Dismay and disappointment
Shetland Arts would like to express its displeasure and distress at the manner in which recent redundancies have been reported within The Shetland Times.
As a publicly-funded body, Shetland Arts expects to come under scrutiny by the press and to this end the board have been open and honest in discussing the ongoing process of change currently being undertaken. However, the organisation is not at liberty to comment on the personal concerns of individual staff members.
It was therefore to our dismay and disappointment that you felt it was appropriate to not only publish the names of individuals currently facing redundancy (The Shetland Times, 31st July), but to follow this up with photographs of these persons, accompanied by insensitive “comedy” captions.
The inappropriateness of this action was heightened by the fact that, at the time of publication of the original article online, one of the individuals named had yet to enter into discussions about the status of their employment, and none of the individuals named had been given sufficient time to discuss the matter fully with family, friends or service users.
Shetland Arts would like to extend its support to their colleagues Clair Aldington, Donald Anderson and John Haswell, and express its sympathy at the unnecessary additional stress which the article caused them during this difficult time. The board of Shetland Arts would also like to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge the valuable contribution which the individuals named have made to the work of the organisation to date and to stress that the current restructuring and change management process is in no way a reflection on the effectiveness of their previous performance.
Lauren Doughton
Marketing Manager
On behalf of Shetland Arts Development Agency,
Mareel,
Lerwick.
• This letter was submitted too late for inclusion in the 7th August edition of The Shetland Times.
Michael Garriock
Perhaps, instead of choosing to pillory a media outlet, which was only fulfilling their stated role of distributing to a wider audience information they had become party to. It would have stood Shetland Arts in better stead to have concentrated more on looking inwards within themselves, and identified from where and how such sensitive information was allowed to escape from their organistion, and take steps to prevent a recurrance. “Playing the victim” card, and ignoring that arguably Shetland Arts is at least equally as culpable for the “leak” reaching the general public as anyone else, is hardly likely to garner anyone’s sympathy.