Harry Gration to leave Look North

Yes, but he'd probably draw more of an audience than any other presenter on their books

There's nothing in law I think, I've known voluntary redundees to leave on a Friday, and be back as contractors on Monday morning

If I recall you cannot come back and perform the same role as a freelance within 6 weeks (or maybe it is 3 months?).
What is allowed is to come back working for a company.
I've seen people leave and come back in the same role but working for someone else the following day.
The employment is totally different, as obviously they are no longer staff, and have a different employer.

The BBC relaxed its rules in this regard a while back (around the time of PQF or DQF) because so many people were being made redundant ISTR.

Of course legally you have to make the role redundant and not the person . If more than one persons holds the same job role, then there has to be a selection process (if no voluntary redundancies are applicable)

An employer could be on dodgy ground if overnight the same role is filled by a freelancer.

It was very carefully considered by all concerned, as you would expect.
There were enough changes to ensure that the role was different enough, although you'd be hard pushed to spot the changes.

Let's face it, it was a drive to reduce staff numbers in certain areas which were no longer considered essential.
The jobs still needed doing though by somebody.

I'm reminded of standing at the back of Pebble Mill years ago, and one of the remaining riggers telling me that when the building opened, there were 1,500 staff working there. He then listed all the departments that had closed, ones with names that you could easily understand what there roles in programme making were - such as scenic services.
"Do you know after that how many people work here today?" he asked.
1,500. What do they all do?

Sorry for going off thread.

While there is no doubt about the career Harry has had on the BBC, I'm not surprised that he is the one making way on Look North considering the changes from two to one presenters. Without looking through rose tinted glasses, he hasn't been at the top of his game for a few years, so for me it's the right decision for him to step away.
I wish him all the best for the future.

I remember back in the early 2000s a colleague of mine took voluntary redundancy and had to wait 6 months before he could take another job back in the beeb

A sign of the shifting nature of the industry I suppose - fewer people needed to make content, but more content being made an din different ways (plus Pebble Mill, like The Mailbox had some centralised departments for the rest of the country)

Was reading an interesting blog post by the late Mike Smith about how Radio 1 worked in the 1980s in particular how many secretaries there were and how much work they did, because there was so much more admin in those days - listener correspondence, record logs, scripts, manual PasBs etc.

None of that is needed any more, but in the 1980s there was no-one making content for the web, no visualisation, no 1Xtra or 1Dance, no social media team etc

I took a friend of mine round a former workplace and she commented that we didn't actually seem to be making any TV. We were of course, lots of hours a week... but it's all people sitting at computers in an office as that's how TV is made now. Things are different again now, don't even need the office

Given the court case with Christa, I think Look North in particular might be a little nervous before employing another presenter on a freelance basis

When I started work in 1984, we used to communicate with overseas branch offices and the HQ by Telex. I'd have to hand write the message, and take it round to the Telex Room, where someone would (within a working day) type it in and send it. This was used in preference to faxing, which was seen as being too expensive and extravagant (either for within the UK, and certainly abroad)

I think for my generation, and with retirement now visible on the horizon the workplace has changed more than for any other generation before ? Or does every generation think that !?

The pace of change is getting quicker - although if you had been bought up just before electricity then you would certainly have seen great changes during your working life.

By the way the BBC's Telex number was 265781 - should you need it.
I'm sure that machine is kept so clean as it types to the waiting world.