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January 17, 2007
From a library staff notice board
I was sent this. It has a ring of truth that could apply in many library authorities-- and explains a great deal---- (many thanks to my correspondent)
"It is glaringly obvious that the staff restructuring exercise has been a disaster. It has resulted in a large number of generals commanding a depleted army of front-line troops.
One of its aims was to identify key workers. Unfortunately, the frontline workers who deal with the public, answer queries, register borrowers, process, repair, issue, discharge, shelve and tidy books, operate the Peoples network have been forgotten. They are not key workers.
This has resulted in an overstretched workforce manning an increasingly inferior public service. Sickness and holidays result in frantic pleas for cover. Shelves are in a mess and large numbers of returned books lie around on trolleys and return shelves for weeks because there are insufficient frontline staff to put them back in their correct place.
In the meantime, there is a large army of ‘key officers’ beavering away writing reports, analysing statistics, planning initiatives - occupying a cloud-cuckoo land far away from reality in an atmosphere so rarefied by the lack of oxygen that delusion and hallucination are the norm. These ‘key officers’ possess ‘helicopter vision’ - the ability to soar above the mundane everyday problems and look at the wider picture. Unfortunately, if you soar high enough the everyday problems disappear completely from view.
The staff restructure has resulted in a very pretty arrangement of the deck chairs - sadly the ship is still going down.”
Posted by Tim Coates at January 17, 2007 7:11 PM