As a result of the regional bean counters meetings there are numerous fiscal policies being put into place the the CTCC. Those concerning the canine support are worrying in so much as the expert auditors eye has been cast over canine goings on and decided that there are efficiency savings to be had. This filters through to the big decision makers and influences their policy decisions.
The boss at kennel HQ has had some of the suggestions cascaded down and in true follow the leader tradition has accepted that the organisation brand needs to be promoted at all costs. Like the customer, the management is always right. We might even get dogs in kennels taken home to reduce costs. I just hope that no one gets bitten as a result.
The perception of better use of resources varies depending on your perspective. The accountants and bean counters appear to have far more powers of persuasion than you might think, certainly over all things connected with money, budgets and finance.
If you are a dog handler and you are spending your time training your dog, responding to district requests for specialist support or directing your patrol towards problems that occur on your area of cover you will not have much spare time to go around. Add into this the myriad of statistical dross you will have to submit to support the role of the bean counters and the desk-bound managers who allocate extra workload of their choosing and it is a wonder there is any spare time at all within your working day. You will still have to either email or ring up the latest and trendiest bulletin cache to ensure that the station cat is aware of your latest effort to promote the brand and support the really big plan. You will have the knowledge that you have enhanced the career prospects of the privileged few and when they move on, as they invariably do, the demands of the replacement will change and add a further burden to add to those of their predecessor.
If you are a manager or one of those who check up to see if your latest commandment is being followed to the letter you will be able to access all the relevant information from the comfort of that nice chair behind the computer on your desk. The claimed reduction in red tape and reduction in targets does not mean that the necessity to submit less will actually materialise. Nor will the perception of performance will be anything less than a league table where those at the bottom will be seen to be under performing.
Someone has to be bottom of the pile.
It does not mean that they are lazy or incompetent.
It will have an effect on their moral and motivation.
They will, in all probability, be trying hard to do the job they want to do and to get a result.
That result for them might not be the same as the result that someone else wants.
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I remember when l did my VN training JB a police dog handler had a dog called A… .
The bean counters decided as he was the healthiest police dog in that area they would base all their medical budget costings on him.
This brilliant piece of logic was perfectly timed. A.. went from fittest to illest. If there was a cut pad he got it, if there was an illness he got it , you name it A… was first in the que.
I am sure that the bean counters blamed JB and A… but it was just one of those sods law things.
)
And shows the stupidity of their thinking, they should have based the budget on the sickest dog., at least they would have had spare change left over
Off-topic, but a nice police dog story:
A police drugs dog who faced being put down because of arthritis has been given a special chariot to help him walk.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7733880.stm
Ah, league tables, those founts of useful, meaningful information. As you say someone has to be at the bottom, but it does not mean in that they are failures. It’s the same as exam results, let’s say that the highest mark was %100, and the lowest mark was %95, would that mean the lowest on the table is a failure? Of course not, but in a league table it looks as if they are.
IMHO – It matters not whether the score, any comments, or the list itself ,are valid.
The main purpose of ANY such ‘league table’ is that the person making the list can justify their own job by issuing ‘recommendations (aka criticism)in the sure and certain knowledge that (no matter if every single suggestion is adopted) – next time there WILL again be some coming in last, and the person making the list can againjustify their own job by issuing ‘recommendations (aka criticism)in the sure and certain knowledge that (no matter if every single suggestion is adopted) – next time………
The more ‘problems’ found, the more important. to the heirarchy the finder becomes – the more staff they need – the more ‘problems’ they can seek , &c…
[...] Someone has to finish last. [...]
[...] Someone has to finish last. That someone may be doing their best with the time and resources they have at their disposal and it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are doing a bad job. Of course, from a different perspective, someone might think they are. [...]