Monday, 14 June 2010

Bloody idiocy

The Sunday Times yesterday pointed out that although we are broke and we need some cuts in public spending, our local government bodies continue to recruit as if nothing has happened. We are not talking about the ‘front-line’ services here like nurses, teachers, policemen, garbage collectors and the like. Oh no, we are talking about jobs that are far better paid than the front line jobs such as these:

Brighton and Hove City Council – 4 x Strategic Directors on £125k each. (That's half a frigging million and if you go to the website and watch the council's Chief Executive talking utter bullshit about these jobs, you'll be no wiser.)

Sheffield – Internal communications change consultant @ £400/day
Unknown – Intelligence Officer – to be paid £5,000 pa more than an MI5 officer
Suffolk – Head of communications @ £700/day, ie about 20% more than the Prime Minister
Hertfordshire – Putting people first programme manager: Up to £54,412
Unknown – Empowerment partnership coordinators @ £70,000 each
Unknown – Communications chief @ £182,000
Derby – Ambassador to its twin town Osnabruck – salary unknown
Derby – Head of Streetpride: up to £55,482
Derby – Strategic Commissioning Manager: up to £38,961
East London – Community Development Coordinator: £42,000
Medway – European Projects and tourism officer: £36,313
Newham, London – Media Officer (to deliver positive stories about the council): £36,306
Liverpool – Totem Pole Artist – salary unknown.

You are going to love this:
Elmbridge, Surrey : Health, Safety and Wellbeing Adviser : Up to £34,524. (When the Sunday Times asked about the wellbeing bit, the answer was, ‘We are not really sure yet as we have only just added that to the role. We’ll want someone to make sure that the staff take breaks, go for walks – that kind of stuff.’

That’s the Sunday Times for you. I decided to look at my local patch. Here’s Cardiff for you:

Play Strategy Implementation Officer : Up to £23,708
Senior Equality & Diversity Specialist : Up to £32,706
Service Delivery Advisor (Manage) : Up to £19,126
Equalities Network Officer : Up to £28,636
Coordinator – Butetown : Up to £28,636
Geographic Information Systems Officer : Up to £26,276

You have to admire the self importance and imagination of the job titles here but in your heart you know that they are all wanker's jobs. I have nothing against the people themselves: they are people like you and me. It's just that we don't need them.

I am reminded here of Geldof’s ‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’ Judging by the above, our councils think it’s Christmas every day.

No comments: