Work place idiocy
To my considerable surprise, I find myself in agreement with the Public and Commercial Services Union. Unfortunate staff at the National Insurance centre in the Deep North have had the law laid down on tidy desks, to the extent of instructions on where to place tape on their desks to indicate the best position for one's pens. Yes really. For this exercise in infantilisation the Revenue has paid £7.4m to a consultancy firm called Unipart. I thought Unipart was the former spares division of what was British Leyland, so it must have mutated somewhat or else the Revenue has been employing neo-situationist pranksters. Meanwhile, the PCSU calls the exercise "demeaning and demoralising", which sounds about right.
A former employer had a 'tidy desk' policy which ensured 10 minutes of wasted time at each end of the day while I arranged reams of paper just so, in order that I could actually do my job. Shall we say that one of the benefits of self-employment is not having to deal with micro-manangement fads.
A former employer had a 'tidy desk' policy which ensured 10 minutes of wasted time at each end of the day while I arranged reams of paper just so, in order that I could actually do my job. Shall we say that one of the benefits of self-employment is not having to deal with micro-manangement fads.
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on Thursday, January 04, 2007 at 11:53 am.
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The world of management consultancy is a cyclical one. Time and motion studies are all the rage again.
This time round they call it activity based costing; very scientific don't ya know.
The world of management consultancy is a cyclical one. Time and motion studies are all the rage again.
This time round they call it activity based costing; very scientific don't ya know.
I just feel sorry for the lab rats. Maybe it is really an exercise in head slashing - through making the workplace ever more intolerable.
this is nothing compared to the revenue selling off it's properties and then renting them back from the new landlord....ahem,an offshore co. somewhere in bermuda
I'm a big fan of some of the elements of activity based costing. For example it introduces the concepts of internal markets within businesses extending responsibility and accountability throughout businesses. I find that the key reason for a mess in a business is lack of responsibility. Any time you find it difficult to pin down who is responsible for something, it is sure to be a clusterf***.
I have worked in a few medium sized companies and there is an iron law. The more money there is around the more wankers are employed. The personnel department is usually a target rich zone .
Oh for the old days when excess was soaked up with curvaceous pools of seccies and bloody long lunches. At least somebody enjoyed themselves. The very second things go pear shaped the enablers all disappear like the politicians smile , and despite all their vital role , noone notices.
The worry about this is that it will not be an isolated incident. £7,400,000!!!!. I have to say alot of these shock figures are taken out of context and one doesn`t know how seriously to take it.
Good one C . Dale has caught up with you on the little chef story
I am yet to meet anyone who works in a personnel department who does not have a personal life of car crash levels of messiness. So much for their abilities to command 'human resources'.
Shall we say that one of the benefits of self-employment is not having to deal with micro-manangement fads.
That and its easier to knock a swift one off the wrist when you dont have to worry about being watched by co workers
If human resources departments were all closed down, nobody would notice, although productivity would rise rapidly.
As for consultants, why not set up our own consultancy and charge millions to tell people where to put their pens. Even I could do that.
"knock a swift one off the wrist"....he picks it up gingerly like an unpleasant suprise in the garden..I hope Peter your pungent aphorisms are not going to be rationed when your attention is taken by your own nascent bloggery.
Of course one of the main treats that tribes of compliance offivers feast upon with the paper storm of elfansafety. We did without that until suprisingly recently.. FSA compliance is similiarly wasteful if not worse.
"Human Resources" departments are the bossiest and most pretentious in any company. Vast companies need staff to do wages and NI deductions and keep track of attendance and holiday entitlements, but this could easily be absorbed by slightly enlarging the accounts department.
"Human Resources" are utter parasites. And they even have degree courses in it! What on earth is there to learn?
Verity Dealing with employment law is largely what the "degree "is justified on.
Employment law is , of course, its own growth industry.
Could they not all be relocated to some uninhabited island where they could boss each other around and leave us to get on with things? No exceptions. The world would be a vastly happier place without HR droids.
I have a better idea, Croydonian. Offshore HR departments! To India! Believe me, there is nothing as bossy as a bossy Indian. They could interview candidates for jobs by teleconference. Oh, God, this is a wonderful solution. Good for the working Brits, good for the economy of India. Everyone a winner!
An intriguing solution....
There used to be Establishments, whose purpose was to confirm an established job and pension for life, after a satisfactory first year, and check the signing -in book each week .
I was clerk to the parliamentary questions clerk, hard to get much lower, but signed in in the same book as the under secretary, and everybody in between.
The head of department was a Mr Mullarkey, but there never was any, despite changing my parentally issued plain black court shoes for silver, heeled, boots while in the Greenline on the way up the A1 to work each day.
It's the hierarchies and petty bossinesses that have ruined most of how we live.
to your pleasure no doubt, many HR functions are indeed now off-shored. The term is called 'shared services' for international companies.
However, the bosses will always keep a couple of HR folk handy for when they quickly need to get rid of someone / stitch them up.
I could not get terribly upset if disgruntled workers formed themselves into death squads and engaged in extra-judicial murder via asphyxiation of HR entities with time sheets, diversity policy documents et al.
"Celebrating diversity" is a spawn of the HR devil.
As is, after the announcement that the firm is an equal opportunity employer, adding the subtle warning rider that "illegal Somali single mothers are currently underrepresented in this department".
BTW, all these people who "celebrate diversity" do not tolerate diversity of opinion.
This is way O/T and I hope Croydonian will forgive me, but here is a hero and it is so wonderful to know that heroism still lives. I'm sorry I don't know how to do a proper linkee, but if you copy and paste this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=426313&in_page_id=1811&ct=5 you won't be sorry.
One hundred and nine people wrote in about this article, and almost all of them used the word 'hero'.
What a magnificent man eh verity?
imagine Blair doing that.
There is no other word but hero. And made the decision in a split second!
Anyway, New Yorkers honour their heroes and Donald Trump has sent him $10,000. Some other multimillionaire has also sent him $10,000 and another one has put $10,000 in trust for his daughters' college fees. And he's being given a dinner by the city of NY this evening.
He doesn't seem to think he did anything outstanding. He said, "You're supposed to help people."
What a heart-warming story!
I laughed out loud at your comment PHitch.
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