Commentary

Thinking About Dynamic Consequences

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About a year ago, I wrote a post about the trend of stuffing an increasing amount of duties and responsibilities into single positions. Spoiler: expectations, job advancement, job satisfaction, wages and benefits, and responsibilities are combining to create a particularly caustic work environment that burns out too many good managers. Since then, COVID-19 staff cuts have only exacerbated this trend. Every piece of distressing news about job cuts means remaining workers …

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Retrenchment

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There’s an intriguing blog post by Jacob Harold published on 7/15/2020 at blog.candid.org where he examines potential scenarios that could drive nonprofits to close over the course of the pandemic. While I’m still getting through all of the methodology, there’s no denying that we’ll see some retrenchment in the arts and culture sector. It happens ever major downturn and this will be no different. In all of those instances, groups that …

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Food For Thought: Post-COVID Curtain Speeches

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I want to toss out a short academic exercise in the form of thinking about how the ubiquitous curtain speech will fit into post-COVID concerts. Even before the shutdowns, curtain speeches were pushing the envelope of ticket buyer patience and starting to have a negative impact on the overall concert experience. At the same time, we all know why they exist. Those reasons will only be exacerbated in the wake of …

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Some Early Thoughts On Indianapolis

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Originally, the plan for today’s post was to take a closer look at the growing labor dispute brewing at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO). On Monday, the ISO musicians issued a press statement that asserted the employer informed them they will not only extend the existing furlough but cut off health insurance. I reached out to the musician representatives and the employer to learn as much as possible but as of …

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Examining Recession Era Compensation Trends

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The 2020 Orchestra compensation reports are coming out next week so between now and then, it’s worth taking a quick look at how past recessions have impacted compensation. Simply put, there are no shortage of lessons to learn. When taking a look at the most recent long-term averages for executives, music director, and concertmaster compensation it’s not difficult to see exactly when the housing bubble downturn impacted trends. Music director and …

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