Read and Weep Part 2

I posted yesterday's blog in the short time I had before leaving for work and I don't think I did my subject full justice.

I said that in nearly 21 years of being a copper, my husband has sustained no more than a few bruises. That is not strictly true. He can boast no more than a few bruises in terms of physical injury and I think he is lucky in that respect but police work has taken a more insidious toll on him.

21 years of those shifts for instance. He's now on a 5 week rota - Okay, I did my best but I was not able to put it on this blog in a legible form so I've given up. It's nights followed by earlies, followed by nights, followed by afternoons followed by, you guessed it, nights.

I never know whether he's coming or going so how on earth can he know? His body clock is messed up, his digestion is shot to pieces, he can't sleep - his body no longer knows when it's supposed to sleep.

He is now suffering from high blood pressure. Okay, I know the smoking and drinking (I wonder how many policemen have a drink problem?) and his weight don't help but I think those are also attributable to the pressures that he is put under every day.

Lastly, the depression. He probably won't thank me for mentioning it but I don't think he reads my blogs. Okay, he's never been a particularly happy go lucky sort of a man. I was attracted to his intensity when I first knew him and also a little alarmed at what I thought was his nihilism but this has got worse and significantly so since being in the job.

PC Copperfield and Inspector Gadget will explain far better than me the idiotic procedures, the bosses from hell, the bureaucracy, the idiotic members of the public a policeman encounters in the job. All I can say is my husband finds it all very depressing and his job satisfaction has to be nil or very close to it.

One thing I will say though is that he has worked with some of the most amazing people over the years. I've been privileged to meet a few of them and for a while they had a fantastic team working together from their particular Nick. Of course a forward thinking and energetic Chief Inspector or something similar decided to split them up over the Division a couple of years ago. Bloody typical.

Jester, Jennifer and Maternity Rights: A Postscript

I just thought I would like to update my readers (all 2 of them - thanks Gareth and Charlie) on an issue I covered a week or so ago. Goodwill Jenny had a meeting with HR and our Customer Service Manager on Wednesday to discuss changing her shift pattern. She had already been allowed to leave work an hour early on the Monday to ensure her young daughter got to bed on time and she left the meeting feeling optimistic. On Wednesday evening, she went home at her usual time (her fiancé is at home on Wednesdays and their daughter is usually a good girl for him). The little minx poked her head round the door to check her Mum had got home but there were no problems putting her to bed. On Friday she was told that she could change her shift pattern and when she passed the news onto me you should have seen her little face! So all's well that ends well. I just wish they could have done this back in November.

She starts her maternity leave in four weeks and our managers have finally asked her to train other Admin staff on her duties. I know that we are going to miss her. She is a very capable young woman and accomplishes a great deal in the time she's at work. She is also very determined and has a strong will, which she needs in her job because of the many little squabbles with the Complaints Department at our sister company over which side should deal with which complaints. I get the feeling our side is going to be lumbered with more complaints than we should be after she leaves. Well, only time will tell.

Jester, Jennifer and Maternity Rights

There were more rumblings of discontent at the Dark Satanic Mill yesterday. This time over two issues. I love the word "issues"; we use it so much in our line of work - "We will feed back the issues you have raised to the appropriate manager..." You know, that sort of thing.

Well, these issues are very close to my heart because they involve a very good friend of mine and the daughter of another very good friend. They have both roused me from my usual apathy and driven me to act! Hopefully, my actions will help them out, if only a little.

Let's start with Goodwill Jennifer. She sits next to me at work. She covers a very awkward shift, 11am - 8pm, which is invaluable to our bosses and also to me and my co-workers because we only need work one of those shifts per week. Jenny is pregnant and she's blooming. She suits pregnancy so well but of course she is getting tired more easily and needs a little slack.

She gets none. She's our senior Admin girl and she has always been up to the workload but recently, due to sickness of some of our other Admin staff, her workload has increased. This is one of my bones of contention. She is pregnant and has RIGHTS. The other is that she has asked to change her shift to 10am - 7pm but with no result. She did this back in November but still nothing has been done. She keeps reminding our bosses but nothing, zilch, nada.

Things came to a head for her this week when her 2 year old daughter refused to go to bed before her mummy got home. Jenny doesn't get home until well after 8pm and her daughter needs to go to bed by 7pm or she will get over-tired and be extra cranky the next morning. So she raised the issue again and still got no joy.

I told her to go to HR and after a little bit of bullying, she did. They told her to fill in a form for Flexible Working Hours, which she did and I took it back up to HR for her. Suddenly, all the bosses wanted to help Jenny and they even told her that if she needs to leave work at 7pm on Monday, she can, even if the new hours have not yet been put in place. We are now certain that they will.

Now all we need to do is to persuade the bosses to cut her some slack with the workload. She only has 5 weeks left before her maternity leave and when she leaves it will be noticed. She does an enormous amount of work and who will be able to fill her shoes?