Back to the Future

[Hornspieler]

In the years freelancing, from 1970-72 my yearly car mileage averaged 40,000. I was spending more time looking through a car windscreen than watching a man waving a stick. It was time to consider my options.

I think it was George Hurst who told me that BBC Bristol were looking for a new manager for the Training Orchestra. He must have mentioned my name to them, because I received a letter inviting me to discuss an appointment.
I was 40 years old and had been a professional horn player for twenty two of those years***. There were many bright young players, inspired by the achievements of Dennis Brain, Ifor James, Barry Tuckwell and the like, who would be aiming for my chair.
So I decided to take the Bristol Job and give up playing except for my own amusement.
Who wants to be fighting to keep his chair against all "young pretenders" until the age of 60; just to reach his pensionable age? I adopted the attitude that, if anyone could say that they had heard me play badly, they would need to have a long memory - not a short one.
So I would give up playing for money in spite of many attempts by friends "not to be so stupid" (or obstinate, or selfish).
The vacancy in Bristol was due to the early retirement on health grounds of the present incumbant. (Heart attack - not a good omen)
The post was listed as "Assistant-in-charge" and the salary scale was AS4 (Administrative Services Grade IV) but I pointed out in interview that the requirements were those of a Manager, rated MP2 (Management and Production, more than twice the money)
I had stumbled on a winner. The poor chap I would be replacing had, in fact, been doing a certain amount of production for the orchestra's studio broadcasts.
Later, when I found out what I had taken on, I was inclined to wonder whether that was the reason for those heart attacks.

Anyway, I even managed to add a subsistence allowance for overnight hotel accomodation and felt quite pleased with myself, but when I discovered what I had taken on, I wasn't so sure.
However I will leave that for my next installment of that Fairy Tale for Grownups "Hornspieler and the 3 B's"
HS.

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So. "Back to the Future. Please wait until my next post which concerns the happenings of a once professional musician who found another way of life.

I promise that I won't keep you waiting too long.

When I started this thread, I was quite unaware of the existence of a motion picture film of that name.

So my apologies to the owners of that copyright for choosing that particularly intreguing title.?
(Perhaps one of our genial hosts will change the Title of this thread? I would suggest "A Change of Direction" might be appropriate?

So, like some other contributors to this forum, I can only admit to being a former professional musician who is out of touch with the existing situation.

I hope that there may be some contribution from others of the problems arising for many of those struggling to maintain their positions until pensionable age in the knowledge that there is a host of young musicians looking to take over - back a desk, back a desk, back a desk ---out of the door!

We've all seen it happen to our former coleagues.

I have been lucky to have been able to find a new way of life and retain fond memories of the "old times"

How about your thoughts, regarding a problem which affects many a professional performing entertainer (not only musicians)

HS

[Hornspieler]

Back to the future.:

Apart from a certain amount of teaching the aspiring young horn players at Clifton College, my evenings were free – but not free enough to travel back home to Bournemouth, except at weekends so I occupied my leisure time painting(I’ve posted some of my efforts on the message boards over the past few years.)I had an office available to me for when the Orchestra was able to use the facilities of Christchurch Studio (in Clifton – not Dorset) when the BBC Drama Department were not using it for rehearsal.

So that is how I came to meet the Corporation’s local drama producer – Brian Miller.

He approached one day with a suggestion that I might be interested in writing.

“The producers of “The Morning Story” on BBC Home Service (or was it BBC2 by then?) were always interested in stories lasting a maximum of 14 minutes; to allow for head and tail announcements and he urged that I should write something for him to submit.

So I wrote three – under the heading of “Flight of Three” which I had based on the knowledge and expertise of my brother in law, whose wartime activities had him working in the design team at RAF Boscombe Down which was the Air Ministry’s research station. So he got to know all of the top aviators, their tales, their theories
and their near-miss experiences.

The titles that I gave these three stories were:

“A Piece of Cake” based on a bomber raid over enemy territory

“The Man who could fly backwards” a true story about the famous Polish Air Ace Zurakowsky

“The Airman who loved the sea” guaranteed to bring a lump to the throat

Brian was delighted and submitted them to the BBCs Yalding House in London

Yalding House were pleased to put them into the queue, awaiting their turn.
but then
BBC2 dropped “The Morning Story” from their schedules!

So I still have them.

If you are interested in reading them, PM me with your email address.

(Read them out loud and see if each one lasts for 14 minutes).

NB "Bravo Maestro" was not written at this time. I wrote it in the sunshine of the Algarve in the golfing resort of Vale do Lobo when I was spending more hours on the golf course than in an office

[Hornspieler]

As I was an established member of the BBCs Pension Scheme, the BBC were required to find me another post within the corporation. They convened a commitee of four to interview me and then find me another position.

After three months, they came up with an offer of Assistant Finance Officer in BBC Cardiff - at a lower rate of Grade(and salary) than I was currently receiving.

During my four years working for the BBC in Bristol, I had frequent visits to my office from members of other sections and functions, all with the same purpose:

"XXX is leaving us and would you like to sign his/her "good wishes for the future" card - oh, and we're giving her(it was usually a "her") a leaving present. Would you like to contribute?"

Yes, I dutifully scribbled my name on the card and put my hand in my pocket.

No such treatment for me!
Nobody, even from my own department bothered to say "Goodbye"
So I took voluntary redundancy, cashed in my pension contributions and, since nobody had asked me for its return, I kept my BBC Stopwatch. It is hanging on the wall in front of me as I type this.

For the last few weeks in Bristol, I was busy talking to some of the unfortunate members of the orchestra who had expected to be there until the age of 25 and, in some cases, had been members for less than a year.
I was too busy sorting things out for those young people to think about what I was going to do with my career.

So my next post will be a summary of how I coped with my own position

It was time to look into my other qualifications for employment.

HS

BTW Is anyone reading this? Please feel free to comment.

[Tony Halstead]

I'm reading it, and finding it quite fascinating!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm reading it, and finding it quite fascinating!

Me, too.

[Pianorak]

Indeed, quite a riveting read.

[pastoralguy]

Absolutely, HS.

Please continue.

[Once Was 4]

Absolutely, HS.

Please continue.

Seconded! Tell it as it is/was.

[Hornspieler]

Seconded! Tell it as it is/was.

So back in Bournemouth.

Go back to horn playing? No. Too much young competition so what could I consider?

Well, I had acquired a lot of useful experience over the period of my 3(4) Bs:

Forward Planning
Budget Control
Job Evaluation
Man-management
Material Handling
Negotiating with Agencies and Trade Unions
Office Planning
Publicity
Recruitment Counselling
Report Writing


Hang On! I've just listed the duties and abilities of a Management Services Consultant.

So, a letter from the employment exchange to Croydon College and I undertook a course to become a member of "The Institute of Management Services (AIMS}

Working initally with an agency, my first contracts were involved in setting what is correctly known as Time Study; that is measuring the amount of time that a properly conducted operation should take to complete.

It has to be right -in order to satisfy both Management and the appropriate trade unions and to use as a means of introducing an Incentive Bonus Scheme to a firm's employees.

That's enough explanation for the time being.

In my next post, I will explain what these activities entailed for me and for the effect upon my home life.

As you can see, I am still writing - Some factual, some fictional and also, some poetry.

Watch this space. But do feel free to offer your comments whether supportive or negative.

HS

[vinteuil]

BTW Is anyone reading this? Please feel free to comment.

... aren't you covering the same ground that you wrote about in June 2015 in your H'spieler & the three Bs thread?

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Hornspieler and the Threebees

1978 The Academy of the BBC was no more, but the organisation was still in place to run it.
For myself, I was an established employee of the BBC, entitled to retire on pension in twelve years time, so somebody had to find me a job.
A committee was formed for that purpose. It consisted of five persons, all unknown to me, who interviewed me for about an hour (it was patently obvious that they knew nothing of my qualifications or anything about music) and they then departed to seek for a suitable job within the Corporation. A month later they sent a suggestion of a post as a music assistant in Cardiff (Grade MP1, less than my current grade and salary) or a job in Contracts and Finance in Bristol as Assistant to the Assistant Head of Contracts (and Finance)
It was a disgraceful example of total lack of interest or commitment to find continued employment within the many aspects of live radio broadcasting.
I opted for early retirement, collected my statutory redundancy pay, cashed in my pension contributions and returned to Bournemouth.
Far from being given the usual farewell sendoff (I had contributed to many in the past - for expectant Secretaries, retiring Studio Attendants et al most of whom I had never met - a collecting box for somebody used to come round almost every week) nobody even bothered to say Goodbye!.
So much for Hornspieler and the last of those 3 B's

HS

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[Pianorak]

Working initally with an agency, my first contracts were involved in setting what is correctly known as Time Study; that is measuring the amount of time that a properly conducted operation should take to complete.

That BBC stopwatch will have come in handy.

[Hornspieler]

That BBC stopwatch will have come in handy.

Actually, NO.

A time study stop watch is graduated in 100ths of a minute instead of 60ths in order to facilitate multiplication.

eg.an operation which is timed at 0.75 on the watch face if repeated 10 times would take 7½ minutes to complete.

Thank you to those who have replied to this post. In my next post I will be discussing a matter closer to home.


Come and join us.

HS

[Hornspieler]

... an average bloke brought in from outside

Well, that's what most employees say - and in fact, they are quite right

But .. Picture a scene where a man walks into a room where two men are playing chess and there has been no move for ages:

He can take one look at the board and say to them "That's your best move" - and he might well be right, because, unlike the two contestants he has absolutely no knowledge of what has gone before. He sees only what is there!
During those years following Bristol, I undertook work, conducted surveys and submitted a report with recommendations for improvements to the following:

Rank Xerox International, (Uxbridge) Oxford University Press, (North London)
White Knight Laundry Group, (Woking and Reading) North Thames Gas Board (Kentish Town, Maidenhead)
Export Packing Services (Sittingbourne) Nelco Engineering (Farnham)
North London Area Health Authority (Paddington) South West Thames AHA (Carshalton)
London Ambulance Service (New Malden) National Health Service in Southampton and Poole

...and for the Government's Manpower Services Division,
**Enham Industries (Near Andover)

** A Government Sheltered Workshop for the disabled. There, I re-designed their main assembly area to give better working access, checked their parts ordering and delivery schedules and, at the behest of one of the secretaries who had received aletter in poetifc form complaining about a late delivery said "Somebody told me that you write a bit of poetry. Could you do a reply for me? So I wrote a Shakespearean Sonnet and here it is:

ENHAM INDUSTRY'S RESPONSE TO A SATIRICAL POEM COMPLAINING OF INEFFICIENCY

Snipe not at us because your goods are late,
Sending us odes which waste our time to read.
We are not seeking to prevaricate,
We know we have not met the date agreed.

The blame is fairly laid in many quarters:
Supplier's quotes which are pure speculation
And little things which always seem to thwart us;
Like goods sent to the wrong railway station.

We're sorry if we were too optimistic,
Causing you to send complaints in rhyme.
You may think that our answer's too simplistic
It's "Murphy's Law" that foils us every time.

The goods we manufacture are the best.
Herewith, a sample. Shall we start the rest?

Watch this space. I have more to say regarding Enham Industries.

[vinteuil]

.... Hornspieler - we've had this (or a variant thereof) before [June 2015] -

EPILOGUE

On my return to Bournemouth, I checked in at the Employment Exchange and, after interviewing me, they suggested that my experience in both Management and Budget Control indicated that I should try my hand as a Management Services Consultant.
They sent me off to Croydon Technical College for a ten week course, followed by an examination which on passing gave me the right to put A.M.I.S after my name (Associate of the Institute of Management Services) and I was able to start work, through an agency initially.

"Management Consultant?" I hear you say. "He's just an average guy brought in from outside."

Actually, you are probably right in many cases. But that average guy, when he starts work, knows nothing of what has been done in the past - he sees only what is there

No preconceived notions. I always quote as an example a chess match between two top rated contestants. They have been seated staring at each other without a move being made for more than twenty minutes.
A colleague who is by no means such a good player walks into the room and looks at the board. "That's the move, he tells them. Checkmate in three". He has no knowledge of what moves the two opponents have made over the last 2 hours, he sees only what is there at the point when he enters the room.

It is the same with consultancy. "Custom and Practise" has no place in the conducting of a survey, writing a report and making recommendations for improvement, sometimes even rescuing a company from disaster and saving the workers' jobs.

Fascinating stuff because every job is a different sort of challenge. I conducted surveys and wrote reports with recommendations for Rank Xerox International, White Knight Laundry Group, Oxford University Press, Export Packing Services, North Thames Gas Board, Nelco Electrical Engineering, South West Thames NHS (Supplies) Poole Hospital (Portering Bonus Scheme) and The Government's Manpower Services Commision.

The problem was that I was back to all that travelling away from Bournemouth again.
Neasden,Reading, Sittingbourne, Farnham, Kentish Town, Romford, Andover, Maidenhead. Woking, Carshalton.

It was while I was working on a contract with Rank Xerox International in Uxbridge that I received an urgent call from the Manpower Services Commision to go down to Enham Industries, a Government Sponsored Sheltered Workshop for the Disabled in Andover to sort out a materials flow problem. So my free weekend was abandoned to go to Andover and give them some help.


Hornspieler

[Hornspieler]

.... Hornspieler - we've had this (or a variant thereof) before [June 2015] -

Well thank you very much for that.

I am having quite a few problems with my computer at the moment and I am finding it difficult to access many documents from past years.
No harm if we leave both posts on this thread - the one confirms the other, but I will be back at Enham in my next post reporting on a life-changing incident.

Thanks again for setting the record straight.

HS