Quote of the Day 10th January 2015
In response to today's debate about public sector strikes, a poster on Political Betting called "Albion Till I Die" put up a post an excellent "second order" example of Jerry Pournelle's "Iron law of Bureacracy" posted this week.
The Iron law contrasts those who work for the goals the an organisation supposedly exists to pursue with those who promote the interests of the organisation itself and those employed by it. The case below is a second order example because it concerns a trade union - e.g. an organisation which exsists to promote the interests of those employed by the parent organisation -which was concentrating instead on the hobbyhorses and interests of union officials.
The comment from "Albion till I die" reads as follows:
"When I worked at the Home Office in the 2000's the locals tried to go on strike during the world cup. England flags were banned from the office as the Unions thought they were divisive. The union leader however wanted to fly an Argentinian flag over his desk as although he was English he disagreed with Britain's claim over the Falklands. When this flag was not allowed he attempted to call a strike which did not happen.
However the tens of Union meetings called and attended by all at the office to discuss this did delay our work, which was to ensure that 90,000 public sector workers (including agency nurses and prison officers) had their pay corrected after 18 months of underpayment.
The PCS Union didn't seem too bothered about this delay."
The Iron law contrasts those who work for the goals the an organisation supposedly exists to pursue with those who promote the interests of the organisation itself and those employed by it. The case below is a second order example because it concerns a trade union - e.g. an organisation which exsists to promote the interests of those employed by the parent organisation -which was concentrating instead on the hobbyhorses and interests of union officials.
The comment from "Albion till I die" reads as follows:
"When I worked at the Home Office in the 2000's the locals tried to go on strike during the world cup. England flags were banned from the office as the Unions thought they were divisive. The union leader however wanted to fly an Argentinian flag over his desk as although he was English he disagreed with Britain's claim over the Falklands. When this flag was not allowed he attempted to call a strike which did not happen.
However the tens of Union meetings called and attended by all at the office to discuss this did delay our work, which was to ensure that 90,000 public sector workers (including agency nurses and prison officers) had their pay corrected after 18 months of underpayment.
The PCS Union didn't seem too bothered about this delay."
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