16th June 2005, 11:10 PM
If you're chicken ML then count me in as doubly so.
There is a pervading culture of spin in some LAs. You simply cannot admit when things are going wrong. Granted it's a lot harder to get rid of a local government worker than someone in the commercial sector, but cuts, demoralisation and undermining of authority are pretty good at getting shot of people.
I've been considering the problem of how to write a paper on the good, the bad and the ugly of the curatorial side of things on-and-off for nearly a year now. How do you gather information when nobody can talk about the problems? I'm as guilty as the next person, when I'm being assessed, or even going to a regional conference with my closest colleagues I always put on my best suit and winning smile and say things are going ok because to do otherwise carries the danger of you being sidelined as 'negative' or people thinking you're rubbish at your job. Maybe frustrated curators need a secret handshake - 'Hi, let's go to the pub where I can tell you about it honestly and we can figure out how to fix it'...
All the 'evidence' I have for problems in the system is anecdotal, or observed from reading between the lines. I would love the time, money and freedom to put together a well-balanced, cogent argument backed up with statistics, case studies (good and bad) and cold hard fact. I might even find out that things aren't as bad as I think they are and I've just been unlucky, or even better, that other people have been able to fix the problems and can tell me how they did it! However, with a full time job I find it difficult putting a post on BAJR (just look at the time - I should be in the pub, not at home giving myself the PC equivalent of snow-blindness) let alone the mileage and networking required for this sort of endeavour. The options I've considered and the problems associated with them are: 1) going back to university - Problem: a crusade is not the best reason for going back to academia, and is unlikely to make your tutors sympathetic 2) taking a career break and hoping I can fund it myself. Problems: am I really that selfless? Would I have a career to come back to? Sadly 'no' on both counts I suspect. 3) Figuring out if there's a body out there (IFA, ALGAO...) who'd pay me to do it. Problem: would I face the culture of 'can't complain' as described above if representing a formal organisation?
If anyone has another option then I'd be more than grateful to hear it...
There is a pervading culture of spin in some LAs. You simply cannot admit when things are going wrong. Granted it's a lot harder to get rid of a local government worker than someone in the commercial sector, but cuts, demoralisation and undermining of authority are pretty good at getting shot of people.
I've been considering the problem of how to write a paper on the good, the bad and the ugly of the curatorial side of things on-and-off for nearly a year now. How do you gather information when nobody can talk about the problems? I'm as guilty as the next person, when I'm being assessed, or even going to a regional conference with my closest colleagues I always put on my best suit and winning smile and say things are going ok because to do otherwise carries the danger of you being sidelined as 'negative' or people thinking you're rubbish at your job. Maybe frustrated curators need a secret handshake - 'Hi, let's go to the pub where I can tell you about it honestly and we can figure out how to fix it'...
All the 'evidence' I have for problems in the system is anecdotal, or observed from reading between the lines. I would love the time, money and freedom to put together a well-balanced, cogent argument backed up with statistics, case studies (good and bad) and cold hard fact. I might even find out that things aren't as bad as I think they are and I've just been unlucky, or even better, that other people have been able to fix the problems and can tell me how they did it! However, with a full time job I find it difficult putting a post on BAJR (just look at the time - I should be in the pub, not at home giving myself the PC equivalent of snow-blindness) let alone the mileage and networking required for this sort of endeavour. The options I've considered and the problems associated with them are: 1) going back to university - Problem: a crusade is not the best reason for going back to academia, and is unlikely to make your tutors sympathetic 2) taking a career break and hoping I can fund it myself. Problems: am I really that selfless? Would I have a career to come back to? Sadly 'no' on both counts I suspect. 3) Figuring out if there's a body out there (IFA, ALGAO...) who'd pay me to do it. Problem: would I face the culture of 'can't complain' as described above if representing a formal organisation?
If anyone has another option then I'd be more than grateful to hear it...