Having listened to some of the report and various views today, although I don't agree with violence, I do agree that the situation has been handled very poorly. I find all this talk of work placed bullying to be a huge exaggeration of what actually happened, to put this into context a bit lets look at it simple terms.
- A group of blokes have had a long day at work with maybe very little rest or refreshment,
- after work they have gone for a quick drink, which has lead to a couple more (alcohol having a known effect on decision making).
- They have gone to get something to eat and found the kitchen is shut so only a cold option available.
- 1 of the group gets a bit agitated with the person responsible for organising food and things escalate from there.
The report doesn't even state what the argument as about.
Ok so put simply as I understand it this is whats happened.
- An isolated incident where somebody (potentially under the influence) has had a go at somebody for not doing there job.
- Expletives were used (pretty common place these day). To me this is not work placed bullying, this is somebody directing frustration and should not be judged as such.
Now lets take this further.
- Said aggressor wakes up having realised he's been a complete cock and tries on numerous occasions to apologise, he also blows the whistle on himself to his employer (even though this happened outside of work), to me this clearly shows remorse.
Now is where it gets silly,
- the BBC remove the show from air immediately putting it into the public eye and scrutiny,
- the media frenzy blows things way out of proportion leaving the BBC feeling as though it has only one decision.
What should have happened is this should have been investigated internally and the show remained on TV until a decision had been reached. Allowed an unbiased decision to be formed once everything had been put in context. Should he have been reprimanded, of course (even though this was outside work hours). Should he have been removed from the show, no. Regardless of what people may think of him or the show, it is a large revenue stream for the BBC, not to mention the potential costs that may be incurred by not fulfilling agreements. All at the cost of the license fee payer.
The question as to whether TG can continue, of course it can, however given that the show was in the main about the chemistry between 3 mates p£$%ing about with cars and having a laugh, I doubt if it can continue in the same format, which is part of what has made it so popular around the globe. Their only option is to make it a more serious car show, which is what it was originally, but then it was axed due to nobody watching it.
Hopefully in the meantime Sky will commission a the old format with the 3 mates but under a different name. Can this happen? More than likely, I heard an interview today with somebody from the BBC's media dept, and when he was asked could JC take the show to another channel, he responded clearly, that the
NAME could not be used elsewhere, no mention was made to the format.
damn you auto correct. Mine does that lots. One day I'll read stuff back before I post
