From a National Theatre staff member
"I was interested to see the NT brought up in your post from an anon contributor here: http://youngvicushersunite.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/an-email-we-received-in-response-to.html
As someone who works FOH at the NT, I have to say that their treatment of us is really exemplary. We have extensive training and are made to feel like we are ambassadors for the theatre, and that our contribution to the organisation is just as important compared to staff in other areas.
Management are very accessible and weekly meetings about what's going on in the organisation as a whole, as well as just FOH concerns, are open to everyone. While things are by no means perfect (http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2013/05/bectu-threatens-action-over-nt-plans-to-dilute-union-input/), I think it's good to highlight that if a huge theatre like the NT can manage it, there's no reason why smaller places like the YV can't do it too."
I would like to clarify what I think was meant in the contribution talking about the NT.
ReplyDeleteThe YV has always- I believe- until of late, had an ethos that is largely collaborative, its offices are open plan, its different departments were (even are) aware of what the others are doing and were and are encouraged to work very closely together and it also extended a hand to the FOH team so that, although not now probably, FOH members could readily enter discussions about the theatre, problems, ethos and the direction the theatre was going in with more senior staff. Until of late there was never a culture really of line managers and supervisors etc, it simply was not how the YV appeared to work. Because of its physical smallness as well, this meant that everyone was very much in each others pockets, including FOH. This makes/ made for great informal-ness at the theatre and there were times when ushers could have meetings with the artistic director or the executive director to offer their contributions or insights into the theatre- FOH was very much involved, an ideology which I think is/ was very brave and egalitarian. Perhaps it is the same at the NT I don't know. At the YV now though, people at the top have become ring fenced and unaccessible and I do believe this has become a deliberate move.
A few years ago I met someone very involved at the NT, a senior member of staff friends with a senior team member at the YV. They distinctly said to me that one of the problems at the YV was that it was not departmentalised enough, all its departments were too informal and everyone, especially ushers, were too able to interact with others- i.e creatives, actors, attend all the parties etc. Then she cited the NT and said the YV should have a similar structure (which I think is more formal)- i.e that departments do not mingle with each other quite so much or interact socially as much. Of course I do not know if her opinions about the NT were valid (but after all she was quite high up there) and whether they still apply (but you also have to take into account the NT is a huge organisation so it naturally dictates more distance between departments and people)- her point was the NT's way of working more formally (so it seemed to her) worked better. However I disagreed with her because the YV is run or was on a particular philosophy that suited it as a small organisation. What some of the blogs are bemoaning is a loss of this welcoming engaging and open ethos and obviously, through the loss of it, the theatre is undergoing a huge HR and organisational crisis, it is losing one ideology but appears to have nothing else in place. In no way was any comparison with the NT meant to be derogatory if it seemed like this, only that in so much how things are done there would not suit the YV ( as some people I believe would like it to be) as - I arrogantly believe- every building, which is the physical face of any corporation, should provide its own culture, which should come from the very foundations of the building itself, and not something that should be imposed from elsewhere.
I am glad that FOH staff at the NT are treated well and it seems to me that the NT have taken on some of the old YV's methodology whereas the YV has gone the other way and would rather be, as another blogger wrote, a faceless corporation.