More birds and a rant
Mar. 4th, 2008 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
essayelSaw a red kite today, swooping around the museum grounds. They are large and very attractive. I also saw a wren, tiny and drab, sitting in the small beech tree by the entry to the inner bailey and singing his little head off. Two extremes in about half an hour.
Now for the rant, which goes here because I'm just too effing lazy to keep typing it out when I grumble to people. Also it's going behind a cut so people don't have to look at it. It's about ones employers sneaking policies in behind the work force's back.
About 18 months ago my bosses [hereinafter referred to as the Authority] balloted us all about whether there should be a blanket ban on the 'abuse' of all substances on council property and during working hours, ie. drugs we thought but when we read the policy document closely we realised this included alcohol AND also included times that from a financial point of view were outside working hours. For instance if there is a colleague leaving we would not be able to go to the pub for a beer at lunchtime, even nor have a glass of wine with an evening meal if one later had to return to work for a meeting.
We voted 'no' because we felt that we should be trusted to be sensible, and also the ban did not extend to the managerial levels of the Authority who were allowed to drink if it was 'business'.
Today we have discovered that the governors of all the schools in the county have been issued with copies of the policy with the instructions to adopt it, and that once it applies to teaching staff then it will be extended to ALL the employees of the Authority with very scary penalties.
No drinks at lunchtime, none on any day if you may be expected to work later - this applies to salaried and waged staff, volunteers, agency workers etc. Everyone apart from managers who are 'on business'. More worryingly, from my point of view, it also covers anyone who is on-call.
Now I am on-call 24/7. I'm the first person they call if there's an incident at the museum. I was called out on Easter Sunday just as we sat down to dinner. I was called out at 3 am on Christmas Eve. I was called out at midnight on the day of my father in law's funeral. I am never off-call except when I am actually on annual leave and away from home. Even then I have been phoned to ask the best way of dealing with a burglar alarm that won't reset.
I am not a heavy or frequent drinker, but I enjoy a beer or a glass of wine with a meal and very rarely have more than one. But while on-call, I could be disciplined or dismissed for it.
Apparently if one feels it necessary to drink one can obtain written permission from one's Head of Division. So I suppose I'll have to write a letter to the boss's boss's boss's boss's boss to get permission if I want to have a sherry before my Christmas Dinner.
Or I could just refuse to be on-call.
Frankly I don't want to drink in my lunch hour - it gives me a headache in the afternoon - but they have banned smoking, now they want to ban drinking so what's next? Caffeinated beverages? Food that falls below the recommended amount of dietary fibre? OMG!! CHOCOLATE?
I think it's time to organise a revolt.
Now for the rant, which goes here because I'm just too effing lazy to keep typing it out when I grumble to people. Also it's going behind a cut so people don't have to look at it. It's about ones employers sneaking policies in behind the work force's back.
About 18 months ago my bosses [hereinafter referred to as the Authority] balloted us all about whether there should be a blanket ban on the 'abuse' of all substances on council property and during working hours, ie. drugs we thought but when we read the policy document closely we realised this included alcohol AND also included times that from a financial point of view were outside working hours. For instance if there is a colleague leaving we would not be able to go to the pub for a beer at lunchtime, even nor have a glass of wine with an evening meal if one later had to return to work for a meeting.
We voted 'no' because we felt that we should be trusted to be sensible, and also the ban did not extend to the managerial levels of the Authority who were allowed to drink if it was 'business'.
Today we have discovered that the governors of all the schools in the county have been issued with copies of the policy with the instructions to adopt it, and that once it applies to teaching staff then it will be extended to ALL the employees of the Authority with very scary penalties.
No drinks at lunchtime, none on any day if you may be expected to work later - this applies to salaried and waged staff, volunteers, agency workers etc. Everyone apart from managers who are 'on business'. More worryingly, from my point of view, it also covers anyone who is on-call.
Now I am on-call 24/7. I'm the first person they call if there's an incident at the museum. I was called out on Easter Sunday just as we sat down to dinner. I was called out at 3 am on Christmas Eve. I was called out at midnight on the day of my father in law's funeral. I am never off-call except when I am actually on annual leave and away from home. Even then I have been phoned to ask the best way of dealing with a burglar alarm that won't reset.
I am not a heavy or frequent drinker, but I enjoy a beer or a glass of wine with a meal and very rarely have more than one. But while on-call, I could be disciplined or dismissed for it.
Apparently if one feels it necessary to drink one can obtain written permission from one's Head of Division. So I suppose I'll have to write a letter to the boss's boss's boss's boss's boss to get permission if I want to have a sherry before my Christmas Dinner.
Or I could just refuse to be on-call.
Frankly I don't want to drink in my lunch hour - it gives me a headache in the afternoon - but they have banned smoking, now they want to ban drinking so what's next? Caffeinated beverages? Food that falls below the recommended amount of dietary fibre? OMG!! CHOCOLATE?
I think it's time to organise a revolt.