In the wake of our Unnecessary Jobs report we’ve had a flurry of nominees for ‘Non-job of the week’ sent in by supporters. Thanks to those of you who got in touch to highlight some of the positions you’ve spotted in local papers or on recruitment websites – it’s great to know you’re all keeping an eye out for profligacy and questioning the necessity of some of the publically funded positions you come across.
One supporter sent in an advert from Colchester University Hospital who’re hiring for Non-Executive Directors on a salary of £11,000pa for just four days per month, and another felt aggrieved that the public will be paying £30,851pa for an Exmoor Moorland Landscape Partnership Scheme Manager to “reconnect people with their moorland heritage”. It’s interesting that even though the notice for the latter stated that this job is paying paid for with lottery money, the tell-tale logos on the bottom indicated that there is moor to this project that meets the eye as the EU, DEFRA and the soon to be abolished South West RDA were all represented...
Another TPA-er was shocked – considering the financial climate – to find that Suffolk County Council have vacancies for both a Chief Press Officer on £44,066-£49,145pa AND some Communications Officers (plural!) on £22,958 - £26,276pa. Clearly Suffolk are keen to spin any cuts in services...
This week’s non-job however, comes from an unnamed local authority in London:
“Carbon Reduction Officer
£18 - £20 per hour
We are currently recruiting for a well known Local Authority in London for a Carbon Reduction Officer. This is an excellent opportunity which has funding until March 2011.
Your role will be to assist in reducing the councils carbon emissions through implementing a programme of energy and water saving measures.
The duties of the post will be to:
1. Gather and collate energy and water consumption data in order to manage consumption and cost.
2. Develop a carbon reduction strategy
3. Liaise with both internal and external clients on energy and carbon reduction
4. Promote and provide carbon and energy reporting services to client departments.
This is an excellent opportunity for a candidate who is knowledgeable in this area as you will be responsible on creating an action plan for the borough”.
This is just money in exchange for duplicating and regurgitating the enormous amount of literature, advice and information that’s already out there in terms of cutting down on energy use and...well...common sense. If councils can save the planet and some much-needed cash by cutting down on energy/water consumption then they should be doing it anyway without having to hire some jobsworth on £20 per hour to tell them to. And surely there isn’t an ongoing need for this sort of post anyway – once authorities have been advised exactly where they’re going wrong and how they can make savings the role is redundant?
And more to the point, can local authorities really afford this PC box-ticking/green PR with the axe poised to swing?