Making sense of a tough year for comms professionals
by Ben Capper
About 15 years ago, I worked in a comms team for a Local Authority in the North of England. We were based in a building alongside the customer call centre.
It was January, right after the Christmas break.
A very affable colleague was doing the rounds in the kitchen, asking “did you have a nice Christmas?”
Most people making their morning brew answered with the usual understated British platitudes: “Not too bad” “Quiet one this year” “Nice to have a bit of a break anyway”.
It was all going swimmingly until he asked the same perfectly polite and inoffensive question to a particular a call centre operative with a reputation for “telling it like it is” (even to customers on the phone).
“What about you [name]? Did you have a nice Christmas?”
The reply will live with me for many years (and trust me, the caps lock is necessary):
“NO IT WAS BLOODY AWFUL!”
I always smile when I think about that exchange. I felt bad for the colleague who was just asking a perfectly friendly, reasonable question. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but admire the brutal, unflinching honesty.
So let’s have a think about 2025 in comms, in that vein.
How’s your year been?
“Not too bad”? Or “bloody awful”?
If I had to pick one, in all honesty, I’d go with “not too bad”.
Do note the use of the word “too” in there. It’s definitely been one of my more difficult years in business. But it’s not been too bad, in the grand scheme of things.
That means there have been some good things. As a consultant and business owner I’ve been very grateful to a small number of clients in particular who have kept me busy pretty much all year. I’ve learned a lot from them in sectors I haven’t worked in before and met some really interesting people along the way.
In my non-work year, I’ve enjoyed a couple of European mini-breaks with the family. Oh, and Liverpool won the league. And whilst, at the time of writing, that feels like a long time ago, that was also a definite highlight.
But there’s no getting away from the fact that things have been tougher this year; and this has manifested itself in a number of ways:
- Projects being put on hold or cancelled at the last minute
- Proposals being rejected due to a lack of budget (that I would’ve bet the house on happening a year ago)
- An ongoing industry "ghosting” epidemic
It has been unusually difficult in these respects.
So it’s not been great. But I’ve found a way. So it’s been not too bad.
But I’m conscious of how “bloody awful” this year has been for communicators and businesses across the board.
I put it down to a few factors beyond anyone’s control.
- An economy in flux – The National Insurance rise for businesses is something that constantly comes up in conversations, as is the impact of global volatility due to the US Administration’s “innovative” approach to trade tariffs
- A health service and public sector also in flux – the announced abolition of NHS England precipitating huge uncertainty
- Cuts to government comms, and a freeze on spend for any external support.
- Projects and initiatives that people care about being put on hold or canned entirely
- A general sense of comms pros feeling (as one put it to me recently) “a bit unloved”
- (And don’t get me started on comms people still being asked to do “more with less”.)
All of this has left pretty much any comms person I speak to in a feeling of permanent insecurity; both for their actual livelihoods or just for their sense of professional confidence.
And if you work in the public sector, there have been a whole range of new issues to deal with, with a very particular 2025 flavour.
- Flags. Flags on roundabouts. Flags up lamp-posts.
- Increasing racist abuse of our colleagues and healthcare workers.
- Some political leadership tacitly encouraging it. And this then translating into comms pros dealing with the inevitable social and traditional media fallout.
Added all together, I think a lot of comms people would be very justified in describing 2025 as “bloody awful”.
Crumbs of comfort
They do exist. Their impact may be limited. But you can find perspective and reasons for hope if you look hard enough for them.
Firstly: No it definitely isn’t just you.
Whether you’re in house, working for a big agency or on your own as a consultant; everyone is feeling it this year. There are things going on that are way out of our control that are impacting us all.
We are, irrespective of how we work, all in this together. And there are places you can go to offload, confide and get perspective.
The comms consultants’ WhatsApp group (set up by one Mr Caveney) has been a constant source of support and gallows humour all year. NHS Comms professionals have good networks. Local Gov comms people have similar. And wherever you work, there’s always stuff like CIPR, CIM and the like.
Personally I’m looking forward to the UnAwards this year to chat and no doubt review the year with an increasingly frazzled looking comms community. There is support out there. Find the forum that works for you.
Secondly: hard times can provide new opportunities.
We are, are we not, living in a rapidly changing world. This is scary. But it’s also full of potential opportunities.
I’ve been doing a lot of work in renewable energy this year. It’s been fascinating, and exciting to be a part of something that is growing and is going to grow even further. We have a government (for now) that fully supports it, is investing in it, and the pace of technological change is mind-bending.
There are really interesting things happening in housebuilding and infrastructure development too.
In the NHS, the digitalisation agenda is going ahead full-force, despite what other issues trusts and ICBs are facing.
So if you’re in a public service, there are exciting things happening. If you have the opportunity in any of your work to get involved in any of these or other new developing areas, now is a good time to do so.
And yes, we bemoan the likes of AI and a lack of budget to do the cool exciting things we’d ideally like to do; but it might just be that this is a good time to upskill in new areas as a result.
Lastly: all things must (and will) pass.
We’ve been through a lot this past decade.
The pandemic. The continuing fallout of Brexit. The economy getting well and truly Trussed. Regular changes of governments and Prime Ministers.
That’s before we even get to NHS re-organisation (or re-re-re-organisation as it is now), budget pressures, and the continuing looming threat / opportunity (delete as appropriate) of technology and AI.
We’ve done our jobs throughout all of this and come through it all standing.
Whatever we face, we always find a way. And we will again.
So if you have the opportunity to offload after a tough year, please do so.
And then we go again…
Ben Capper is founder and lead consultant at Grey Fox Communications and Marketing
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