Unbelievable bureaucracy

[GingerCat]

2 hours ago, Walker570 said:

I believe now officers booking on just sit infront of a screen and view it all with no interaction between the 'team' as we had, where plans could be made to sort some local thief etc etc.   I may be worng but belive that to be true.  The paperwork when I retired was building by the day.

Sadly far from the truth. Most briefings are broken to answer a call before completion. There is less sitting around now than there ever was. A legacy of May and her cutting of budgets. Its past the bone. 

In cid I dont bother briefing unless there is something major and on patrol I barely ever finished one in the last 2 years. There's a fact you can take to the bank. 

[vmaxphil]

I've worked for the last 42 years until  i retired in the mod and NHS and I can honestly say I never did a days work as it was such a doddle, in fact when in the mod on Friday's a group of 4 of us whoud come in on early flexi time clear the desk by 11 o'clock and go shooting get back for 4.30 have a coffee and leave 5 o'clock booking 1/2 hour flexi time 😉

[oowee]

1 hour ago, vmaxphil said:

I've worked for the last 42 years until  i retired in the mod and NHS and I can honestly say I never did a days work as it was such a doddle, in fact when in the mod on Friday's a group of 4 of us whoud come in on early flexi time clear the desk by 11 o'clock and go shooting get back for 4.30 have a coffee and leave 5 o'clock booking 1/2 hour flexi time 😉

There are unfortunately always those that milk the system and in the public sector prepared to cheat the public. There are malingerers in all organisations particularly when they are very large with wide ranging remits. Whilst the environment may allow malingering is it not a question of your own moral compass. 

Bureaucracy grows with size and accountability. Private sector organisations in most situations just don't have the level of accountability of the public sector. 

Most of my working life has been spent in the public sector and I can hand on heart say that I worked far harder and unpaid, than most any others. It was usual to work over 50+  hours a week and be on call to sort things when on leave. Public service was my life I loved it and look back with fond memories. I honestly think I made a real difference. 

[mowdy]

You am should try France if you want to see bureaucracy carried out to full extent 😳😳😳😳😱

[London Best]

2 hours ago, oowee said:

There are unfortunately always those that milk the system and in the public sector prepared to cheat the public. There are malingerers in all organisations particularly when they are very large with wide ranging remits. Whilst the environment may allow malingering is it not a question of your own moral compass. 

Bureaucracy grows with size and accountability. Private sector organisations in most situations just don't have the level of accountability of the public sector. 

Most of my working life has been spent in the public sector and I can hand on heart say that I worked far harder and unpaid, than most any others. It was usual to work over 50+  hours a week and be on call to sort things when on leave. Public service was my life I loved it and look back with fond memories. I honestly think I made a real difference. 

A much better post than @Vmaxphil.

[AVB]

2 hours ago, oowee said:

There are unfortunately always those that milk the system and in the public sector prepared to cheat the public. There are malingerers in all organisations particularly when they are very large with wide ranging remits. Whilst the environment may allow malingering is it not a question of your own moral compass. 

Bureaucracy grows with size and accountability. Private sector organisations in most situations just don't have the level of accountability of the public sector. 

Most of my working life has been spent in the public sector and I can hand on heart say that I worked far harder and unpaid, than most any others. It was usual to work over 50+  hours a week and be on call to sort things when on leave. Public service was my life I loved it and look back with fond memories. I honestly think I made a real difference. 

My post was less about malingering and more about institutional inefficiencies. I gave a very specific example based upon my very limited example of the public sector and others here have given their experience. So how has the public sector become so inefficient and unwilling to change? I don’t believe it is down to accountability as many other, regulated, companies have the same if not more accountability. Would performance related pay make a difference? 
 

And a 50 hour week for somebody holding a senior position is a walk in the park. Ask an MD at an Investment Bank or a Partner at a Magical Circle Law firm how many hours they do! 

[oowee]

2 minutes ago, AVB said:

My post was less about malingering and more about institutional inefficiencies. I gave a very specific example based upon my very limited example of the public sector and others here have given their experience. So how has the public sector become so inefficient and unwilling to change? I don’t believe it is down to accountability as many other, regulated, companies have the same if not more accountability. Would performance related pay make a difference? 
 

And a 50 hour week for somebody holding a senior position is a walk in the park. Ask an MD at an Investment Bank or a Partner at a Magical Circle Law firm how many hours they do! 

Average of 50+ hours a week? I am not talking about individual weeks of 70 + hours. I am talking about an average. It's simply not sustainable to do more and be effective. My point being that those committed to a job work as many hours as they possibly can regardless of the reward, it's about a lifestyle choice and a way of life rather than remuneration and hours in a week. 

I think there is a willingness to change to improve delivery but the change of objectives comes thick and fast, politically top down, not allowing the organisations to develop and deliver. Look at the changes in education or the health service foisted upon the systems year in year out. Large companies mostly have simple objectives and stable board structures measuring financial return and shareholder value. 

A case in point would be my time spent with Homes and Communities (part of dclg that was). New management ranged from Prescott through Pickles to Shapp's each with there own ideas of affordable homes and how they should be delivered. The organisation could easily deliver homes en masse but the political drivers changing the objectives sometimes on a monthly basis driven by the latest media speculation drove process change to the point of madness.

[Lloyd90]

I’ve worked in Local Authorities for maybe the last 7 years, initially as a student, then employed. 
 

I started working in children’s homes and have later worked in Social Work (hospital discharge). Now working in an emergency out of hours team. 
 

In the children’s home I found there were a mix of staff, those that wanted to help, often went over their hours for no extra pay, always turned up and put in the work... and those that were always off sick (for long periods on full pay), always late, would never stay late to help out, didn’t really want to be there but would never quit because they were on the old pay structure so would be getting a 40% pay cut if they went to do support work anywhere else. 
 

The result of this was that the people who worked hard would get p’eed off and leave, they could go elsewhere because they’d get promoted for being willing to work. 
 

The council would internally promote complete idiots into managers posts that didn’t know what they were doing. Overseeing a team or idiots who didn’t want to be there. 
 

 

 

In the hospital you had staff running with lots of cases, myself I was handling 12-15 discharges at once, whilst you had people who’d been in the team for years, running with 3-5 and complaining that their case load was too high and too complex. The people with 3-5 were always off long-term sick and other people constantly being asked to take over their work. When you would take over  their work you’d see that it was a total mess and they hadn’t even done the stuff they were supposed to! 
 

Again, the good staff would get fed up of being worked ragged and the bad staff wouldn’t go anywhere because they were in a good little number doing as little as possible. 
 

In both local authorities they were awful at dealing with the messers, who did as little as possible, which just enforced the culture of them sticking around getting away with it. And the decent workers would get fed up and leave. 

 

Enjoying my job in the emergency team now, no case holding and feel I genuinely get to help and make a difference, and pretty much everyone there is skilled and highly experienced. It’s a nice change.

[Nuke]

After working with a few private companies from the UK and couldn't believe anybody could be worse I guess I should stay away from the public sector.

/Markus