Phil O'Hare posted a while back and seemed to get some really good responses. So I thought I’d throw this open to the board.

I'm currently employed as a Control System Developer this means I use a collection of software modules to create control systems which people use via a touch screen. The task required to do this range from simple scripting in a home-made language all the way up to writing device drivers in C++, in fact I'm currently having re-learn everything I thought I knew about ATM in order to talk to a very expensive (and important) piece of kit.

I've been in this job for three years now and I think I'm pretty good at it. In the last year things have changed quite dramatically, two individuals have taken it upon themselves to re-write certain parts of the base system in an attempt to 'increase productivity' this has resulted in there effectively being two systems, the original one which has instances running in every BBC building in the UK and this new one which currently running in one. These new modules abandon all the features and scripting of the previous systems, there are currently 300 registered developers, many of them without the requisite C/C++ knowledge to use it. My colleagues and I in the Manchester feel that this is effectively a step backwards as the scripting system was developed because people didn't want to learn C/C++.

It seems the BBC model of 'you scratch my back I'll scratch yours' has been abandoned and people we once saw as colleagues now are referred to as customers. Secondly, we are currently being outsourced to a large German-based technology manufacturer which will mean leaving the BBC and possibly moving offices out BBC premises.

When I joined the department it was a real laugh, we enjoyed our work, we believed in what we were producing, three years on there's arguments with our London office, management indecision and my line manager (and also the original creator of the system) has just been signed off work due to work related stress.

Anyway, there's the background. There are three options:

• I stay in the job, get even more worked up, get outsourced and work for some soulless Mega Corp and probably end up getting moved onto some god-forsaken county council payroll system (the scenario was mentioned and we didn't get a straight answer).
  
  
• I apply for an operators job (up to 3 grades down on my current position) avoid the outsourcing, stay in the BBC and do the job until something else comes along.
  
  
• I wait until the outsourcing happens and an ex-colleague and friend of mine get moved to his new position, which may require a position filling.
  

I'd appreciate peoples opinions on this, I should add, the BBC is the only company/employer I have ever wanted to work for.