A loyal reader advises me that Building Our Future III has been announced within HMRC.
BOF III being a mandatory event wherein uncertain miserable HMRC are told that HMRC's 2020 vision and "corporate" image/brand is written in stone.
Sadly the invites to these events are going out to all and sundry, including those about to be made redundant.
On the plus side, there will be free tea and coffee!
Tax does have to be taxing.
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I remember spend two nights in a £100 hotel for a three hour course, which was mandatory to discuss the future of the section I worked on only for them to announce closure the section and ultimately the office a few weeks later, everyone knew what was coming but the courses were mandatory and all had to attend. Lovely 90 minute trip on GNER in a storm, tree blew onto the track, heavy rain to get to the venue.
ReplyDeleteAttendance at these crap-fests are not compulsory. Certainly, managers were 'encouraged' before the first one to 'encourage' their teams to go on them (said 'encouragement' being typified by managers insisting that attendance was mandatory). Some of us knew better then, so we refused to go to the first one...and the second one...and the third.
ReplyDeleteIf you get threatened by a manager who hints that (s)he will mark you down for 'engagement' on your assessment, ask them to point to where exactly in all the guff thrown out by Excomm it says that you have to go to them.
Local senior managers want to be seen to be running a tight ship with maximum engagement.The pressure is put on so in effect no excuses are accepted! even if you are about to retire! shocking waste of taxpayers [ not customers!] money!
ReplyDeleteThe way they fly blue flags at beaches to signify a certain standard has been reached, Could they fly brown flags outside HMRC buildings?.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to go...just to get me out of the cesspit we call work for a few hours...to listen to the inane drivel they spout.
ReplyDeleteThe HMRC has become one big pantomime.....tax work is now a side issue...the core business is now box ticking,3Cs,Pacesetter,80/20 attendance,BOF,team bonding etc...blah blah blah.
The poor "customer" is way down the pecking order....it's a fucking disgrace !!!
Sad that HMRC has come to this, but your comment that 'tax work is now a side issue' is not an innacurate one. Our 'customers' would be less than impresed if they knew what was going on behind the scenes while they wait months for a reply to a letter or can't get through on the phone.
Delete......it truly is a case of a positive spin having to be put on everything.We are challenged when we are negative.It is coming to the situation now that everything is now deemed to be a success.
DeleteWe have a "success register" which,believe it or not ,is used even if we MISS targets.
The whole of the HMRC has become one big tick box exercise....but nothing to do with tax...it's an absolute disgrace but it's being rammed down our throats.
So much time is lost on needless meetings,initiatives etc instead of allowing us to do our work !!!
A once proud department in on it's knees.....What a shambles ;(
I totally believe the comment @ 27th August 16:34.
DeleteWe had an Estates team in the Custom House in Belfast (C&E) that the Revenue decided to get rid off. This small team was invaluable regarding technical problems that could occur across our building.
I remember a Fax machine failed and it sat there for months. When it somehow sprang back into life, faxes from taxpayers and their solicitors, months old, started to spew from its printer. It was farcical some of the crap that went on. The atmosphere and moral went down the tubes with no one from either the former C&E or Inland Revenue management giving two fucks about it. Most of them were hanging on until they knew they were going to retire. Myself and others left between 2007-2009.
The whole "pacestter" farce has been the worst example of the "emperors new clothes" I have ever seen;- nod approval at it [ or better still be a "practitioner"] and you get promoted beyond your abilities;- question it and you are ostracized and called a dinosaur and moved off of management !!!
DeleteChuck in PMR, the non forced, forced stack ranking, not stack ranking system, which places a boot on the neck of anyone who isn't 'positive' (behaviours account for 50% of PMR) and along with BOF and Pacesetter, you have the unholy trinity of bellendary.
ReplyDeleteBut Excom will NOT take note of the hundreds of posts on the HMRC internal Internet stating how bad the PMR system is. If they won't take note of these, or listen to what is said at the BOF "conversations"-which is as far from a conversation as you could ever get- they will just steam roller on with their fuck wit ideas. Hopeless, just utterly hopeless.
ReplyDeleteSome excellent observations. I have just rejoined Dept after many years in HMC&E. Cannot believe how Pacesetter has become such a burden on time, resource and yet senior managers lap it up. Why doesnt someone Senior with balls just say NO ! It feels like North Korea .....and i have been there. As for Simply Thanks.....just call it the 'here, have 20 quid for doing the job you are paid for' Scheme.
ReplyDelete^^ You poor sod....it is just one big pantomime...our group all got one of these £20 simply thanks vouchers for i know not what..it satisfied senior management's box ticking exercise that they were "communicating" with the staff and acknowledging success ie as you say,doing what you are paid for....i bagged it,why not....it helps with the lack of pay rise we are getting.
DeleteUtter fucking farce.......i curse EXCOM !!!
Building Our Future is an enormous and expensive charade posing as a "conversation" between senior management and the powerless. "Leaders" i.e. those who will be expected to present and facilitate at more modest events are summoned to venues such as the conference suites at Chelsea and Arsenal football grounds for day-long sessions where we are addressed by our most senior managers and then given the opportunity for input. This input never amounts to a say in anything important, but gives management a huge dose of self-satisfaction. There is a message running throughout these sessions that if we don't like it we can get out, which has been delivered in a shockingly direct and uncompromising way. We are then expected to go back to our offices and cheerlead for policies which are largely detrimental to our future and the health of HMRC generally. BOF is widely recognised as a cynical and hollow exercise, but more events are planned.
ReplyDeleteOops i misunderstood BOF...i thought it stood for Buggering Our Future....i feel so silly that it has taken me so many phases of BOF to realise its supposed to be helping me. I guess that means i can expect them to tell me something thats actually fkg useful soon.
DeleteAs a disillusioned Caseworker I echo all the above comments - especially PMR and the Pacesetter brigade. We've now got team trackers to monitor Caseflow and spreadsheets to monitor Team Tracker - utter farce. BOF - bring it on - I want out of this lunacy.
ReplyDeleteSeems as if Parkinson’s law is being followed by senior management with not only work being expanded to fill time available but to impress top management and politicians in order to gain promotion.
DeleteGod almighty - it's got worse since I left just over a year ago. I was "encouraged" to take early retirement by a kindly manager who said that although she knew i was working to full capacity this wasn't enough for the powers that be and, as she was retiring shortly and couldn't therefore fight anyone's corner any more, it may be best to take my 40 years worth of experience out of the department. And all because I had the temerity to question Paceshitter !!Do I miss the tick box filling, the general North Korean attitude that "you will do as I say as it is right or it'll be the worse for you", PMRs, Paceshitter or any of it ? NO NO NO I don't - just thankful that I got out with a modicum of sanity but fearful that other friends will not. It USED to be a good job but not any more
ReplyDelete