For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By GrahamB
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1802863
JonathanB wrote:I think that all the broadcasters (radio, TV) and streaming services should “go dark” for a period (couple of hours on a Saturday evening, a day, a week) and then people would take notice that the arts do need funding or we’ll all go insane.

That will just make the maternity leave problem even worse.
MikeB liked this
#1802881
The question is not whether they need paying for, it's whether the money should come from particular (e.g. public) funds.

The majority of the various entertainment sources I access through my various devices take little or no public funds day-to-day. Most of the public sector support of movies is essentially in the form of job creation money that rightly hard nosed and cynical government accountants judge they will get back in increased tax revenues. Times, Sky, Reuters, Al Jazeerah etc. provide capable news reporting without public subsidy.

The big question is what should get state assistance, and why? I'm happy to accept that some things should, but simply being a worthy artistic endeavour is surely not a good enough reason.

G
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1802898
It's a fair point @Genghis the Engineer such judgements are tricky but as you rightly point out you can't support everything and in fairness that's true even even in normal times. One way to judge would be to support venues with a history of solid commercial support from punters, the other would be to keep training operations going.
#1802903
I hope I'm not too cynical in wondering whether the 'creatives' at the agency which produced this as would be able to perform at a professional level at either ballet or cyber .. :roll:
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By leiafee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1802980
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:Maternity and Paternity leave are societal choices for which society should have provisions; they should not fall on the shoulders of small business..


It’s this isn’t it. It’s ludicrous in 2020 that so few places offer shared parental leave.

Or flexible working - if we can do it when there’s a pandemic on why can’t we do it the rest of the time? Seems to me increasingly obvious that it was always a case “we don’t want to” rather than “we can’t”.

From my point of view kids are fine when they’re other people’s but I’ve no particular interest in rearranging my life around one - so it makes steam come out of my ears to think that it’s even vaugely accepable that “well she’s statisically probably still capable of reproducing” should form any part of the decision making around my employabilty.
kanga, rogerb liked this
#1803021
Why should pubs and restaurants (as one example) get public money to support their businesses during the pandemic but not (or at least to a much lesser extent) the arts? Surely every industry should be treated relatively equally?
#1803046
Or flexible working - if we can do it when there’s a pandemic on why can’t we do it the rest of the time? Seems to me increasingly obvious that it was always a case “we don’t want to” rather than “we can’t”.

Isn’t it largely the case that during this pandemic, in many industries, there’s simply less ‘work’ to be done. Hence flexible working (ie part time) is to everyone’s benefit, as it allows businesses to reduce their wage bill, and the workforce to retain an income.

I imagine there may be a big push from very many to return to full time the moment economic conditions allow?
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1803058
It is quite complicated I think and varies significantly across industries. My son, who as you may recall is a classical musicians agent, has taken a 25% pay cut and is working from home, but things are changing so rapidly in countries across the globe that he's working his socks off.

I would imagine that freight forwarders might be a bit busy at the moment too trying to redesign systems and get a grip of new paperwork.

It's worth remembering that a lot of work is being generated at the moment but much of it is not revenue earning and that's a serious issue.
#1803072
Your son should be back at work, putting musicians in front of paying customers, earning his keep as usual, having fun, doing what he’s good at, making people happy. So should “Fatima”.

A radical idea right now, but that’s where we are if they want to still have a career in 2021. Otherwise they need make like a Welsh steelworker and retrain, and quick.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1803074
eltonioni wrote:Your son should be back at work, putting musicians in front of paying customers, earning his keep as usual, having fun, doing what he’s good at, making people happy. So should “Fatima”.

A radical idea right now, but that’s where we are if they want to still have a career in 2021. Otherwise they need to retrain, and quick.


He has never been away from work as I thought should have been clear :roll: He's just being paid less as there's less revenue.

He is indeed putting people in front of audiences and has one conductor who will be performing in Poland on Friday and that's option 3 over as many weeks as earlier bookings in France and the Netherlands were cancelled due to changing local restrictions. Famous violinist can't take a booking as she'd have to self isolate for 2 weeks on return and has a recording studio commitment.

He's dealing with scenarios like that all day and everyday.

Most people are trying to hold businesses and industries together and make what progress they can. Halfwits not following precautions don't help either themselves or others and cr@p crisis management doesn't help either.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1803111
eltonioni wrote:You seem to be answering your own questions on what needs to be done, but perhaps without realising it.


I have a fairly clear idea of what is needed and it's not a simpleminded return to normal as that is unmanageable in most places.

We need effective infection control and risk management strategies and people need to follow them, it's the failure of all 3 in various combinations that creates the problem.
JAFO liked this
#1803153
leiafee wrote:From my point of view kids are fine when they’re other people’s but I’ve no particular interest in rearranging my life around one - so it makes steam come out of my ears to think that it’s even vaugely accepable that “well she’s statisically probably still capable of reproducing” should form any part of the decision making around my employabilty.


The things is @leiafee , when people think like that they're not actually thinking about reproduction or you as a female. They're thinking "might this person one day stop coming to work?" and considering that as the business risk it is.

To build on what @Flyingfemme said, it's still not easy when it happens in a big company with lots of resources. In such a company I run a team of four people - very specialised, very hard to recruit for, absolutely critical to the business, but we are non-billable so senior leadership tries to squeeze the cost of us down to a minimum. When I lose one to maternity leave, there's no chance of cover. Firstly I won't be allowed to recruit anyone (because it would cost money) and secondly even if I could, no-one with the skills and experience wants a one-year maternity cover contract. It was incredibly disruptive when it happened once and I hope it doesn't happen again.

It's all very well saying there should be provisions and there should be systems and we should all be able to find a way to make it work in the 21st century. But outside of some unrealistic theoretical examples, how does it actually work in the real world? The ask is a big one - to keep paying someone while they don't do their job for a fairly extended period of time and hold that job open for them. However you look at it that is going to be very expensive and very disruptive. The exact reason why they're away from their job (as well as their gender) is largely irrelevant to the business impact.
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