I'm not professional, apparently

downfader

Some of you may remember a certain angst in my posts last week after I found out our NHS catering department had been bought out. Now the Chief Executive has done a small inteview for the local paper saying "don't worry patients! We've now got professionals to do the job!" :roll:

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4303019 ... hwatering/

My god am I angry. You slog your guts up for 13 years, doing a job that nobody wants to do, sometimes having to deal with patient or customer aggro, or the very nice persons who sometimes leave used tampons and needles about the place.. to constantly for the past two years to hear messages filter back from the executive office that they're not happy with our performance.

You and your colleages work so hard that you suffer the kinds of injuries sports men and women suffer, bad backs and machinery that is never fixed. To be constantly told "theres no money" and yet hear that the very top managers have been given a bonus or pay rise and that some of them are on over £170k a year.

We now face the very real possibility of redundencies and a drop in standards. They will be providing microwave meals to the patients. It is a hospital that prides itself on being the biggest in the area for cancer and heart treatments - these people need special dietary requirments - something not found in a generic micromeal.

This where your tax money is going. It will only get worse. Sorry for the rant but I had to get that off my chest. :x

SpinningJenny

How insulting!

I love the comment right at the end of the article "The extra cost will be met through efficiency savings in the catering service. " Sounds more like a threat than a promise to me!

You deserve a rant.

downfader

SpinningJenny wrote:

How insulting!

I love the comment right at the end of the article "The extra cost will be met through efficiency savings in the catering service. " Sounds more like a threat than a promise to me!

You deserve a rant.

We sent a letter to him last year offering to let him work with us one summer day in our wash up. He never replied. That was spurred on by his comments that everytime he enters our department all he see's are lazy people sitting around (he came at break time :x )

Baring in mind that during the summer the temperature in our wash up gets around 35 degrees with 100% humidity - we've not had air conditioning either for a long time. We did have a fan, but they took that away saying "the office staff are hot!" :shock:

The temperature where the sandwiches are made and food is served is around 32 degrees - and that is now, not summer time.

Anonymous

F%ck em mate, you have your integrity not like those slags.

nwallace

Anonymous letters to local papers purporting to be an angry employee usually get published esepcially if in response to a previous headline and contains words like Fuming, Arseanoyed (no I dont' get it either but dundonians use it a lot), wits end, incompetent management.

Oh and I suspect your actually a semi-skilled worker, so no not a professional :twisted:

downfader

nwallace wrote:

Anonymous letters to local papers purporting to be an angry employee usually get published esepcially if in response to a previous headline and contains words like Fuming, Arseanoyed (no I dont' get it either but dundonians use it a lot), wits end, incompetent management.

Oh and I suspect your actually a semi-skilled worker, so no not a professional :twisted:

TBH I hate the terms pro, semi-skilled, etc, as it kind of makes a heirachy out of the various jobs we have to do in the NHS. One cannot exist without the other, but I too find it hard to get away from these definitions.

A lot of people don't realise what we have to do daily and are very shocked when they find out. They presume its a job for students and those nearing retirement, but its not easy and theres a LOT of training.

We often have new staff join and go "I aint doing that", some simply have walked out.

chuckcork

Mate having just started with an NHS trust in their capital works area as a designer and expected to do project management work, I can only say I sympathise. Only been there 2 weeks and can already see the problems.

It even took 4 weeks of waiting to simply start the job, and they've apparently needed someone like me since my predecessor retired in September to help keep their programme of works going. Unimportant things like redesign of wards to new requirements and to meet government initiatives of the kind you read about in the papers (e.g. ending mixed sex wards), project management of new sections of hospital when they are desperately needed and so on.

No rush, though the contract of employment has gipped me of 3 days holiday time as its calculated on whole months and I started 6 days into the month...bastards, but better than being unemployed.

More topically Downfader (and my winges aside), it would be up to whoever manages the kitchens and so on you work in to apply for the work you to be done, to be done. I think you should push for it on H&S grounds, if necessary get your union to intervene. Get Occupational Health on your side, refuse to do work that carries risk of injury, e.g. manual lifting of heavy loads, perhaps if food safety standards can't be met then close the kitchen.

Not advocating industrial action for the sake of it, but if you and your co-workers are expected to do a job, you have the right to do it in a safe environment and with consideration of the safety of others affect by what you do. No-one could after all fault you if the risk of food poisoning was increased unreasonably by faulty equipment and you had to stop serving it....

nwallace

downfader wrote:

nwallace wrote:

Oh and I suspect your actually a semi-skilled worker, so no not a professional :twisted:

TBH I hate the terms pro, semi-skilled, etc, as it kind of makes a heirachy out of the various jobs we have to do in the NHS. One cannot exist without the other, but I too find it hard to get away from these definitions.

The reality is the same descriptions are used everywhere, and relates more to how/if your trained than what you do.
Nasty little anachronisms once used to split the job market for statistical purposes, social elitism and pure wankery.

The AfC pay system is a rigid scale that has many glass ceilings, and eventually you hit the point where you have to become a manager, thankfully my job is not one limited to health care, and will be out of there when the time comes. (Then there is the fact that "trades" the estates department needs have all come in banded below the 18k mark, that's lower than the SJIB require Phase 3 apprentices to be paid)

The thing that always cheers me up is the public sector have taken the HR lead from multi-national companies and copied their systems, and know that the same shit happens in them, sadly the way things are going the UK will soon be short of it's mass of SME's.

downfader

chuckcork wrote:

Mate having just started with an NHS trust in their capital works area as a designer and expected to do project management work, I can only say I sympathise. Only been there 2 weeks and can already see the problems.

It even took 4 weeks of waiting to simply start the job, and they've apparently needed someone like me since my predecessor retired in September to help keep their programme of works going. Unimportant things like redesign of wards to new requirements and to meet government initiatives of the kind you read about in the papers (e.g. ending mixed sex wards), project management of new sections of hospital when they are desperately needed and so on.

No rush, though the contract of employment has gipped me of 3 days holiday time as its calculated on whole months and I started 6 days into the month...bastards, but better than being unemployed.

More topically Downfader (and my winges aside), it would be up to whoever manages the kitchens and so on you work in to apply for the work you to be done, to be done. I think you should push for it on H&S grounds, if necessary get your union to intervene. Get Occupational Health on your side, refuse to do work that carries risk of injury, e.g. manual lifting of heavy loads, perhaps if food safety standards can't be met then close the kitchen.

Not advocating industrial action for the sake of it, but if you and your co-workers are expected to do a job, you have the right to do it in a safe environment and with consideration of the safety of others affect by what you do. No-one could after all fault you if the risk of food poisoning was increased unreasonably by faulty equipment and you had to stop serving it....

About a 3rd of the staff I work with used industrial action in the 80s (shows how long they have been there) to little or no effect. Sadly people wont use it today, as much as I recommend it, lol.

The unions are next to useless today - under the AfC we were supposed to switch to monthly pay, yet the unions campaigned,m for want of a better word, for £3k compensation for all members of staff so they wouldnt be hit by direct debit and bill payments having to be changed, etc. Some might say it was more blackmail... :?

In the end the Trust gave up and we remained as we were.

Every accident gets reported, and sometimes serious issues of mechanical safety is reported privately to try and make the seriousness made aware of. Its just the rediculous length of time these things take, its the same all over as you've noticed. The rediculous beauracracy, etc...

chuckcork

downfader wrote:

Its just the rediculous length of time these things take, its the same all over as you've noticed. The rediculous beauracracy, etc...

Started 7 (working) days ago. Took 1.5 days to get me a password to log into to the system, another day to actually get set up for a simple drive letter to allow me to see files I need for my job, that I'm supposed to be using. Still waiting for something other than Read access to another server that all my colleagues have access to, only asked for it now 3 times and sent the forms twice, for which IT have rather snottily suggested I find out what else I need access to so i can stop bugging them.

Other things, getting software on my computer that I need to work (they loaded the wrong stuff on), getting my job description CORRECT when it was stated wrongly by a secretary in th first place, getting me set up to print because I have no printers set up, being told I'll get other simple software and then giving up and downloading it myself....mate, it drives everyone nuts. I'm used to doing everything myself in a short time, having to wait and deal with the bureaucrats... :x

Though on the other hand, I've had one person in charge of a ward tell me that "X has agreed to this" to then be told by X that she most certainly hasn't. So many agendas and people wanting to have there own little way without regard to what should be done (as opposed to what they want) its no suprised check and balances has become red tape.

My boss is warning me of all this and we have to be extremely careful what we do, otherwise we'll be the ones screwed. :?

chuckcork

Of course on the plus side apparently the hospital rates well, so maybe once I've got over the initial PITA stuff it will be OK.

downfader

chuckcork wrote:

Of course on the plus side apparently the hospital rates well, so maybe once I've got over the initial PITA stuff it will be OK.

I hope it does mate.

I used to know a guy in IT a long while back. He got called to one of the top managers offices to fix a laptop. The guy had basically gotten into a porn site "somehow" and flooded the PC with viruses. :?

He had to spend an entire afternoon sorting that lappy out he said.

He also said that they were working with old 386's at the time - this is only 5-6 years back! Constantly broke down and then whoever was in charge of the puter would scream and rant about how they needed it "NOW!!"

Oh and the other thing I found amazing - he told me someone's gfx card burnt up. They had no spare cards so he actually ended up building one from scraps from 3 broken ones. :shock:

chuckcork

downfader wrote:

chuckcork wrote:

Of course on the plus side apparently the hospital rates well, so maybe once I've got over the initial PITA stuff it will be OK.

I hope it does mate.

I used to know a guy in IT a long while back. He got called to one of the top managers offices to fix a laptop. The guy had basically gotten into a porn site "somehow" and flooded the PC with viruses. :?

He had to spend an entire afternoon sorting that lappy out he said.

He also said that they were working with old 386's at the time - this is only 5-6 years back! Constantly broke down and then whoever was in charge of the puter would scream and rant about how they needed it "NOW!!"

Oh and the other thing I found amazing - he told me someone's gfx card burnt up. They had no spare cards so he actually ended up building one from scraps from 3 broken ones. :shock:

I don't know about that. The work we do is on projects of a good size, we are basically the design area for the hospital, next to estates, projects we are involved in are of a good size and would if it was a commercial firm bring in good money. As a result the computers we work on need to be up to scratch.

Well, mine is anyway!

finchy

Government policy = public sector bad, private sector good. It's been that way since the '80s.

Luckily for them, and their wealthy mates, there is no political or media opposition to this.

downfader

I suppose time for an update. Compass-medirest have bought the tender. Massive changes afoot, even if they did try to gloss over that. It seems its steamed prepacked food not microwave.

My job may not change too much but it seems 1/3rd of the chefs will be going, and a few managers. Many people feel the Trust has stabbed them in the back, years of very hard work and not done for recognition either but what was a feeling of duty. Looks like one poor blighter who is a mature trainee chef is at risk, has just paid a small fortune to get himself trained up, plus his wife is a manager (and a very good one too) - both jobs on the line.

We had a massive meeting yesterday over this and there was a fair bit of squirming going on from Trust HR and Medirest HR. :?

Has anyone ever worked for a Compass company? If so what were your experiences of them? Good or bad?

Anonymous

Hope you get sorted downfader...

finchy

downfader wrote:

Has anyone ever worked for a Compass company? If so what were your experiences of them? Good or bad?

My brother did. Absolute cutsn (rearrange the letters). Took over where he did his summer job, then cut back the hours that staff who had worked there for years were given, and brought in a load of Columbian agency staff on the cheap. Seriously, good luck if you've got those w*****s in, you'll need it.

downfader

johnfinch wrote:

downfader wrote:

Has anyone ever worked for a Compass company? If so what were your experiences of them? Good or bad?

My brother did. Absolute cutsn (rearrange the letters). Took over where he did his summer job, then cut back the hours that staff who had worked there for years were given, and brought in a load of Columbian agency staff on the cheap. Seriously, good luck if you've got those w*****s in, you'll need it.

Sounds like the same stories I've been told elsewhere. One woman who came to work for us has been in two other firms taken over by them and lost her jobs there. Talk about luck. :roll:

If anyone has any positive views on them I would like to hear them.