Over on Spencer Wilsons blog he asks the question by proxy of why people are public service. I work in the public sector and have done for a while now, with a brief foray into private sector life at a shall remain nameless multi-national auditing consultancy, and I hope it's where I will be allowed to stay.
It started with a temp job in the HR Department with the London Ambulance Service, went via an admin post with the Community Service section of the London Probation Service which became a stint as a Probation Service Officer supervising young repeat offenders on the Intensive Supervision and Monitoring Scheme which then became, due to relocation, a stint as a Systems Tech/Admin for a Local Authority which has now become a post as a Multimedia Communciations Officer.
That list spans 13 years. There were gaps in between, as ISP connection tech which became Team Leader when I was but a bairn out of university, and as the aforementioned Team Secretary for the 4 letter auditing employer where I got the highest score on the inbox exercise they'd ever seen but where I fit in about as seamlessly as a penguin in a lion enclosure.
Over on Spencer Wilsons post, someone has already commented, and quite fairly, that there are two kinds of public sector employee.
I'd like to make the point that there used to be two kinds of public sector employee. That the sector is moving on, in some areas quicker than others. That my experience over 13 years has changed, that the people I meet in the jobs I work in have changed.
My current team is a beautiful example. There are no coat tail riders. There are no questions about working as late as necessary to get the job done. If there is an 'emergency', people change plans and work around it. If weekend or late evening working is needed, to attend Board meetings, well so be it. There are jokes made about tedium and hours lost forever, but they are jokes, they are not meant. They are passionate about their jobs. They love analysing, thinking, dissecting issues from numerous different directions. Opinions, I am told, are welcome and I believe that absolutely, and am already expressing my own, carefully. Others tell me there is no blame culture, and I believe that too. I can't think of a single person in the whole department who I would not go to to ask a question of, and not expect to receive a well thought, well reasoned, well argued response back.
I know not all Departments are like this. I know this very well. But every person in that office could be paid oh so much more somewhere else. Every single person in that office makes a conscious decision to stay, despite the 30-40% axe shaped numbers floating above their heads. They pay infinite attention to detail, but they do their jobs with grace and humour still.
None of these things, and I do mean none of these things, have I found in the private sector. Perhaps the difference is a motivation to work hard to earn the fabled 'job for life', perhaps they stay because of the pension promise. I don't think they do, but perhaps I am wrong. Instead I think they do it for the same reason I do it, because they don't mind waking up in the morning. Because going to work isn't a hassle or a chore. Because every day is different and no one knows in the morning how the world will look by evening. Because they are led well and with commitment. Because as a result that commitment filters down, as does the communication. Because thinking outside of the box means jumping up and down on it until it's absolutely flattened with treadmarks printed all over it. Because it's a challenge and it's hectic and it requires keeping very many plates spinning at once, but that's fun, that's the point, that's the challenge and that's the reason.
I perhaps paint an idyllic picture. It's entirely possible I couldn't walk out of the door tomorrow and go and work for some digital media agency and instantly double my salary. Perhaps I might not get such good pension deal somewhere else. Perhaps I might find inspiring passionate people who make me laugh, feel comfortable enough to actually express my opinions and where being a woman hasn't even crossed my mind since I stepped across the threshold of the Department.
I don't really care. I work as hard as I can to earn the money the public contributes to paying my salary. I think as fast and as thoroughly as I can, with as much enthusiasm and passion as I can, for as long as I can each day. I don't sneak off for appointments and not make the time up. I don't sneak off to go shopping for presents either. I don't take inappropriate gifts from people and I never make promises that I can't keep. I try as hard as I possibly can to be the kind of person you would want to give money to to do their job.
I am not alone. I am one of millions. I am proud to be one of millions, just one little cog in the wheel which means my little piece of the public sector keeps oiled and running. But most of all, I am proud to be in the company of an army of people who feel exactly the same way I do. Armies can win battles - and I fear that with the cuts which are coming, it's going to take an armies organisation and attitude to keep things running.
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Sunday, 22 August 2010
(NHS ) A communicative diversion
This blog has been quiet for a while. Things twinkle as they happen and I think 'I must blog about that, it's interesting' but it doesn't fit inside the remit of this blog, nor the other one, and so it never gets written. So consider this a pre-emptive shot in a volley which I suspect will take in health, politics, society, change, communications and social media. For me, those subjects are tied very closely together because I see health, politics and society through a social media filter, as most of my news and information comes from that source - but I don't think that negates the ability to comment on those subjects, simply that my view might be offset by 45 degrees. As the title might suggest, I'll try and give some indication on what the subject matter might be in an effort to aid peoples manipulation of the insta back button manoeuvre.
Despite never giving birth, the event in most womens lives which necessitates a reliance on the NHS, I've been unfortunate enough to require health assistance on a few occasions. Being the sort of person who'd rather avoid interaction with complicated services unless absolutely forced to, I'm the kind of idiot who ends up needing twice the help initially needed because I leave it too long before mentioning there might be a problem. Currently I'm playing collect the specialist. Which is irrelevant to this post, except that it's not, because this is why I have discovered a fatal flaw in the NHS communication system. Or at least, I think it's ridiculous. Others may know why this state of affairs persist, and I'd be appreciative of being disabused of my perceptions but frankly, it's a joke.
It just seems important in this assumption jumping age, that I make it absolutely, completely and utterly clear that the NHS has actually saved my life on one occasion, is responsible for my teeth not resembling a disorganised graveyard, ensured I could see when I was 12 and we couldn't afford glasses, have sorted out untold results of my tomboy leanings and have done all of these things with patience, grace and kindness in a framework which is clearly, and I do mean clearly, screaming and groaning under the pressure which us humans are putting on the system on a daily basis. They've done their very best in helping a rather complicated problem become unravelled, piece by piece, and yes, sometimes some people are not kind or gracious or patient, sometimes the odd one or two people in the system are rude, ignorant and insulting, but my experience, on the whole, comes out with a clear and flashing 9 out of 10. I would be absolutely lost without them right now.
So, disclaimers out of the way, please tell me this.
Why does specialist A who I see on a 6 months basis, communicate with specialist B, who I see on a 3 month basis, via letter?
They work in the same hospital.
They work 1 floor apart.
It can't be the audit trail. Email leaves trails. Emails are stored on servers which are backed up. Emails can be enterprise vaulted, compressed into tiny little kilobytes, and forgotten about until needed to be retrieved for enquiries or analysis. Emails, more to the point, are instant. You don't have to read them when they arrive, they can be parked. They can even be farmed off to your secretary who can filter them, decide which ones are important, and flag them for you in a nice colour of purple so you know they're not that urgent, or red if they are.
Letters are flammable. They are not backed up. They are one instance of something which when destroyed may as well have never existed. They take a while to be delivered, they cost money to be delivered, hell they cost money to be printed. They are inefficient, temporary, damp ridden effigies of a pre-internet age. (Disclaimers here are made for letters between non-professionals. I'm not for a second saying they don't have a place, I'm really not, we're talking about professional arenas here)
So why the hell are two intelligent human beings, smarter, way way smarter than I, still talking to each other like the year 2000 never happened? What am I missing here? Am I missing something, or do we have a health care system which may be so resolutely stuck in a pre-internet age that we're never going to get them out again? Who's responsible for getting them out? Do they understand IT and it's possibilities, capabilities and limitations? Or are they contractors, another example of the national rip off, geeks gone to the other side who see only pound signs and not the ability to earn a decent living but also change the world in the process?
Sadly, I suspect the latter. Sadly, because once upon a time, I didn't believe there were good geeks and bad geeks. The figures coming out of Whitehall in recent weeks regarding IT projects have finally smashed that belief into pieces. Now I know there really are good geeks and bad geeks and that we need to find a way for government and the public sector to differentiate and pretty damn quickly because otherwise we will be forever stuck in a world where the NHS is 10 years behind the rest of the world and operating inefficiently because of it.
And I don't want that, and neither, I suspect, does anyone else. Apart from those bloody contractors who I could merrily put in stocks.
Despite never giving birth, the event in most womens lives which necessitates a reliance on the NHS, I've been unfortunate enough to require health assistance on a few occasions. Being the sort of person who'd rather avoid interaction with complicated services unless absolutely forced to, I'm the kind of idiot who ends up needing twice the help initially needed because I leave it too long before mentioning there might be a problem. Currently I'm playing collect the specialist. Which is irrelevant to this post, except that it's not, because this is why I have discovered a fatal flaw in the NHS communication system. Or at least, I think it's ridiculous. Others may know why this state of affairs persist, and I'd be appreciative of being disabused of my perceptions but frankly, it's a joke.
It just seems important in this assumption jumping age, that I make it absolutely, completely and utterly clear that the NHS has actually saved my life on one occasion, is responsible for my teeth not resembling a disorganised graveyard, ensured I could see when I was 12 and we couldn't afford glasses, have sorted out untold results of my tomboy leanings and have done all of these things with patience, grace and kindness in a framework which is clearly, and I do mean clearly, screaming and groaning under the pressure which us humans are putting on the system on a daily basis. They've done their very best in helping a rather complicated problem become unravelled, piece by piece, and yes, sometimes some people are not kind or gracious or patient, sometimes the odd one or two people in the system are rude, ignorant and insulting, but my experience, on the whole, comes out with a clear and flashing 9 out of 10. I would be absolutely lost without them right now.
So, disclaimers out of the way, please tell me this.
Why does specialist A who I see on a 6 months basis, communicate with specialist B, who I see on a 3 month basis, via letter?
They work in the same hospital.
They work 1 floor apart.
It can't be the audit trail. Email leaves trails. Emails are stored on servers which are backed up. Emails can be enterprise vaulted, compressed into tiny little kilobytes, and forgotten about until needed to be retrieved for enquiries or analysis. Emails, more to the point, are instant. You don't have to read them when they arrive, they can be parked. They can even be farmed off to your secretary who can filter them, decide which ones are important, and flag them for you in a nice colour of purple so you know they're not that urgent, or red if they are.
Letters are flammable. They are not backed up. They are one instance of something which when destroyed may as well have never existed. They take a while to be delivered, they cost money to be delivered, hell they cost money to be printed. They are inefficient, temporary, damp ridden effigies of a pre-internet age. (Disclaimers here are made for letters between non-professionals. I'm not for a second saying they don't have a place, I'm really not, we're talking about professional arenas here)
So why the hell are two intelligent human beings, smarter, way way smarter than I, still talking to each other like the year 2000 never happened? What am I missing here? Am I missing something, or do we have a health care system which may be so resolutely stuck in a pre-internet age that we're never going to get them out again? Who's responsible for getting them out? Do they understand IT and it's possibilities, capabilities and limitations? Or are they contractors, another example of the national rip off, geeks gone to the other side who see only pound signs and not the ability to earn a decent living but also change the world in the process?
Sadly, I suspect the latter. Sadly, because once upon a time, I didn't believe there were good geeks and bad geeks. The figures coming out of Whitehall in recent weeks regarding IT projects have finally smashed that belief into pieces. Now I know there really are good geeks and bad geeks and that we need to find a way for government and the public sector to differentiate and pretty damn quickly because otherwise we will be forever stuck in a world where the NHS is 10 years behind the rest of the world and operating inefficiently because of it.
And I don't want that, and neither, I suspect, does anyone else. Apart from those bloody contractors who I could merrily put in stocks.
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