"No, I'm not doing anything important…"

Following on from an earlier excursion into yoga and other hobbies comes this harrowing tale of the utter waste endemic to government:

Worse though is the tale told by a friend. She had had a stressful couple of years as HR boss of a firm that was cutting half its staff and she decided when the time came for her to cut herself that she didn`t need this any longer. She has a husband and family and wanted a routine sort of job without emotional strain, so she applied for and got one with the local authority, inputting data. It was boring and soothing and just what she needed but after a week she realised she was finishing the work given to her at lunchtime every day, so she asked the line manager – or possibly the Deputy Assistant Line Manager – for more. Shocked silence and sharp intake of breath.

You cannot be serious! That would count as undermining her colleagues or ‘rocking the boat’. She asked what she should do until five o’clock came and was told ‘Anything. Do your online Tesco shopping. Play Sudoku…just don`t ask for more work.’

There were seven full-time employees in that office and she says the work could have been done by a maximum of three and not busting a gut.

It’s not just that government spending can be cut. It must be cut.

1
Antisthenes March 31, 2010 at 11:58

Privatising most of what government does and getting rid of social engineering and control freak quangos could eliminate governments need to borrow overnight and the national debt in a couple of years. It is so obvious but it wont be done.

2
Grumpy Optimist March 31, 2010 at 12:47

I reckon that the bigger are the enforced cuts on departmental and quango budgets, the easier it will be to get all we need for much less. But that is fantasy land – or is it?

3
JuliaM March 31, 2010 at 12:49

Having just spent a very illuminating few minutes on the phone to my local council regarding their inability to issue reminders for parking permits, I think we could cut a swathe through most local authority offices and cull the mouthbreathers wholesale with absolutely no lack of service whatsoever.

4
JuliaM March 31, 2010 at 12:52

In fact, it’s easy to see what staff need to be retained and what staff can be done away with by looking at the effects of the strikes they hold.

Binmen – rubbish piling up – essential
Park maintenance – grass verges grow (eventually) – needed, but not vital
Diversity/equality/parking/internal support staff – *crickets* – not needed

5
SadButMadLad March 31, 2010 at 13:28

Privatising sounds like it might be the solution, however don’t forget that the company will be making a profit for it’s shareholders who are not necessarily the constituents of the council. And seeing how badly most PFI and outsourcing initiatives are handled, I wouldn’t be surprised if the private company took into account the high overstaffing into it’s costings. It would then charge accordingly whilst employing less staff. The savings effectively go straight into the shareholder’s pockets.

Thats not to say that I’m against privatistion, I’m all for it. But a better solution would be to be open and transparent whatever method was used, keeping it in house or out sourced to a private company. No hiding behind “commerical interests” or banning staff from talking about their job. And it won’t need another quango to ensure the openness, just allowing constituents to check without any bar is adequate. There might not be any checks but the risk of being checked and found out is usually enough, especially if the penalty is loss of a job or demotion.

6
Alan March 31, 2010 at 13:31

Antisthenes said:

“Privatising most of what government does …”

I am wary of privatisation as previously enacted. What would be better to my mind would be an orderly running down of the State (which will never happen) allowing genuinely private enterprise to enlarge to fill the void naturally rather than taxpayer subsidised monopolies and infrastructure being sold off for a pittance. Make sure everyone knows what is going when, and that taxes get reduced by a commensurate amount.

Beyond national defence, law and order and a few other things I could think of given time the State should largely be regulating not running.(Though can it even do that competently and efficiently?) There *would* be co-operatives galore as well as companies run for private gain as there was before the State began it’s inexorable growth. And it would be done by choice not by force.

An impossible dream?

7
Uncle Marvo March 31, 2010 at 13:45

I can tell you much scarier stories than that. The only thing that stops me is that the people involved could then probably be identified.

It is MORE than a disgrace.

8
Uncle Marvo March 31, 2010 at 14:19

The speccie article you linked to has a typo. It says “millions” where it should say “billions”.

I’m not going to tell them though, I don’t *do* registering with MSM.

9
Tom March 31, 2010 at 14:20

Well, that’s pretty standard – I know somebody who had the same experience at Wiltshire Council – minor deviation – 5 days “work” in 2.25 days…

Where’s that network activity scan of Hampshire – where they reckon … was it – 6+ hours a day *per user* logged into Facebook?

Stupidity and incompetence rewarded handsomely
Council Nepotism rampant
Redefining garbage as grabbage
Emptying the council car parks and clogging residential streets with parking
Warbal Gloming Impact Advisors
Paying their fucking pensions out of day to day revenue coz the fuckwits didn’t bother to build a pot…. unfunded pension – yes , you’re going to hear a lot about that.

Earrrgghhh – I can’t go on – the list is a long one – the only warming I’m interested in is Public Finance Meltdown

Oh, and by the way- all you “privatise it” idjits – the idea that private is a panacea for every public ill is self evident twaddle. You only get decent results when you couple rewards to achievement – the sorry state of most British corporates is a testimony to the effect of decoupling and only handing out carrots.

Accountability – that’s what we want – and when do we want it? – NOW

10
PT March 31, 2010 at 15:10

Absolutely spot on. But what bureaucrat is going to declare himself or his “work colleagues” redundant? Not a single one of the greedy, lazy, useless errrmm, ah, oh yes, “government employees” is the right phrase. If there are any cuts at all, it will to the actual operational, front-line staff who do useful work.

11
binlid March 31, 2010 at 17:07

Our local council recently sent us a lovely, shiny brochure bragging about what they had achieved and were doing as regards recycling and green matters. Nowhere on the brochure did it mention anything about the production process using recycled or sustainable paper and print being used. When I phoned up to enquire (it was a quiet day for me), I was passed around no less than 8 departments before being told that each brochure had cost 45p to produce. This did not include delivery costs.

I queried the wisdom of producing this and was told “they had to go through the paces and show a commitment to recycling.” Apparently, this “commitment” has created 35 jobs; HoD, secretaries, IT staff, recycling collectors and sorters. I asked what was wrong with their previous arrangements for recycling and was told, “Nothing – they just had to be more up-front.”

The same brochure told me about their new 24 hour department for dealing with “council emergencies” and assured all readers that there would be staff on call 24/7. A colleague had the need to phone them one Friday at 4pm. Apparently, the 24 hour service was manned by an answer machine stating that the call would be dealt with on the following Monday morning. This particular department took on 8 extra staff to operate around the clock.

12
Brian March 31, 2010 at 17:08

But such things never happen in the private sector. We have wonderful banks that transfer ISAs instantly without mistakes, our utility companies have transparent charging policies, our mortgage endowment providers have clear formulae for calculating bonuses, our supermarkets have one-sided contracts with their suppliers. The problem always lies at the top in both sectors because the people at the top are very comfortably insulated from the effects of their decisions.

13
lenko March 31, 2010 at 17:23

Tom… stupidity and incompetence rewarded handsomely? OMG, I’ve been doing that for free for years now! Why didn’t someone tell me?

On a serious note… the Blair/Brown mob have added… dunno… about five million new laws since they came to office. And every single one has some sort of running cost associated with it… office space… equipment… computers… a bloody QUANGO to — um — do whatever it is that bloody QUANGOs do. To get our running costs down, we need to get some of these laws UN-enacted. We need to go BACKWARDS NOT FORWARDS. Back to the Past — 1953 here we come!

I’d vote for any party who could promise that.

14
Ancient and Tattered Airman March 31, 2010 at 19:36

Even though lenko is an admitted Rock Ape* I have to agree with him on this. I have read ‘The Plan’ as recommended by some on here, and think the best man to start sorting out the nations ills is Daniel Hannan, currently MEP.

* RAF Regiment. Ground grippers wearing blue/grey uniforms pretending to be soldiers. Their specialist ’skills’ ( O wot a larf!) included teaching disinterested aircrew how to fire the devastating 2″ mortar (that could, allegedly, strike dead the enemy from afar, turn night into day) or make bayonet charges at straw-filled dummies and other such tiresome pursuits most of which entailed getting cold, wet and/or dirty.

15
lenko March 31, 2010 at 22:13

Didn’t realise I had “admitted” it… though in my time, my specialist skills were more on the lines of how to kill people (though I never did). I HAVE killed a fair few straw-filled dummies, though, and still do, to this day. But you know what they say — the pen is mightier than the bayonet.

‘Twas a long time ago, and far away…

16
2Mac April 1, 2010 at 00:15

I worked in the financial sector for about 10 years and I was surprised to find that the middle / top management types were most often 90% total bullshitters and lying spineless phuckwits. I worked with the Public Sector and found the percentage was even higher. I have met some absolute tubes working at very senior 6 figure salaries who make the average football player seem smart. There only skills seem to be being in the right social/socialist network.

It seems that you cannot be sacked from our councils and that whenever there is a massive screw up “Everyone learns lessons” ,”understand the publics concerns” then go back to doing fuck fuckall while nobody is held accountable. Whether it is bins not being emptied of kids being tortured to death.

Everyone gets a yearly pay rise and after several years you will be earning a managers salary and therefore in the reverse logic of the cuntcill you should be promoted to being a manager whether you are any good or not. This is what they consider to be good budget practise.

During the last 5 years whenever I had a chance I would ask these £35K plus managers what there job involves. The answer would often start with “Well it is hard to explain….” More like it is “hard to bloody justify” paying you £35k to do an office administrators job.

Another thing I recently heard is that it costs over 50p to collect and process a £1 of income tax. Add this to the million or so taxes the greedy government are stealing from us and we are paying for a service that can be automated and simple and we are paying tens of thousands of people to process this is many different locations with many different systems and paying a fortune for the administration on the harvesting of money.

My final thought is that Superannuation pension scheme’s are what every public sector worker gets. 50% of their final salary after full service, linked to inflation for the remainder of their life. 4 times salary if they die while being employed and 1.5 times final salary as tax free lump sum on retirement.

Did I mention 6 months 100% pay followed by 6 months 50% pay when they are off with stress of trying to look busy doing a non job. This resets once they return to work and repeat the process after a few months.

We need Wealth Creation, we need to be making things with our minds or hands, we need to be providing services that are exportable.

Make it go away. Please.

17
lenko April 1, 2010 at 13:18

2Mac… you were “surprised”? You must have been very young.

There was an American SciFi writer called Ted Sturgeon who formulated Sturgeon’s Law — Ninety percent of Everything is Crap. And it’s kind of held up, as a Universal law. When you look around, ninety percent of everything IS crap. And if you examine the other ten percent, the last ninety percent of THAT is crap, compared to the ten percent.

I worked as an accountant for about 40 years, and I was crap too. But I got away with it — they never really suspected how incompetent I was.