Let’s take from the poor to give to the rich. Oh wait...

19 June, 2010 | By Mark Radcliffe

Let’s assume you already work more than your allotted hours, rarely get a lunch break, never get thanked and have to watch - bemused - as Catherine Zeta wotsit gets an MBE for being Welsh and pretty while you get someone else’s wee on your support stockings.

OK, let’s leave all that aside for a moment and ask ourselves this question: if we believed that the country and its people were in crisis, what would we be prepared to do to help? Would you work an additional two hours a week without pay? (Yes, I know you already do, but let go of that for a minute, we’re playing a game.) Would you pay an extra £10 a week in tax? Take a pay freeze? A pay cut?

If someone came along and said: “Look, we really are in trouble and we need your help. We’re getting rid of corporate services first, obviously - communications officers are being bussed out as we speak and every manager in the building is being paid band 4 wages as of today - but we need your help too. Please.”

‘The personal wealth of the 1,000 richest people in Britain rose by £77bn. That is growth of 30 per cent since 2008. Or to put it another way, half a deficit’

All things being equal - and call me naive, you won’t be the first - I think most people would help. Because when presented with an opportunity to do something that helps, public servants tend to take it.

And one wonders if the grave pronouncements of impending cuts and gloom that will touch everyone in the country are perhaps a forerunner to a sort of moral call to arms. “We’re in trouble, we need the best from the British people in order to overcome this crisis.”

But of course most of us don’t believe politicians do we? If the prime minister says “we are all going to suffer a little” we hear “lots of you will suffer but plenty of us won’t”’.

In the most recent Sunday Times rich list we were told that the fortunes of the richest people in Britain are actually soaring. Indeed, the personal wealth of the richest 1,000 people in Britain rose by £77bn. That is a growth of 30 per cent since 2008. Or to put it another way, half a deficit. Apparently the recession has been good for some people. Which is nice.

I suspect that people who have chosen to work in public services think about work, indeed think about the world, in a different way to people who have chosen to do something else. And because of that I think we would tend towards trying to take responsibility for solving a problem even if it cost us something. But to a backdrop of obscene wealth for some and unquestioned privilege for others it is, frankly, hard to take the foreboding seriously or lend it goodwill.

If politicians want people to back cuts and hardship they need to target some of the areas of more obvious excess before they get to the public servants. Otherwise they don’t carry the best of the country with them.
It’s one thing to make sacrifices in the interests or protection of people who are at risk or in the interests of a collective wellbeing, but quite another to be asked to take a pay cut to protect the excessive wealth of a privileged few.

Readers' comments (27)

mike | 18-Jun-2010 11:35 pm
I think you answered your own questions in that essay.

Yes the majority of people who enter public service think slightly differently than a large part of the population. We are often motivated differently and have different paradigms.

And yes, the vast majority of us would help, given the chance. Many already do.

However, that 'goodwill' for lack of a better word has been seriously attacked and eroded in recent years as it has been proven over and over again that the more you give, the more you get shafted. The more selfish you are, the better you get on in life.

If those in power want this goodwill to continue, then they must ask more of those who give the least first.
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Anonymous | 19-Jun-2010 11:17 am
That aside, there are some incredibly rich people who donate lots of time and money, and create jobs which would otherwise not exist - its all swings and roundabouts. I think we are forgetting how privilaged we are to have meaningful and moral careers which leave us sitting above the poverty line - which is something most people in this world can only dream of. So we work hard, but at least we can sleep at night...
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Anonymous | 19-Jun-2010 12:17 pm
Being one of the many who has regularly given extra hours without pay due to staff shortages and sickness only to have recruitment put on hold and bank/agency shifts banned due to financial reasons. I have reached the point of exhaustion as have many of the team I work with.

The Management have shown they will push and take continually. God forbid an exhausted nurse who ends up sick! No understanding from management at all.

So the government say things are tight... How about they and all their cronies take a pay cut, stop claiming expenses and put the money into the NHS... See how they feel.

I am currently being told I will now have to pay £10 a day to park at work and give approximately 6 hours free work weekly.

I wonder how that would work out as a percentage of an MP's earnings and how they may feel.

So..... Good will.... I had plenty until I got completely fed up of being used and abused by the system..

It's like a spoilt child that demands more and more... There has to come a time when the answer is NO!
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Anonymous | 19-Jun-2010 12:50 pm
I object to this idea of pay cuts. They are wanting more and more from us for less remuneration. I do the work of two people when on shift. I never get a 'meal break' as I am the only qualified and very rarely get off shift at the correct time. The NHS owes me thousands of pounds in free work. Let those who are proposing these cuts do our jobs and see what they would say in answer to less money. Are they also going to give us our daily living needs for less money too? We are our own worst enemies. We should take our breaks and leave on time. Maybe we should have a clocking in system. It would make things far easier to monitor in y opinion.
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Anonymous | 19-Jun-2010 1:12 pm
I agree with my colleagues here. We should take the breaks we're entitled to. As nurses we ALWAYS start on time we should also FINISH on time - it's part of good time management, isn't it? It's not working to rule, it's working to the contract that we signed up for. We should also lead by example and be good role models. The health service these days is run as a business - or is it? Any private business run as the NHS is would have gone under years ago if it wasn't for nurses - and others - working unpaid enforced overtime to bale our 'company directors' out. You don't see the politicians working overtime for no reward. The expense system goes to show how that system worked. No pay - no work. However, as nurses we have a caring, compassionate side to our nature which is probably why we allow ourselves to taken advantage of, but it doesn't stop us being good role models. Clocking on and off would be great to allow our true working hours to be recorded rather than 'putting our time due in the book' with no hope of getting it back.
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mike | 19-Jun-2010 2:37 pm
I completely agree with Anonymous | 19-Jun-2010 1:12 pm, Nurses are often their own worst enemy when it comes to this.

We should absolutely work to rule.

Start work on time, care for your patients and do as much as you can, but take your breaks (and refuse to be interupted), and leave the minute your shift ends. If there is still work to be done when your shift ends, so what? Hand it over. It is not your problem, it is a management problem for not getting enough staff in.

And for all those who use emotional blackmail to justify this, (don't want to hand it over to friends/colleagues, patients will suffer) enough is enough. It is not our responsibility to deal with these problems. We can't take any more. I urge EVERY Nurse to work to rule, and that way management will HAVE to sort staffing/pay etc problems out.
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Jacqueline de Laporte | 19-Jun-2010 3:40 pm
Dear overworked and abused hospital Colleagues.

I'm still wondering what happened to the 9% pay deal over 3 years, promised 3 years ago. In General Practice we have only had the minimal 'cost of living' 2.5% the 1st year, 1.5% last year and NOTHING this year. I have effectively therefore had a pay cut for the past 3 years.

I am however able to manage my time as I am able to manage my appointments, apart from the occasional 'emergency'. The occasional is fine, all part of the service.

Regular extras and unpaid overtime should not happen, it is an abuse of staff's goodwill. Make yourself into a doormat and people will walk over you. Keep a list of overtime and present it on a time sheet and claim for the extra time or take time in lieu. Talk to your union or professional body, make a noise.

Remember the squeaky trolley gets the oil.

Good Luck.
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Anonymous | 19-Jun-2010 11:05 pm
In theory it would be great to work your alloted hours instead of staying behind most shifts working and not being paid. Unfortunately at the end of the day management know they can take advantage because what if a patient's life is put at risk because a nurse went home on time instead of staying behind. The poor nurse would be suspended and all manner of enquiries will take place. Yet management can leave work on time are able to have their lunch break, attend meetings for most of the day with lunch/fancy coffee being provided yet nurses cannot even have a proper lunch break without being interupted because of emergency etc. So asking frontline staff to work extra hours for free is a no no this is already being done there is nothing left to give.
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Anonymous | 20-Jun-2010 10:13 am
i am a student nurse about to qualify. ive spent 3 years listening to demoralised nurses complaining about how they are treated at work. i now feel as i end my course that i do not want to be a nurse. i am quite a passive person and the thought of having to fight every minute of the working day fills me with dread. i just wanted to care for people.
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Anonymous | 20-Jun-2010 10:23 am
I agree with all the above comments regarding work to rule etc etc, but you know what..its all rhetoric, it will NEVER happen because nurses are who and what they are, and everyone from government ministers to local managers know this and will abuse your goodwill to the end. I am a university lecturer (with all the impending doom associated with THAT role!) and if I lose my job I would rather dig trenches than go back into the NHS, as despite the well deserved comments on the good healthcare it provides for the UK, it is a crap place to work.
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Anonymous | 20-Jun-2010 11:20 am
I am a newly qualified nurse and have learnt so quickly that a break of any kind is a treat, that I have not seen many of.
I have already lost count of the hours i have worked over my contracted hours, with out pay or time owing, often spending 1-2 hour extra after my shift as ended.
If things stay the way they are, at the end of my working career as a nurse, I will be owed another life in time owing.
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mike | 20-Jun-2010 5:03 pm
Anonymous | 19-Jun-2010 11:05 pm, I have to disagree slightly. I agree that management will try this tack (and have done in the past), but providing that you did all you could in your shift, cared for the patient well, then handed everything over, it is not your responsibility the minute your shift has ended.

And Anonymous | 20-Jun-2010 10:23 am,

YES it WILL happen, as long as Nurses simply stopped bending over and taking it! All it would take is for you, and every other Nurse, to say that is it and work to rule. That's all.

I already do.

Many Nurses I work with now do, partly because they have seen me do it.

You have to remember that you are not doing anything wrong by working to rule, in fact you are working very well within the limits of your contract. That is all ANY boss can ask of you. If they ask more, renegotiate your contract to get better terms for yourself or say no. What can they do? That's right, nothing at all!

Why are you all allowing NHS bosses to get away with this? Stand up for yourselves!
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mike | 20-Jun-2010 5:08 pm
Anonymous | 20-Jun-2010 11:20 am:

Have you kept a list of all this time owing? If not, start now. If you have, take that to your manager and say you want paying for those extra hours (at overtime rate), OR you want the FULL time in Leiu, and that time should be given to you within a couple of weeks of asking, not months down the line or in dribs and drabs.

If your manager refuses, then state in writing that you will no longer be working over any contracted hours, and you will be informing the RCN rep.

Then inform the rep, and they will get you that pay or the time in leiu. Read the RCN's stance on this, they are actually pretty good.

That is all it takes.

And for all the thousands of Nurses out there who are exactly like anonymous, if you carry on like this and don't stand up for yourselves, you are your own worst enemies and have only yourselves to blame that the profession still gets walked over.
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David Ryan | 21-Jun-2010 1:32 pm
What are we doing? Is a question ive asked for years now. In what other industry would this happen? Yes we need to work to rule. Importantly though we also need to stop the nonsense of doing these 'bank' shifts . Here nurses work additionally usually for less money and more tax as second job. Example of getting robbed twice. We need to stop this practice now! If we did they may have to actually pay you the time and a third agreed in agenda for change in order to fill the overtime. No bank resource may actually force your managers to offer you what you are worth. Bottom line: nurses need to start sticking together and collectively stop shafting each other.
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mike | 21-Jun-2010 10:16 pm
Well said David. I don't agree that Nurse bank should be stopped entirely, it does have a good use. HOWEVER, I think that any Nurse who works more than 37 1/2 hours a week should get overtime pay regardless of wether it is with the bank or the ward they are on.
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David Ryan | 21-Jun-2010 11:32 pm
Exactly Mike, the norm is though for additional hours for full time nurses to be paid "on the bank" (at a lower rate and taxed as a second job). My point is that if we stop filling these gaps for substandard renumeration, management MAY have to consider the appropriate overtime payments. Can anyone remember being paid overtime?????????????????? As long as nurses are willing to do 'bank shifts' in the way described they shaft themselves and their colleagues on the money front. I understand that with our salaries individuals often do bank shifts to make ends meet. However it strikes me that short term pain could well result in long term gain in the unlikely event that nurses actually stood together. YES anyone working over their fulltime hours bank or otherwise should get paid as overtime. But while we offer nursing on the cheap this WILL NOT happen.
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mike | 22-Jun-2010 10:24 am
On that point I agree entirely. Nurses are definately their own worse enemies in a lot of cases.

This is why I think we need to strike, or at the very least work to rule.
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Anonymous | 22-Jun-2010 8:15 pm
working to the terms and conditions of my and other nurses contract can be hard.
wards at best staffing don't meet the hands on needs of patient and let the nurse document what has occurrence. i feel uneasy leaving a shift without making a note on every pt i was caring for.

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mike | 22-Jun-2010 11:32 pm
Anonymous | 22-Jun-2010 8:15 pm I agree that it can be difficult, but it must be done.

Yes all your documentation must be done, this is what covers your back at the end of the day. So make sure that is done, and ensure as much clinical care is given as is possible within the time constraints of your shift.

But make sure your break is taken, if it is interupted, take that time back straight away once the interuption is sorted out.

If clinical tasks get left undone, hand them over, and document that it was handed over because of lack of time.

It is not easy, but is needed.
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Martin Gray | 23-Jun-2010 11:37 am
I was horrified to learn, through the local press, that Barnsley PCT is planning to close 3 wards and some theatre services, putting staff on a 90 day consultation period; in other words a decrease in front line services. Isn't that just what the coalition promised would not happen? Yet where are the management and administration cuts?

As someone has already said, we are our own worst enemy! Unfortunately it is not just those in the hospital environments that have to work extra hours, ask any community nurse, but at least those other nurses can try to organise some repayment of hours as they are more autonomous.

Striking, which I agree with, would, unfortunately, cause such a furore in public opinion of our profession and we need to seriously consider if this would be the best option. Working to rule may be easier said than done; compassion, etc.

Certainly the new government could redeem themselves to a degree by allowing nurses that do two (or more) jobs a tax break, thus ensuring we get better take home pay for doing the essential extra work. Bank shifts should be paid at the rate of the person doing the job; it can be so confusing when you have a sister or charge nurse on the ward or in the department, wearing that uniform but only there as a band 5!
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