Non-job of the week

I loathe the smell of burning money in the morning.  All that borrowing, going straight into the fire of local government bureaucracy.  MFI may go broke this week, costing thousands of jobs, but there’s 575 new jobs in government, all paid for by the taxpayer.  Our non-job this week comes from Coventry City Council:

“Governance Services Manager

£37,543 - £42,232 pa (pay award pending)

Ref: CW/060/08

The Council is looking for a talented, passionate and motivated leader to champion governance issues, get more people involved in decision making and set high standards. Providing leadership for a Governance Services team of 14, you will need to have experience of managing cultural change, a focus on quality performance management and be able to develop people. We need a leader who is able to build, articulate and share the vision for service. Experience at a senior level in a fast paced team environment is a key requirement.

With a dynamic, new Chief Executive set to head up further change and transformation there is no better time to be joining us.

For an informal discussion contact Helen Abraham on 024 7683 2199.

You can download an application form and further details from http://www.coventry.gov.uk/jobs Alternatively you can: email: jobs@coventry.gov.uk or call our jobs line: 024 76 83 3030 minicom: 024 7683 3487 (for hearing impaired callers)

Closing date: 15th December 2008.

Interviews: 8th January 2009.

http://www.coventry.gov.uk

Coventry City Council”

What’s this, a job in people engineering?  I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of this local government gobbledegook.  If these jobs meant anything, they’d set out in clear terms what the role would achieve.  For example, your bins will be emptied; your parks will be cut and cleaned etc.  This ad doesn’t.  It’s just another post in a 15-strong department there to ‘develop people’ – whatever that means.

I bet you feel sick now knowing this is where Brown’s borrowing is going.  I certainly do.

Comments

[Steve Robertshaw]

Well at least we now know there are 14 other non-jobs at Coventry City Council. All of which could go in the first round of redundancies to save the tax payer money.

I wish!

[Graeme Pirie]

We should keep a database of all these non-jobs.

It would be useful to publish at local election time - we could even use it to extract some promises of tax cuts.

[Jim Taylor]

This is quite appalling - 15 completely non-jobs which would appear to have no benefit to the taxpayers who pay their salaries and even more important their gold plated pensions. Just when is this all going to stop?

[Andrew MacPhee]

Usually, I'm all behind you in ridiculing the ludicrous jobs which can appear in local government. However, in this instance, I don't agree. We all think that we should have more say in what the government does - well, here's a department which facilitates that. That is a worthwhile service, as much as clearing your street.
As for the rest of the description, it's no more unusual than you would find in any consultant's role. It isn't particularly unclear at all. I think you're reaching here.

[toby hall]

just because you dont understand the terminology doesnt mean a job isnt worthwhile. I have no idea what a job description explaining a hedge fund manager, an IT consultant or a structural engineer is going on about, but it doesnt make it a non-job. What ludicrous spiteful whinging this is. Most of the jobs in the City are non-jobs. and they pay ludicrous amounts- but because they're stealing money privately, it's not seen as bad. yet it's still taxpayers' hard earned savings in pensions etc that fund much of this monopoly fakery- and look where it's got us. This is anti-govt anti-tax dogma for the sake of it!

[Simon]

It seems perfectly obvious that the person who got this job would be employed in managing a team of people whose job it is to get expand the number of people who are getting involved with local government. If you ask me this is a good thing as the more people there are getting interested in the affairs of their locality the more democratic it is. Also what is wrong with the government creating jobs, surely that will put more money into the economy and this will create more jobs.

[Tim Aker]

Shouldn't that be the role of councillors, Simon?

Furthermore, the government doesn't create a profit. The more people on the government payroll, the higher our taxes need to be to sustain them.

[ian sander]

New Labour has been a smoke and mirrors government since they took office. They have attempted to fool the British Public by creating jobs for thousands of ludicrous,overpaid,arrogant non-essential beaurocrats in order to massage the unemployment figures. The creation of these non-jobs is one the greatest politcal and economic swindles of modern history.
All this fits with New Labours'plan - to create an army of sypathetic Labour voters from the Public Sector workers, Benefit scroungers, immigrants and the unemployed.
In all a total of probably 10 million or more.
The political, economic and social consequences of this Governments' policies will take a generation to rectify.