I was disappointed with the tone of your article (Senior TV producers take shelf-stacking jobs as UK industry remains in crisis, 7 March). In what is a legitimate story on a crisis in the TV industry, the opening sentence of the article points out that senior TV executives are working as high street shelf‑stackers, car park attendants and in pubs. The clear implication, regardless of intention, is that the jobs taken are somehow “lesser”.
Undoubtedly, the drop in wages for executives working in the creative industries is real and keenly felt, but the comparison drawn between the roles they previously held and the less‑well‑paid jobs they currently hold is a gross act of pretension.
People including my own mother have made careers working in high street shops to feed their families. It is dignified and important work, and not long ago was considered a key worker job. Many of your readers also do similar work and don’t need to be made to feel inferior for the jobs they do compared with those who earned a lot more doing arguably less important work.
Dr Richard Lewis
Chief constable, Dyfed-Powys police
• Senior TV producers are taking shelf-stacking jobs? Oh, the poor dears. I’m an engineering graduate with years of experience in research, and I’m working in retail and not whining about it. I recognise the frustration of not being able to get the job you would like, but when that job isn’t there, you do the jobs you can get. It’s not a scandal that people should have to do that. I’m disappointed to see the Guardian of all papers dismiss shelf-stacking as some sort of humiliation. Retail is honest, hard work. I find myself for once resentful of a metropolitan elite, and I blame you for making me feel like that.
Pete Hobbis
Leeds
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