Earlier this year we saw the latest in a string of new and exciting initiatives kick into action. In a move to try to deliver more effective training we received the good news that three shifts in our usual ten-day rota were to be an hour shorter than usual. This news was both a blessing and a curse to the teams on my division.
On the negative side, we have lost that useful hour or two long buffer at the end of the shift which allowed a little time away from deployments to get some form filling done. This is especially useful at the moment as we have to fill in a number of SMT initiative documents which are used to monitor our pro-active work – a process which, ironically, takes up much of the time when we were previously free to go out and be pro-active!
On the positive side it meant that we would now finish mid shifts in time to make last orders in the bar a couple of times a month.
The bitter pill of the deal, however, was harder to swallow than the warm lager served upstairs. Every few rotations we would be asked to do a day of training on one of our days off. The theory behind this is simple and was pitched with a positive spin, but appears to have been created to conceal a more sinister back-story.
To those that came up with the idea, it was brilliant. We wouldn’t have to work any extra hours, but could also have the time to receive 40 or 50 hours a year of dedicated training time per year. This would avoid leaving shifts short to train us in duty time and mean that there was little chance of people getting caught up at an RTC or with a prisoner and be late for or miss the training altogether.
On the surface this was a good thing… Continue reading
