Today is my last working day in the Agency. Tomorrow I need to start on a quest to be economically active again. I do this from a position where my cv has 'Civil Servant' on it. Rather like 'Banker', 'Teenager' I am tarred with the same brush as being lazy, ineffective, wasteful, greedy and all the other terms thrown at Civil Servants by politicians and the press to distort the truth. This annoys me immensely. Obviously from my own career prospects, but also from my hard working colleagues (in the main) who are still applying themselves to closing down the organisation with almost the same level of enthusiasm as they had when they had clearer more positive roles.
I joined because I'd lost my job in the private sector for the third time in my life. I'd had enough of the vagaries of the market, the incompetance of people in positions of power simply because they could play a better political game than me, rather than any inherant skills or knowledge that they might have. I always remember a boss saying to me -'never shit on someone below you as you go up the ladder, because when you come down it, and they go up, they will shit on you.' That idealistic view never quite held true as I had to wipe quite a lot off in my working life. The new job provided me with money - the reason we all come to work, to pay my bills, but as I got more and more into the job in the Agency, I realised that it fitted my work ethics so well - helping businesses to become better, improving neighbourhoods for people, and the most important thing for me when I started work, was to retire knowing that in some way I'd made my mark on the world. And that seemed to be the prime motivation for my colleagues.
I think of the new start ups ringing me for help, that are becoming household names, because the contacts I gave them were able to assist them to grow. I had a small hand in this. The strategies and projects that I created, negotiated for, and built, will provide a legacy for many businesses and employees for many years to come. Many of my colleagues can say the same. I recognise that the world is no longer the same place. As a family you can't holiday in Barbados, when all you can afford is Bognor. As a country we are in the same boat. Hence me losing my job. The bankers and Governments encouraged debt for countries and individuals in the cause of growth and profit, tapping into people's greed, envy and desire to live a better life than the neighbours. That wasn't the fault of the Civil Servants. The key word being servant. They have to work delivering Government policy, often with one hand tied behind their back, which is often where the waste is. So many hoops have to be jumped through, chasing a procedure that it stops them from being as reactive, co-operative as they could be if that hand was untied. Nothing at all to do with laziness, attitude etc.
Of course, like every organisation, there are the brown nosers, the care in the community employee where you wonder how they were ever taken on and where they will work next. (Some of them are still in the Public Sector - you really sorted that one out didn't you Pickles). But generally money wasn't the main motive for work. It was making a difference. Over £8 profit for every £1 invested. Businesses would die for those figures, but of course, we're lazy Civil Servants who are a drain not a contributor to the system. So I believe I have still a lot to offer a business if they can remove the blinkers that have been put on them by the term Civil Servant.
I wrote to my MP, about the libellous way we have been treated in both the press and partliament, asking him to say that we were hard working and had made a difference. I wrote 3 times without an answer. He didn't care. I won't next election either.
Anarchy in the UK - Sex Pistols. Because we are scapegoats for successive Government's incompetance, the colour may change, but the manipulation remains.
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