Having A PoP

My thanks and sympathy go out to the colleague for taking the time and effort to pen the following and send it in at 1 this morning. It justly deserves a post in its own right:-

A day in the life … I’ve read all the comments and I can’t say I’m surprised. I’ve been in probation a while and it’s the same everywhere. I have a few colleagues that work in fairly decent offices elsewhere but for most it’s an ordeal. It doesn’t matter if were NPS or CRC because it’s bad everywhere. In my office the teams are divided because of the workload and pressure. Managers want to play friends when it’s convenient for them, SPO’s are not trustworthy and Senior managers are avoided.

I’ve long become a robot to the work, everything is on autopilot for this monotonous job I once was proud of. It’s not hard to listen to the complaints of others and it’s the same, soul destroying work because of high caseloads, low pay, limited career options and a bullish management blame culture. If lucky, a probation office will have one decent manager, usually silenced by the other bullies into being totally useless.

Like most, 9am is my arrival at work. I don’t need to be in at 9am but managers like to watch what time we arrive. To prove we’re working they want us to keep a timesheet, write a start time in the register on arrival, update movements on team calendars, log into MS Teams and attend daily meetings. A colleague who sits near is bullied to get in before 9am every day, apparently it’s required by an imaginary policy for to be ready at their desk before business hours start. There’s another colleague a manager visibly exits their office daily to check if they’re at their desk by 9:30am. Only a matter of time before a clock in machine appears by the front door. I’d prefer it as they wouldn’t be able to wriggle out of overtime pay any longer.

Daily around 10am - 11am there’s usually a meeting, briefing or training of some sort. They’re arranged by managers and staff haven’t been consulted on timings. There’s so many meetings I’ve given up trying to keep track. Everything’s titled mandatory and non-attendance is met by barrages of emails from SPO’s, Senior Managers, Business Managers, Diary Managers. Attendance isn’t much better as after introductions, instructions and group reprimands you wonder what the point was, and I’ve recently stopped hearing instructions from those on the same pay band or below. The band 5s object to scrutiny or complaints, and always want the last word so I shut off before it even starts. I’m usually preoccupied dipping in and out for the cases I have reporting from 9:30am onwards. The rest of the time responding to emails, recording case records and completing pieces of work.

11am - 4pm was a steady stream of cases reporting and all the work that goes along with it. At some point I remember to eat lunch and if lucky get to take a walk. Today a colleague and I spent our 15 minute lunch break speculating what idiot decided to call them People on Probation and us Probation Practitioners, because I am sick and tired of hearing the words “PoP’s” and “PP’s”. It was that or discuss our caseloads which are year in year out in the red, diaries full and every day in the office busy. We all work from home when we can but managers are constantly threatening to reduce and remove this. They’re nowhere to be seen themselves, and when in the office they’re tucked away in their offices bombarding us with email instructions, requests and threats to PPs about PiPs and PoPs. We even get follow ups from their managers repeating the same hogwash as if we couldn’t read first time around.

Today I felt dismayed because every time I went into a case record I saw reams of manager instructions that have never been discussed. Sometimes the exact opposite of what was discussed was recorded, or what I’d already said I cannot do. We’re all being set up like this, pressured to do home visits, attend external meetings, training, epf, eqip, drug testing, lifer panels, quality assurance, audits, team events, monitor performance targets, there’s just not enough time in the day. I do not care about performance targets or why a piece of work was completed in 16 days instead of 15.

I put all this aside and about 5pm I managed to fit in a quick home visit on my way home on a case who struggles to go out. I’m not bothering about the others on their stupid list sent out to name and shame us. I saw about 15 cases today, not including the random cases turning up at reception because managers are incompetent at allocating cases or covering staff absence. Tomorrow I’ll have another 15 and again bombarded by managers and reception to see unplanned cases. If these so called managers just kept to ordering office supplies, signing off leave and being there when we need them it’s be a much better place.

I’ve got MAPPA later in the week which is pointless at best, and two Oral Hearings for cases that won’t be released. That’s three days gone out of four remaining days of the week, and I’ve somehow got to fit in a parole report, a recall review report and two full Oasys risk assessments. I will compete them, but they’ll be factual and short so some numpty manager with less probation experience than my lanyard will want to have a chat about “quality”. The response from me is always the same, ‘too much work, too little time and stop penalising us for YOUR failures in staffing and recruitment because nobody will ever be able to do quality work unless caseloads are capped at 25 cases’.

Through the day every colleague I spoke to is sick of probation, bullied by managers and actively seeking a way out. From SPO to Director, these people are responsible for causing misery in the lives of staff, many which have now lost interest in their careers as a result. The pay is bad, the conditions are worse, and everyone seems to be returning from or about to go on long term sick due to stress, mental breakdowns and other work induced health problems. Two temps left last week after less than a month, both said they would not be returning to probation.

It’s now gone 12am and I could switch on the laptop to finish up for today and start preparing for tomorrow’s 9am eta. This is how many colleagues get by, working late into the evening or getting up at the crack of dawn to switch on. I don’t because I refuse to compromise my commitments outside of work, I’d rather raise my pirates flag and face the wrath of the bully beef managers. I’m no rebel, I understand that even a machine has to rest, and if I’m going to worry about anything it’ll be bills, debts and all the other problems life brings.