, Sport didn't duck fast enough, and everyone pretended the combination made perfect sense - what enormous synergies there would be !

Now the game is more dangerous. Everyone would be surprised if existing buildings fill up to more than two-thirds of their pre-Covid occupancy in the years ahead - so there's space everywhere. Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Birmingham and Salford have room.  The easy move is to look at departments still working at White City and Television Centre and SEND THEM NORTH, thus shortening leases.  But everyone knows there's space at Broadcasting House, so management teams will be throwing ropes in that direction. 

And there probably has to be a better 'story' than just moving out of White City. It can't just be BBC3 in the removal van. I'm hearing that bits of News will be packing as well, with "story hubs" among those threatened with a period in bubble wrap. 

There is one unresolved conundrum in all these - how many people will take themselves (and their families) to these new addresses ?  If you only have to be present a couple of times a week, why shift your personal operations centre from Bromley to Bearsden, or Shoreditch to Swinton ?