| Ministerial bullying 11:12 - Feb 28 with 2328 views | DJR |
As a retired member of the FDA, the union for senior civil servants, I thought people might be interested in the following passage in an email from the General Secretary yesterday which concerned a recent survey of members.
"One in six report that they had witnessed unacceptable workplace behaviour from a minister over the last 12 months alone, across more than 20 departments. 70% have no confidence in raising a complaint about a minister’s conduct, with that figure rising to 85% for those that had witnessed such conduct. Members described being humiliated, undermined, shouted and swore at, belittled and in cases fearful for the wellbeing of their staff. They felt hopeless as they knew there was little point in complaining. Critically, amongst those that had witnessed such behaviour, half said it meant they would be reluctant to give the frank advice to ministers that is expected of civil servants."
It was never like this prior to 2010, including under Mrs Thatcher, but I certainly noticed a change to a hostile atmosphere towards civil servants before I left the civil service the following year.
So not only are they incompetent, they are nasty with it both politically and personally. [Post edited 28 Feb 2023 11:45]
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| Ministerial bullying on 21:23 - Feb 28 with 360 views | Churchman |
Gordon Brown on a Friday afternoon was one to avoid. His PS and security dude didn’t like him much - for a time I did gym in the Treasury at the same time as GB early in the morning so got to know them a little. Brown himself was courteous enough face to face, but kept himself to himself. He has a hairy rear end. Sorry, info I feel everyone needs to know.
Osborne was ok, but hard work, according to my colleagues. I bumped into him a few times but never directly interacted. Hammond - ok bloke but a shambles at his job.
Raab who ran DExEU while I was there was considered ok, if useless, hence my surprise at the allegations.
Chris Grayling (DfT): lost his temper at the drop of a hat and so stupid he needed a handler. A real unpleasant bonehead.
The worst was a bloke whose name rhymes with rove. My boss was left wiping the spit off her face and she had to deal with abuse personally and towards her staff on more than one occasion.
People I know who’d worked for Blair and Thatcher thought they were absolutely sound. Blair would heap it on his Cabinet members but was absolutely fine with his staff and CS apparently.
The basic rule or protocol is that a Minister can deliver any level of abuse towards Civil Servants and CS’ just have to suck it up. In the good ole days I guess that politicians just didn’t do that. The current ones do. As god is my judge if I’d have had to wipe dna off my face from an enraged Minister, they’d have had to drag me off him before I went to gaol.
Not acceptable. In the world of work, you treat people as you expect to be treated. Nobody should be exempt. There’s no excuse. I never deviated from that.
I finished in the middle 2019. I hope things have improved or do soon. [Post edited 28 Feb 2023 22:54]
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| Ministerial bullying on 22:43 - Feb 28 with 304 views | eireblue |
| Ministerial bullying on 20:27 - Feb 28 by GlasgowBlue |
Absolutely shocking. I am reminded when the bullying allegations against Bercow first started to surface and the remainers looked the other way because he was 'frustrating Brexit'. |
All of the remainers did that? Crikey. |  | | |
| Ministerial bullying on 22:51 - Feb 28 with 300 views | Tonytown |
| Ministerial bullying on 20:27 - Feb 28 by GlasgowBlue |
Absolutely shocking. I am reminded when the bullying allegations against Bercow first started to surface and the remainers looked the other way because he was 'frustrating Brexit'. |
Christ on a bike, Brexit loving Tory boy is on one again [Post edited 28 Feb 2023 22:51]
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| Ministerial bullying on 00:56 - Mar 1 with 270 views | Lord_Lucan |
Civil Servants v Politicians eh?
It's a bit like a mind numbing version of political Love Island. |  |
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| Ministerial bullying on 07:28 - Mar 1 with 217 views | DJR |
| Ministerial bullying on 00:56 - Mar 1 by Lord_Lucan |
Civil Servants v Politicians eh?
It's a bit like a mind numbing version of political Love Island. |
Haven't you seen Michael Gove on the dancefloor? He's obviously a love machine and perfectly suited for such a programme. | | | |
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