Hello!
This week, a contributor who took voluntary redundancy from the BBC and is now a freelance audio producer.
Redundancy rounds are a pretty common thing at the BBC. They happen every few years when management decides that there are too many people working at the beeb and some have got to go. It’s always a cost-saving measure: hiring staff is usually the most expensive part of a business (just ask Barca), and with ever-growing demands from government for the BBC to spend less, redundancies are always happening at the organisation.
The BBC generally has pretty okay redundancy terms. They’ve become worse over time but if you were in the right place at the right time, your BBC redundancy terms were – and excuse my language – pretty fucking phenomenal.
Say you’re 63, you’ve worked at the BBC for 30 years and you’re two long years away from being able to access your pension. What’s this you hear? The redundancy rounds are coming? God has really and truly answered your prayers. You take a payout of £65k for example, with a mortgage already paid off and kids who have already flown the nest – you're basically able to retire early – it’s a pretty jammy situation to be in.
That’s not quite the situation for our contributor (she’s still working), but she did get a payout of £50k for 20 years’ service at the BBC, which she was pretty happy with. That said, she did leave the BBC feeling quite frustrated with the organisation for another reason: manager’s salaries.
As someone who was pretty senior in her former department, she felt the margin in pay between senior journalists/producers and departmental heads was far far too high, given the work they actually did, and needed to be brought back down to earth. I’m sure some people will disagree, saying that the level of responsibility management have, the experience they bring, the going market rate etc justifies their salaries. There is certainly a lively debate to be had around the topic. I’ll leave you to muse over it.
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What do you do?
I’m a freelance audio producer and journalist.
What’s been your audio journey so far?
I started working in the industry in my early 20s. I did a radio production course, which cost about a tenner, and was given a free travel card to get to and from my home to college. It’s unimaginable now to think of how little I needed financially to get into the industry. Nowadays people need to spend a minimum of £10k on a journalism or radio masters just to be considered for a freelancer audio role. It’s no coincidence that the majority of the modern day audio industry is made up of people from wealthy backgrounds.
How much do you earn?
Currently I charge about £350.00 a day. I also do charge projects fees but depending on the project, I’ll charge a different rate: I’ve just completed two projects, one of which I charged £6k and the other £2k.
When I started at the BBC, in the 2000s I earned £24k a year - that’s worth around £36k in today’s money. I couldn’t believe I was paid so much, and on a permanent staff contract too! When I left the BBC not too long ago, I was on around £50k a year.
How did you feel leaving the BBC?
To be honest, quite relieved. I’ve never met a person who says they regret leaving the BBC.
The first 10 years were fantastic - I learnt tonnes, picked up awards and met really great people. When I tried to move up the ranks, I felt that I hit the glass and class ceilings. I would apply for editor jobs and I would always get ‘almost suitable’ and the feedback was either non-existent/vague or that they already had someone in mind for the job. It often felt that I was not the correct fit for senior management which would favour middle-class London and South East voices. It wasn’t about money but the fact I had a lot of experience and knowledge to feedback and mentor others – as well as a cultural competence that was seriously lacking in the people who were being promoted around me.
There was a big gap between all the talk of diversity from the top and what I was seeing in our department. I knew I had valuable skills they needed but you need to be able to ‘talk the talk’ and I was more of a ‘results by doing’ person. I know there were some editors who did not have the experience that I did who might have felt threatened by me because of a perception that perhaps I might be ‘difficult’. It was the classic situation of being misunderstood by a senior management layer who were continually sponsoring, promoting and hiring in their own image, unless they had a box they needed to tick.
So when the chance came to take voluntary redundancy, I decided to go for it. I got around £50k which I was grateful for. They used to have a cap of about £100k on the amount of voluntary redundancy they gave out (which wouldn’t have affected me) but they got rid of that and I think that has allowed big payouts for people who are near to leaving on a full pension anyway. There is a big discrepancy between those who have been in the organisation a long time and the level of protection and renumeration they get vs the next generation of journalists coming through.
Now that I’ve left, I feel much more energised by the audio industry. It’s exciting at the moment, and there are lots of great opportunities out there. Lots of programmes are being made, some for the BBC, but also many for charities, private brands, big organisations like Audible. There’s definitely work out there and it’s liberating to be making programmes I want to make, and not dealing with the stress that comes with cow-towing to the whims of editors who are less than competent.
How do you feel about the money you earn now?
I always felt I was happy and grateful for the money I earned, coming as I do from a working-class background. But what makes me upset is how wide the gap is between producer pay and management. Editors and senior managers earn unjustifiably high salaries which I think is damaging on many levels – not least because this is taxpayer money. The head of my department was on around £120k a year at least, and when you realise what they actually do and don’t do - then it becomes difficult to work with that. Also that’s money that could be shared around much more to level the playing field and reduce income pay gaps.
There is a lot of justifiable frustration with the promotion and hiring practises at the BBC and having been on both sides of the table, I got to experience how easily the process is impacted by the unconscious (and also conscious!) bias of hiring managers.
Compared to friends in other industries do you feel like you make a good income?
I have friends who are barristers, accountants, working in the private sector - they all earn considerably more than me, but it has not been a big issue that has affected me or how I value my worth as I think my salary has been very good. Although trying to buy a flat in London was like a distant dream of course – the only way I saw my work peers able to do that was with the Bank of Mum and Dad.
I did manage to secure a few pay rises at the BBC by moving departments and negotiating new contracts when moving out or moving in, and I’m proud to say I helped quite a few people earn more by negotiating on their behalf too.
What do you think about the future of the audio industry?
I think we’ll see a real proliferation of people setting up indies in the coming months and years which is a good thing, though I do worry about the consolidation of the market. There are a few big indies floating around, and I don’t want the industry to end up being monopolised by them. We want to make sure production companies with two or three staff are able to get a piece of the pie too.
And whilst it’s great that more indie companies popping up, not all companies make good content. I know some BBC audio programmes are now made by indies and the quality and oversight is clearly lower than in-house. That said, I think though there are also companies making amazing creative stuff which is much better than in-house.
Any other comments you’d like to make?
I think the BBC can be a fantastic organisation to work and great for training journalists and for developing craft and storytelling skills, there are some brilliant opportunities for mid-career journalists too including fellowships and being able to take on interesting projects. Where there is a big issue is in the pipeline of a diverse mid-manager layer which is just holding the organisation back – they end up making the same mistakes in who they choose to promote.
I think that the organisation changes with the colour of the government and I believe the BBC is under attack and in a serious culture war. The lack of diversity now (in all its guises, class, race, gender) is worse now than it was 5, 10 years ago and certainly worse than when I joined. I’m now trying to change the BBC from the outside.
People trying to do diversity work on the inside need to make sure they practise self-care and try and maintain their personal integrity because there is a danger that the work might cause them to do things or behave in ways which are contrary to what they feel is right. While I wish them the best and every success, I’m going to try and do what I can from the outside now as I tried and failed while I was on the inside. I love seeing the success of companies like Broccoli Content and listening to podcasts like The Receipts, Layla Saad’s Good Ancestor and Hip Hop Saved my Life – listening to stuff like that, gives me laughs and makes me hopeful.
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With many thanks to our contributor this week for their time.