Ask not what your organisation can do for you but what you can do for your organisation.
Speaking as someone who has spent a year in local government in the HR function, I think that Socpo needs to look more closely behind the survey statistics.
A large number of local government employees have been encouraged to take and have clamoured for early retirement because of their inability to cope with change. Unfortunately, many councils have cocooned their staff for far too long and when major government initiatives such as CCT and Best Value suddenly appear, many staff are just unprepared.
This idea of “lightening duties” to reduce work pressures masks the underlying problem of poor management and a widespread view held by staff that working for local government means getting on the gravy train and never getting off.
Sarah Hunt
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Personnel manager
South Somerset Homes
