Saturday, August 16, 2008

Back to reality

Well, going back to work sucked. We've been having problems with the bosses higher up in the Council, and the Councillors, since April. I was hoping it would be back to normal by now, but it's not. We are more successful than the other two local centres, and they've just spent loads of money rebuilding one of them and we are still more successful, and they are not happy about it. The boss of the new centre hates doing trips, doesn't want the extra voluntary work, and us continuing to do them makes this boss look lazy. People shouldn't be doing a job in the Community if they aren't prepared to go the extra mile. Our centre has been one of the most successful in the whole country for 25 years, but because of politics they are trying to break us. But instead of just being honest and telling us they want us gone, they are being sneaky, and throwing problems at us, like "You need insurance to do the trips"(Fine, we got some), or "Staff can't do the trips on Council time"(Fine, we volunteer anyway, we'll just do them on our days off). Each time we come up with a solution, there is another problem. They want our very elderly Committee members to take over all cash handling, which they refuse to do, as it's a full time job and we handle about £2000 a week. I can see us being shut down and the staff all moved elsewhere, and I will be gutted. I'm trying to push my boss into looking into us going independent, surviving on funds and grants. I hope it's possible. I don't understand why a venture that is so successful and gets the Council so much good publicity, is being stamped on. We have 1200 elderly members that come to us for food, company, advice, support, and mental stimulation, and we just want to be left alone. It's not good. :(

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It must be infuriating for you! I know it's a cliché, but I do think the big wigs in most local councils forget they are there to serve the public.

Anonymous said...

This is quite ridiculous, you should be held up as an example. Must be so frustrating.

Laney said...

It is incredibly unfair. >:( Things are still going downhill, no changes yet....grrrr.