Apr 2008 10

Non-job of the week8

SmallbluebinCroydon’s residents have just been handed a 4% Council Tax increase.  Where’s it going…on the bonfire of non-jobs, of course:

“Senior Internal Communications Officers x2, LONDON BOROUGH OF CROYDON

£28,524 to £30,603

If so, the London Borough of Croydon could be the place for you. With seven Beacon Council awards demonstrating excellence in local Government, a three-star CPA rating with realistic ambitions of achieving a four-star rating, and a new and challenging top team, it’s a great place to work. As a Senior Internal Communications Officer, you’ll be working in the thick of the action.

Based in Human Resources and Organisational Development, you’ll work within a small but dynamic team, responsible for communicating to 12,000 staff in nearly 300 locations. The groundwork is in place: we have an ambitious people strategy and we now need innovative, forward-thinking professionals to deliver creative communications via a range of channels.

To succeed in this role, you’ll need to demonstrate that you can work with everybody from the Chief Executive to refuse collectors and parking attendants who are out delivering services to the community day in, day out. You’ll be excited at the prospect of leading on a range of projects from running events, to editing publications, to communicating large-scale corporate change programmes.

If you’re a proactive communicator who can deliver fast, effective solutions under pressure, we’d love to hear from you.

For an informal chat about the role, please call Hayley Blake, HR & OD Communications Manager, on 020 8604 7679 or email [email protected]

Closing Date: Friday 18 April 2008

For a job pack please visit http://jobs.croydon.gov.uk where you can register and apply online.”

The horrifying statistic in the above job description is the announcement that Croydon Council employs 12,000 people across 300 offices.  Rumours abound that graduate jobs in the private sector will be fewer owing to the uncertain economic climate.  Nevertheless, week after week there is never a shortage of local government non-jobs filling up the middle management roster in local government.  Clearly if this trend of taking more from the profit making sector and handing it to the bloated, unproductive sector continues, it will lead to higher taxes for us all. 

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  • James Rowling

    Poor old Timmy. Can’t sleep so at 12:57 in the morning, his nightly cocoa cold in his TPA mug, he pens this. Maybe it’s the righteous indignation that keeps him awake at night.
    Croydon is the largest borough in London, serving 340,000 people, recently awarded for its management of resources. You’ll note the focus on corporate change programmes designed to further enhance value for money for residents. To get these out to people takes, yes, good management but also good communications.
    Sleep well Timmy.

  • rajanchadda

    I HAVE LOOKED AT YOUR VIEWS IN HOPE THAT YOU WOULD BE INDEPENDENT OF ANY PARTY. I WAS WRONG.YOU CAN CUT TAXES ALL YOU WANT BUT IF THERE ARE NO PEOPLE WORKING THERE IS NO REVENUE.SO WHAT IF THE COUNCIL CREATES JOBS. IF THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS GOING THROUGH A TOUGH TIME THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD INTERVENE AND HELP EMPLOY PEOPLE. IN BETTER TIMES THERE WILL BE MORE PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS.THE COUNTRY(DUE TO GOOD POLICIES)HAS HIGH EMPLOYMENT OTHERWISE THIS COUNTRY WOULD BE IN A RECESSION LIKE THE CREDIT SPONSORED EIGHTIES.

  • Hardeep_Singh

    Clearly both of you in your haste to mock the ‘non job of the week’ haven’t paused for thought. The accusations of being ‘self righteous’ are uncalled for, it’s merely an opinion of rising council tax bills on one hand against an increase in jobs on the other. This is of particular concern simply because it’s public funds from which these salaries are being paid and that in my book is more than justified debate. Why is it so wrong to offer comment, opinion and ideas on this and any other subject. What’s most certainly unwelcome and wrong is the venom poured on anyone who does not sing the praised of the public sector.
    The notion that government should help employ people is fine IF government had their own money which they don’t, it’s YOUR money that they are using. To have 2 internal communications officers for an organisation serving (I use that term loosely) about 350,000 people is ludicrous, not just that but they are ‘senior’ don’t tell me there are even more of them already in the council.
    As for the charge of the credit eighties, for goodness sake, take a look at the huge levels of personal debt people could only have dreamt of back in the eighties.

  • James Rowling

    Hardeep, do some research into public sector organisations and you’ll see that you need people in particular roles to make the thing work. It’s not all drones and a queen bee – there are lots of component parts. What they are doing with your money is trying to improve services – the TPA takes their eye off this central point.
    It also tries to make out that local government is like the Dock Labour Scheme. It’s not – it has efficiency targets to meet, every worker needs to be justified and believe me trying to get extra resources through management and HR is very difficult indeed. Probably just as difficult as it would be to ask for extra staff in the private sector. You have managed people before haven’t you?
    Conversely look at Hammersmith and Fulhams – the darlings of the TPA. They’ve cut their council tax and what’s happened… they’ve lost a star in the independent ratings! So for a little less money you get a substantially poorer quality of service.
    Nothing wrong with comment – it’d just be good if it was informed once in a while. Tim’s final sentence which doesn’t make grammatical sense with a spare “if” thrown in clearly shows he was a little too dozy to be rational.

  • http://www.taxpayersalliance.com Tim

    Do your reserarch James, H&F has a four star rating: http://cpa.audit-commission.gov.uk/STCCScorecard.aspx?TaxID=103656

  • Hardeep_Singh

    Thank you James, now that’s the kind of sensible response I’m looking for and not the spite filled venom from some.
    Indeed justification is most certainly the issue at hand here the only thing being where exactly does that justification lie?

  • Stevea

    How many times must we hear the flawed “justification” that public sector staff also pay taxes and are therefore contributing to the economy. OK, yes they do pay taxes BUT their entire income is from taxes in the first place. Assuming 25% is paid in tax then it needs four private sector taxpayers (gross) or three private sector employees (net) to support one public sector employee. Ultimately someone must create wealth and that is never the public sector which exists only by draining the life blood from those of us with real jobs!

  • Niall

    There is a problem with our way of life. The people of Great Britain spend more than they earn. There are factories which can produce huge quantities of stuff, there is however a desire to have a matching consumption to maintain profitability.
    Therefore the people must be given money, non-jobs are merely one facet of the distribution of new money. If you think clearly, you will note that most people are in debt, and there is not enough money to pay-off the sum debts of the people, our businesses and our government.
    I blame our unspoken decision to give the banks the power to create money. They don’t generally loan, or lend, when a person buys a mortgage, the money is simply keyed into a computer database. It would break down with out governmental permission to issue paper money with the Queen’s head and legal tender status.
    We wouldn’t need to pay taxes if the government controlled the credit in the economy – nor would our economic system be predicated on creating more debt to service our existing needs for money which only needs additional money to service it in turn.