CPSU - will ask the Government to ease the impact....

Interesting piece about the saintly CPSU folk today by Dan O'Brien in the Irish Times.
Full Article:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0614/1224317876839.html

Basically the reform in question is the removal of the glass panels between the impoverished citizens drawing the dole, and the ordinary decent frontline wuuurkers in the CPSU. It's thought that this might lessen the humiliation of drawing the dole and allow a modicum of dignity for the citizen as he deals with the civil servant.

However the civil servants think this is a very bad thing indeed, and are threatening a strike if it's implemented, an attitude that grosses me out.

In fairness, I know of one low ranking civil servant who was attacked and wounded by a member of the public reaching in and under the glass panel. I can understand that civil servants might be afraid of being attacked by members of the public if the glass panel was removed.

But Id note that the case I'm aware of occurred despite the glass panel, that members of the public with a grievance could equally wait outside until a civil servant leaves in the evening, and that planning for the worst doesn't always mean best practice.

Lets face it, even if civil servants are protected behind glass panels, the ordinary members of the public are not. Surely the best solution is to deal with the dangerous maniacs rather than only considering it a problem if they interact with a civil servant without a glass panel to defend the civil servant? It might require a re-ordering of priorities in Official Ireland so that low level criminality (i.e. whatever does not impact them) is not tolerated though. Effort...easier to just have glass panels.

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

You're right. Unemployed people are clearly a menace. We should segregate them, maybe give them some sort of badges so we can identify them and set up some area where we contain them.

Actually if we remove their citizenship entirely then the nice people in the cpsu will be able to treat them like the dangerous scum they are.

Suppose I can take it the answer to my questions is no.

everyone has the right to work in a safe environment.

Godge wrote: »

Why should private sector bank workers be protected by glass panels but public sector social welfare office employees not be similarly protected?

In fairness, it is rare to hear of armed guys going into to rob the Welfare Office. At least its a rarer event than in banks/post offices.

I was with my wife in the social welfare office in galway and saw a nutter picking up chairs and flaking them against the windows protecting the staff. Roaring at them that he needed more money. I think they need that protection because sooner or later some drugged up lunatic will attack one with a knife.

opti0nal wrote: »

And, how would you measure performance, say, for a customer-service person in a dole office?

It may not have happened to date in the Irish civil service, but it is, indeed, possible to measure performance for clerical grades. To be effective this would have to happen in the context of an overall performance management process, eventually covering all staff, and I see no reason why this couldn’t be done in the context of the Croke Park Agreement.

And I am not saying this from the point of view of trying to take some sort of advantage over clerical grades. In fact, there are many advantages for the vast majority of employees in a properly implemented performance management process.

It would, perhaps, be seen initially as a way for management to “get one over” on the lower grades and that part needs to be managed as part of a overall change management process- but is certainly is possible.

When you consider that the biggest element of public service expenditure relates to staff costs, there needs to be a lot more attention paid to getting as much as possible for this huge spend in terms of outcomes for the state, the customer and the employee. This includes people development, better teamwork, meaningful goal setting, coaching on the job, ongoing feedback on performance, etc. It also means dealing with poor performers, which is the hard part and the bit that unions become very defensive about. But poor performance relates only to a small proportion of employees and can and should be addressed, rather than be ignored and left to fester, as often happens.

Performance Management Processes are based on the concepts of planning, goal setting, coaching, appraisal and feedback. There is a lot of material available on performance management, for example:

http://www.mpo.gov.mt/downloads/pmpguide.pdf

http://www.cheshire.ie/docs/staff/performance/Competency%20Framework%20-%20Management%20Level.pdf

http://www.oic.gov.ie/en/AboutUs/PolicyDocuments/HumanResourceManagementStrategy/Name,148,en.htm

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

Few outside the public sector get incremental pay rises.
It's all performance based.

I'd imagine it's more than you think. Every place I worked while in college had incremental pay rises.. ranging from Dunnes Stores to Apple computers and Flextronics.

gerryo777 wrote: »

The private sector can give all the pay rises they want, so what?
Private sector workers are not paid for from exchequer funds.

The ones who provide goods and services to any state agency are.
Just as virtually all those who worked in road and public infrastructure were.

There is an obnoxious lust for bloodletting in the ps without acknowledging the silent cull that has already happened, ie those who worked in the labour intensive construction side of government expenditure.

Oafley Jones wrote: »

I'd imagine it's more than you think. Every place I worked while in college had incremental pay rises.. ranging from Dunnes Stores to Apple computers and Flextronics.

Yearly inflation based pay rises, with a tiny percentage towards term of service. That's what they were. If you wanted more then that you had to work hard to get it. Plenty of private company's have both taken reductions in salary and implemented play freezes in the last number of years due to Financial restrictions.

Increments were not and never will be comparable to that. I still don't understand why they were ever implemented in the first place.