Xandra H has an interesting Free Speech Backlash piece on staff troubles in the NHS.
More News From The NHS
And It's Not Good
I’ve been sitting here since just after Christmas wondering if we all need an existential challenge occasionally in order to either confirm our current position, or refocus us in a new direction.
I say this because I have just had one myself, and as a result, relearned that things are sometimes not at all as they seem to be and that even people you have known for some years, can view a situation in a completely different way than you expected, based on what you know of them.
The thing that started all this off was a procedure adopted by the NHS HR department to help staff at work develop better team relationships and the lower grades to have a more equal relationship with their managers. Unfortunately, it seems to me that they hadn’t thought through all the possible unforeseen consequences of adopting it; or maybe they did and thought it was the right way to proceed?
I will tell the story and you can decide for yourself what position you would adopt in the circumstances.
The whole story is well worth reading.
I’ve been sitting here since just after Christmas wondering if we all need an existential challenge occasionally in order to either confirm our current position, or refocus us in a new direction.
I say this because I have just had one myself, and as a result, relearned that things are sometimes not at all as they seem to be and that even people you have known for some years, can view a situation in a completely different way than you expected, based on what you know of them.
The thing that started all this off was a procedure adopted by the NHS HR department to help staff at work develop better team relationships and the lower grades to have a more equal relationship with their managers. Unfortunately, it seems to me that they hadn’t thought through all the possible unforeseen consequences of adopting it; or maybe they did and thought it was the right way to proceed?
I will tell the story and you can decide for yourself what position you would adopt in the circumstances.
The whole story is well worth reading.
3 comments:
Yes, I know the culture well. I suspect most people who have worked in management posts are familiar with it. What happens is that the people who understand the new systems and learn to work them to their advantage will be the winners. Sometimes, whiny workers will run rings around their managers, and sometimes clever managers will prevail. I loved that bit about managers totting up the cost of such a system and then presenting this to those further up the food chain.
The "power imbalance" point is interesting. "Maverick Philosopher " Bill Vallicella calls it the "Converse Callicles Principle" where those with the least power are always cast as being in the right. Hence the pro-Pally demonstrations, and ridiculously light sentencing for many crimes. Authority must always be challenged.
It's great to see some push-back on this, wherever it appears.
An interesting article. It seems that units, such as HR, or other bureaucracies, must roll out new initiatives to justify their existence. Irrespective of whether or not the initiatives work or incur additional costs.
Life 'at work' has certainly changed. I'll slip into Old Git mode and recall that more than 50 years ago one of my team was persistently late - there was no flexitime back then. He was required to see my boss as part of the disciplinary process. His 'justification' was that the bus service from his outlying village was unreliable and so he couldn't always be on time.
He was told that *it was his responsibility to be on time*, and if he had to catch an earlier bus than that is what he should do.
Perhaps the 'return to work in the office' policies are matters of personal responsibility too?
Sam - interesting, I didn't see too much of it, but Mrs H certainly did. We had a few issues with flexitime, but nothing major, just the usual niggles. Maybe it's something to do with the influence of local union reps. We had a high level of union membership but little local union activity.
DJ - persistent lateness is an oddity, it can be more than pushing boundaries in that some people seem unable to arrive on time for anything. There are always excuses, but there are people who are never on time, even in a social setting and again there are always excuses.
From the outside, it isn't easy to know what the 'return to work in the office' policies are about, but presumably if performance is degraded by working from home then it is a matter personal responsibility to do something about it.
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