Worthwhile Jobs?

[Hugh Spencer]

Does your council need a woodfuel development officer for £35,430? West Sussex does. A healthy walks co-ordinator for £15,444 by Forest of Dean. A family lifestyles officer for £21,519 by Rugby. A lifeskills and positive activities officer for £21,500 by Ryedale. In these difficult financial times for everybody in the community it appears that these councils are living in "cloud cuckoo land". How do they make up the names for these jobs?

[bednobs]

a lot of organisations have names for jobs that might sound strange to outsiders but make perfect sense within the organisation. For exampe at my OH's work, he is called an "internal regulator" which probably dosen't mean much to anyone else but makes perfect sense to them.
clearly it's hard to understand what the jobs you have mentioned do, unless you work in council's mindset. It dosen't mean that they are not "worthwhile" jobs though. I would guess if you were in one of them, you would probably revise your definition of worthwhile!

[AB Editor]

Have you got a link to any of these advertised anywhere?

[AB Editor]

http://www.westsussex...il.jsp?mode=i&id=3799

Found it! That one sounds reasonable to me.

[AB Editor]

Healthy walks co-ordinator - Forest of Dean; £14,733 to £15,444
"Promote and increase physical activity levels through healthy walking ... targeting the socially excluded, the inactive and people living in areas of high deprivation. Work with the Lifestyle Coach to expand the 'Fancy a Walk' scheme. Ensure all duties and responsibilities ... are carried out with due regard to health and safety best practice, equal opportunities procedure and follows financial regulations."

http://www.telegraph....-job-job-adverts.html

[mrs_overall]

Try looking in the jobs section of The Guardian - they have pages and pages of these types of what I call Non-jobs

[TheOtherHalf]

I could re name my present job as a cook as Stomach Filler and Mood Enhancer

[mrs_overall]

I'm having this week off from my regular job, but this week I have the dual role of Domestic Engineer and Child Entertainment Facilitator

[Hugh Spencer]

In my experience, there are numerous instances of people who don't put in a full day's work. I remember, years ago in the education sector, there were two assistant area education officers who sent out all kinds of meaningless forms for head teachers to complete, to justify their positions.

[R1Geezer]

Can't believe they are still hiring for nonjobs in the public sector, I thought it was a Noo Labour thing! Why don't the voters just dump these numpties at the next chance?

[New Judge]

Because, Geezer, whatever set of numpties they dump, they will simply be replaced by another set of similar individuals.

Local councillors measure their “achievements” (for want of a better term) by the amount of other peoples’ money they manage to spend. A council organisation laden with “five a day co-ordinators” and “black lesbian outreach workers” (all on £35k+, natch) will consume huge amounts of council taxpayers’ dosh. Of course it does not occur to the councillors that their constituents’ hard-earned may not be best well spent on such frivolous nonsense. When asked to make cuts they prefer instead to close libraries and senior citizens’ day centres.

Whichever bunch of numpties is elected, they all behave in the same manner.

[saxy_jag]

We could well do without a chief executive at £170,000 but she's hangin' on in there. We'll be getting a directly elected mayor soon - hope he boots her out.

[boxtops]

The Healthy Walks (and Healthy Schools) staff work to support the public in trying to look after their own health, rather than waiting until it's too late and they have to go to the doctor - which costs a lot more in the long run that paying someone to coordinate a bit of physical exercise. The Government has an objective to get people to take more responsibility for their own health and wellbeing, and that seems a good thing to me.

[237SJ]

My local council sent me a brochure a year or so ago (I wonder how much that cost) telling me how they spend my council tax. They call asylum seekers "clients". I must have got it all wrong. I thought clients were people who pay and receive a service. Obviously the learned councellors of Richmond think a client is someone who receives a service regardless of whether they pay or not.

[david51058]

Just goes to prove that all the talk of having to cut vital front line services are just nasty political points scoring of the worst kind. Using the most vunerable as political weapons.

[Quizmonster]

R1G, isn't it just wonderful? I did a very swift google on West Sussex, Forest of Dean, Rugby and Ryedale councils and there isn't a Labour council - indeed, scarcely a Labour councillor in some cases - in ANY of them!
Perhaps you and your ilk will start telling the truth now...namely, that most of these so-called "non-jobs" are in fact a Tory thing having absolutely nowt to do with muesli-chomping beardies!

[Hugh Spencer]

It doesn't matter to me whether they are Labour councils or not. I know that some Labour councils have been known to advertise for "no-jobs" but whoever they are they are probably misusing our money especially when so many public facilities are having to tighten their belts.

[Quizmonster]

I couldn't agree more, Hugh. It's just that R1G and several of his fellow right-wing posters have constantly, over the years, whined on about "loony lefty" councils and their non-jobs, such as the ones you list. (In fact, I don't agree that they are necessarily non-jobs at all.)
It just struck me as hilarious that not even ONE of the councils you listed could be even remotely described as left-leaning, given that three were Tory and one seemed to be split Tory/LibDem.