In a message dated 04/07/2006 13:33:38 GMT Standard Time,
m.eldridge@xxxxxxxxx.gov.uk writes:
I am writing to hopefully gain information and/or professional opinion on
a subject that is causing me some disquiet.
Not much response to that one is there Marc-John? I see from your title that
you're spreading it about a bit? Grounds and Trees?
Here in Sheffield the DLO got moved from Parks to 'Streetforce,' not sure
why, some Director empire building I s'pose. Nonetheless where there was once
a
City Arboriculturist and his assistant, there is now said Arboriculturist
plus
a senior assistant, 3 assistants and 2 woodland officers all in PArks, and
the
DLO have appointed 2 more inspectors to hang around in Streetforce. I'm not
being critical here, Sheffield has a lot of trees and the Arb section was
woefully underappreciated.
They're still underfunded; when did we last see anyone from Sheffield other
than me or my cronies at an AA/ISA seminar or training day?
So don't necessarily look on this as a disaster, it could be a golden
opportunity.
As for your concerns about apportioning the costs of your expertise to other
departments? Personally I consider that the way these things go your
employers
will find it cheaper to simply swallow the costs rather than employing a gang
of time-and-motion experts to find out what you're doing and for whom. The
private sector contantly find themselves dishing out advice and doing
conflict
resolution without any chance of ever recouping any payment for that time and
I'm sure it's pretty much the same for LA Arbs; I spent all morning soothing
the furrowed brow of a mad-old-bat who's getting an ASBO if she doesn't cut
her
hedge and then chatting amiably to a 'friends' group for whom I did a survey
of a garden they're trying to restore. There is no chance that I'll ever see
any reimbursement for that time and your employers probably need to
understand
that we're not Solicitors and that our expertise is routinely undervalued.
The
only thing I could possibly cost my morning to is keeping potential clients
sweet, and we all know that goodwill is hard to value.
Impartiality is a difficult thing to measure, I'm sure that some developers
in the area think you're biassed, I know that some LAs think my opinion is
biassed in favour of the developer, I don't think it is but as I say hard to
measure.
If I were in your position I think I'd get HR to do a job spec for your
current job and one for your future job then compare them. We all know that
all HR
do all day is sit around on gender awareness taining workshops so giving them
something constructive to do is your moral duty.
So in total? I've no idea. Can't imagine that this will help.....
Bill.
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