Heart Felt

I notice this was written at 02.06 this morning and in my view deserves highlighting:-

Unfortunately I am one of those experienced probation officers who reached the top of the scale the hard way 15 years ago. I am consistently referred to as the most experienced and reliable 'go to' member of the team. I have been slogging away at the front line day in day out. Meanwhile new recruits flash past me in too much of a hurry to learn how to do the promotion interviews and not interested in the job.

I'm never sick, but I'm getting on and suffer from poor eyesight and arthritis (I feel like a dinosaur). Some colleagues in my generation have died of Covid - notably the ones that came in whilst those statistically at less risk stayed at home. At my desk throughout the lockdowns, holding the fort. Every pay deal has been a further kick in the teeth because heaven forbid they pay anyone more for hanging in there. 

Band 4 is a joke with many staff who have never been probation trained are now Band 4, 5 and 6. I mentioned that years ago we had some professional autonomy and discretion as POs the other day in a team meeting and my line manager (I'd been doing the job ten years before she was born!) nearly gagged on her spinach smoothie. 'You're here to get the job done the way it has to be done and not to question how the higher ups want it done'. 

Like anyone has any respect for those higher up in the management hierarchy who if they didn't exist tomorrow not only would a lot of money be saved but the machine would plough on regardless because people like me would carry on carrying on. If I didn't have bills to pay I'd tell her where to stuff the current job as it certainly wasn't what I signed up for. 

Working for the CRC was actually a lot preferable to the kind of crap I now have to put up with just trying to do the PO job with a few principles. They have created a bureaucratic nightmare that does not help anyone reduce reoffending but simply serves to grind staff down and strip them of the last vestiges of dignity they have managed to retain before forcing them to comply or leave. 

What a bloody mess and if I hear another manager tell me I am a hidden hero I will puke in an envelope and send it to them. Heroes die and are forgotten, whilst overpaid people who have mostly saved money by not having to commute from their posh houses in the suburbs get gongs and buildings named after them and can afford nice things and early retirement with big lump sums for all their years of high paid work. 

I hope you have a goddam awful new year Amy Rees. Lord knows you and your top team deserve a bucket load of bad luck, red tape and pointless repetitive bureaucracy and as much crap as you pass down the line needs to come right back up at you until you are up to your neck in it. You and your cronies are not worth your salaries that should be at most three times the lowest paid full time employee.