Tuesday 29 November 2011

Celebrate, What's To Celebrate?



I'm off down to Luton for a few days to "celebrate success" and look to the future. The thing is I'm not really in the mood to celebrate success when I know that by the 23rd of December the office that I worked in for a good few years and many highly competent, professional and knowledgeable people will no longer be there and will no longer be on the end of the phone or just an email away with their expertise and support.

Management just don't get it.  They think that one day we can reflect upon all the successes and the very next say that's the end of that and just get on to the tasks at hand.

I for one am not like that, it will be quite a while before I will be ready to move on. I am not, as they say in management speak, change averse, I just don't like to see good people cast aside while within the leadership  some make themselves indispensable while others have spent the last god knows how long positioning themselves and schmoozing so that they are alright, thank you very much.

On the same day as I will be "celebrating" success, millions of others will be on strike to keep their pension rights.  Credit where credit's due, the government and the right wing press have done a brilliant job in polarising the workforce into public and private sector employees.  What we need to do is stick together against the Coalition and all of those companies using the excuse of the recession to cut their workforce to the bone or transfer the work overseas in order to keep the EPS high and to support each other in the fight for a fair return at the end of our working days, irrespective of whether that was for the public of private sector.

Iggy Pop - Success

9 comments:

davyh said...

Also, I think that if I wanted to 'celebrate success' I might do it somewhere other than in Luton.

drew said...

It's called celebrate on the cheap

dickvandyke said...

Fear not my friends. The master of the smug sneer - old Pasty Face Osborne will be on his feet later today waving his fiscal mandate and trumpeting the promise that the books will be balanced in 5 years time - or half an hour after the next Election.

What was that about the light at the end of the tunnel being the light of an oncoming train? Hmmm .. Minimal - if not flat-lined - growth and shit loads more borrowing. Full steam ahead Captain .. no icebergs here.

Of course, so much private sector money comes from alliances with the public sector; we may as well turn off the Drip by the bed. As the braziers are fired up, the placards raised and the marching begins, remember, we are 'All in this together' ... but only when it suits .. obviously.

Drew - Show your face - then shun the hypocrites and the Board's chutney ferrets. Have a swift half of soft southern lager and an early night.

adam said...

Credit where it's due - there's nothing new about politicians lying but there is a big finger pointing at Blair who lied so outrageously and shamelessly about Iraq that lying outrageously is completely mainstream behaviour for government now.

Some of the coalitions lies are more subtle - every bit of new money they've promised for something is a redistribution of public spending from somewhere else. Some of them are blatant - there is a great deal of public support for tomorrow's strikes. The press keep reporting polls that say '29% of people support the government's economic proposals' as a great success for the government, which is one of the biggest lies of all.

I am on strike tomorrow - typically it's a day when I have all of my PPA time for the week and so I'm inconveniencing nobody but myself, but there you go.

drew said...

Adam, I think that you are wrong about how much support there is for the strike. This is only anecdotal but most people that I know, who do not work within the public sector have been rather disparaging about it, either having to take time off work to look after their chidren, or in quite a few cases angry that they have to put over 10% and in one mates case, 16 % of his salary into his pension.

This is why I think that the govt have been clever because the majority of these people are not tory voters but have swallowed this rubbish.

adam said...

BBC poll from yesterday suggests 61% feels the strikes are justified. Looking around a bit more, in fact when polls ask if people support the strike they are saying no by 47%/38% which is pretty close - so people are saying the strikes are justified but wrong. I love polling.

Swiss Adam said...

I'll be on strike. But not in Luton. I hate 'celebrating' bollocks, and all that kind of stuff. Pointless and self serving.

davyh said...

Me, I will be involved in the childcare of daughters untended by striking Trot teachers, innit. Not in Luton though, obvs.

dickvandyke said...

It's 10 pm. Hope you're up the wooden hill in Bedfordshire, drew .. and not swinging from the Travelodge chandoliers with your underpants on yer head singing 'We Are The Champions' whilst trying to cop off with Bridie from Marketing?