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Sid Langley's avatar

More timely reporting from NNJ. It's pretty obvious, and has been for quite a while, that far from 'risking being a failed council', the north unitary is just that already ... but the people running it have just voted to pay themselves more! You couldn't make it up. The words 'noses' and 'troughs' seem totally justified.

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Stewart Johnson's avatar

During my time working as an estate manager I found eventually that direct employment of cleaners and catering staff paid dividends.

They have a sense of ownership of their workplace.

There is of course a considerable cost reduction in staffing compared to farming the work out to agencies or contractors.

However the admin burden is considerable but HR & Payroll will be in place already, the direct management will inevitably be in place with the in-house department still extant since offloading the original staff decades ago.

I would say that sickness benefits which lingers from the days of the rainbow pack is too generous.

I employed an ex council worker once to find them coaching my direct staff on how to maximise time off ‘sick’ i.e. come in at 08:00 go sick immediately. That day you go sick from work doesn’t count, take three days call in on day three to say you’ll be in the next day.

So if you start the process on Tuesday you can have Tuesday to Monday morning off without penalty or pay effect.

Needless to say the employee left soon after.

Poor leadership & lazy management are the blight of any organisation. But worse is disdain for the lower scaled (poorly paid) employees these are the foundation upon which any organisation is built.

Finally the ultimate sanction is always in the hands of the employees if you treat them poorly they simply leave.

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