Einstein : Not everything that can be counted counts. And not everything that counts can be counted.

Tuesday 14 August 2007

I've been tagged

It appears that I've been tagged by Twining.

What that means exactly I don't fully understand but, it seems to surround what I would do if I was in the glorious position of being commissioner for a day.

I've thought about this and itis clear that within this fantasy nothing much would be permanent because it would all change back.

However............

If I could things I would like to instill some role reversal policies.

I would like all officers to perform a variety of different roles to gain experience and awareness of different areas.

We have moved on from what I consider true selection for a post because of fairness at work, equal opps and either cowardly selection procedures that are more concerned with reducing complaints which are largely caused by mis-information or simply bad losers. As a result we face people who are in a role they are not suited for or have little or no ability to do. It appears that quite often the best person for the role is overlooked.

Everyone will know of someone who is suited for a particular role but for a variety of reasons they fail a paper sift, their written evidence covering something is not as good as another's or they do not interview very well means they are overlooked. Someone who can submit high marking written evidence and perform well in an interview
will get the nod over someone with more ability to perform the role.


Now back to role reversal, I would like everyone to work in comms to see what there are up against. They have targets and staffing issues.

I would like officers of Insp & above to work as response unit for a month to see just what happens with workload and balancing all the things that get decreed from on high.

I would like those that moan about the management teams to perform that role to see how they cope with the different demands.

Then and only then will we get back to what we used to do well. That is putting people in jobs they enjoy and do well. Round pegs in round holes. We might also allow for the roles to get back to specialising in what they do instead of widening the demands and expectations within the role.

This is just a dream, I know. We are burdened down with all sorts of other crap that give this idea absolutely no chance to get off the ground. We are never going to lose the influeence of the host of policies to ensure we are seen to be playing fair, the equal opps, the positive discrimination, the statments from ACPO that appear to endorse selection procedure importance but are given lip service when selections are made.

I can still dream, I might still get that lottery win.

Sorry, I am dreaming again.

1 comment:

BelfastPeeler said...

It should be a rule that the person deciding on a shift pattern should have to work it for 3 months themselves.

That and Ops panning staff should be forbidden from giving themselves overtime. Thy always seem to be in uniform and out on the street on the days when its double time or Man United are playing a local team...