Mystic Ethel predicts day of long knives!

In a past post on redundancy measures in the local police force (So much more than job losses), I commented about the real effects and wider issues of the process.

As I have said previously (21st Century Policing); it really doesn’t have to be like this however, the turkeys continue to side-step the real organisational problems. As usual, the managers are applying knee-jerk solutions for a quick fix to longer term issues.

For some time now the police (and the remainder of the public sector), has suffered from the exponential growth of mediocre management. There is also a proliferation of self-interested leadership and self-replicating bureaucratic administrative process, all of which has had a profound and negative impact upon a customer focussed service delivery. The additional (but no less important) knock on effects impacting upon morale have also been highlighted this week…

BBC: One in five UK workers fear they could lose their jobs, a survey has said. In the public sector, that figure rises to nearly one in three workers, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said. The organisation is calling on managers to demonstrate high-quality leadership in order to raise morale and engagement in the workplace… (Read more)

It was obvious, once the effects of government austerity measures finally kicked in, vast swathes of the public sector were likely to face imminent redundancy. However, a major factor in the reality of all this, and one which is understandably having a negative impact on productivity is, the underhand and deceitful way in which many leaders are wielding their knives.

BBC News: More than 10,000 uniformed police officer posts are set to disappear by the end of next year in England and Wales, Labour Party research suggests… (Read more)

Today the political posturing goes on, whilst the management of my local force have continued to say “no decisions have been made” about redundancy or control room closure proposals. All this whilst staff have been instructed to attend one-to-one meetings with their line manager and HR representative today.

Massive management and administrative effort has been applied to keeping the lid on the pressure cooker of staff worries and concerns about their job security and future financial situation. It has been all but impossible for them to get any straight or honest answers about their prospects and consequently, they have been unable to make any plans to attempt to support their families in the future. There will be little or no support for those members of staff who are made redundant. And, it is unlikely any organisational assistance will be given to help them through the transitional period to new employment.

The first meetings were held at 9am this morning, my wife’s meeting was scheduled for 12.30pm however, before even arriving at work she knows the content and her future prospects, thanks to our ‘connected’ and socially networked society!

Interesting that in excess of twelve months ago, long before the government austerity measures, ‘Ethel’ the control room domestic engineer (aka cleaner) knew that the HQ control room was set for closure… Her comments at the time were dismissed out of hand as “fictitious rumour and gossip mongering”!

Welcome to the day of the long knives methodology in police management… Maybe ‘Mystic Ethel’ can secure a new position with a tabloid newspaper?