FG Anniversary Event & AIB

rodento

Anyone know what FG were thinking when planning an Anniversary Event on the day that 2500 bank job losses were to be announced.

I for one don't think it was cancelled because of labour

later12

i once did one of those horrid management exercises at work where we had to learn how positive re-inforcement is superior to negativity in terms of efficiency.

One by one, an employee was blindfolded, and was ordered to do various menial tasks (change the paper in the copier, open a door, deliver a cup of water) first by using positive commands (closer! nearly there!) and then with negative commands (wrong way! not there!). The difference was quite remarkable.

I'm convinced that positive re-inforcement is a far superior way of managing a group of people than its alternatives. That's why many of us work in an offices where meeting targets is celebrated and rewarded, even if only in a token way.

That's why doing so is a perfectly healthy and legitimate exercise in maintaining empoyees' productive enthusiasm, and asserting their mettle.

I understand why such celebrations are politically sensitive. But refusing to acknowledge and celebrate success is a regrettable strategy.

rodento

I agree but they must have known the banks job losses were to be announced today

washman3

Wonder if Enda will meet the 2,500 poor unfortunate souls that will lose their jobs for a stage managed photoshoot like the Paypal "celebration"??
which incidentally, he had sweet fcuk all to claim credit for.:mad:

mike65

The whole idea smacks of small time, gold stars, silver stars? FFS. At least the FG parliamentary body immediately saw this for what it was.

washman3

Was it Big Phil's (the bullyboy, septic tank inspector) idea in the first place?

later12

rodento wrote: »

I agree but they must have known the banks job losses were to be announced today

Not necessarily. James Reilly indicated that the event was organised by "some over enthusiastic individuals in the back room”, which I imagine is quite a demoralising way to speak about one's PR staff, but I suppose that is Fine Gael's issue to resolve amongst themselves.

I think it's pretty unfortunate that an organisation cannot acknowledge its successes for fear of upsetting others' sensitivites (who, if they really have something to worry about, probably won't even notice a bunch of FGers giving each other a morale boost).

Rebelheart

Not every Irish political party can celebrate an anniversary of its founding in 1932 by the leader of Ireland's fascist party, The Blueshirts, who then went off and fought for Franco and the Roman Catholic Church in the Spanish Civil War against the democratically-elected (socialist) government of Spain.

If you have it, flaunt it!

southsiderosie

MOD NOTE:

I understand that FG is not everyone's cup of tea, but can everyone dial down the hyperbole please? It just ends up serving as flamebait.

rodento

I know the event cancellation was blamed on labour

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0308/breaking17.html

Fine Gael has dramatically cancelled a media event celebrating its first year in office amid concerns it was triumphalist and inappropriate.
The party announced the photocall yesterday for an event that would show the party's TDs and Senators holding up stars, each depicting the party's achievements in Government.
The cancellation, which was being received as an embarrassing climbdown for the party, was announced before 9am this morning, shortly after Labour Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte portrayed the event as "silly" and inappropriate.


But I still think the AIB job announcement played a bigger role on this and was just wondering if anyone else thought the two events are linked

later12

Yes possibly, also the juxtaposition of the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis alongside images of thousands of people lining up to attend an emigrants' jobs fair over the weekend is still fresh in people's minds. I'm sure FG wanted to avoid striking a similar chord.

Sand

I'm just not clear on what significant successess Fine Gael can celebrate tbh. I say that as someone who voted for FG last time out. At best, FG can only claim to have steadied the ship. They have not significantly altered any policies of the previous government ( i.e. the civil service still rules) and there was a lot of stumbling through the early months with Gilmore seeming to be on a mission to publically contradict as many FG ministers as he could in 2011.

Noonan has been a disapointment - his megaphone diplomacy with the ECB in the summer of 2011 was naive, and ended up with him getting slapped about by the ECB. A similar state of affairs is becoming apparent with the more recent promissory note focus.

The stupid Croke Park deal has been maintained, and the so-called privatisation plans for the ESB were absolutely derranged.

Kenny had a brief honeymoon where he managed to summon up the spinal cord to tell Sarkozy to get ****ed on his first EU summit. Since then, Kenny has declined to the point where he is getting physically slapped about and dismissed by Sarkozy.

FG have sacrified all their reformist credentials with the advisor pay cap breaches. Theyve been punched in the face with the recent planning permission rejection of the new hospital. Theyve retreated entirely from their claims that they would force a writedown on the bank debt - instead, theyve reverted to the civil servant script of taking it as a point of pride that Ireland pays it debts. Even when its not Irelands debt.

I really do struggle to pick out an achievement over the past year where the FG-Labour government have changed the game or have achieved anything of note. I really do see FG-Labour taking a hammering in the next election, but I see SF as being the main beneficiaries.

There is a very large "beal bocht" constituency out there which went to Fianna Fail through the Celtic Tiger, went to Labour/ULA in 2011 and will go to Sinn Fein/ULA in 2016. The problem for Fine Gael is that they are trying to chase this "beal bocht" constituency which will *never* vote for FG and in doing so are alienating the people who gave FG their vote to establish a mandate for root and branch reform of the Irish state.

I totally agree that positive reinforcement is a good idea, however praise has to be justified - otherwise it becomes devalued. FG have accomplished nothing significant over the past 12 months. Having a celebration about showing up for work and not burning the office down wont help raise standards...

nuac

Sand

How can FG be blamed for the Mater ABP decision?

Sand

Im not blaming them for the planning permission decision actually - it wasnt their decision to make.

But were they completely caught by surprise by it? There wasnt any warnings at all? The reality is the project spent millions on "the best advice" and couldnt come up with a practical option that would pass the most obvious hurdle - planning permission. Do we believe that no one investigated at any stage prior to making the application that the plans could be rejected?

The civil service simply blundered on hoping to force the project through by sheer inertia, and Fine Gael failed to rein them in at any point during the year. I totally understand that green, inexperienced and completely unqualified ministers will always be bossed about by their civil servants ("Oh no Minister, you cant stop the plans now at this advanced stage without wasting so much money...") but Fine Gael have equally done nothing to confront the underlying causes of bad policymaking in Ireland.

The end result is a year has been wasted pursuing a failed plan that now has to be sent back to the drawing board again. Of course, in official Ireland, no one is to blame. We cant hold Fine Gael to account. And we cant hold the civil servants to account. Everybody is responsible, so nobody is responsible - and the insiders move on to the next policymaking debacle with a promotion and payrise.