Female clerk calling out male councillors

[WomenInCouncils]

Just shouting out for a small female cog in a small council near me for socking it to em in a public meeting and calling out councillors for frankly appalling conduct.

”Wrecking careers should not be a hobby. Mental health is not a joke.”

Tiny bit at the beginning, then from around 27 mins

I do work and have worked in councils and appalling councillor (usually older male) conduct towards officers is unfortunately par for the course and almost always excused.The regularity of it still needs addressing, still gets swept under the carpet and still goes on.

Councillor behaviour towards officers is shocking. My friend recently told me how she had to carry out a complex licensing panel, with one of the councillors have her toddler running around and baby crying throughout so it was really hard to focus - they do these in the evening so she had already worked 12 hours by this point, and the councillor swans in late with her crying children, eating a takeaway. However, when in another meeting she had to take a 2 minute call from her child's school, was shouted at in front of everyone by another councillor for wasting their time and being unprofessional. Many councillors have a very self inflated sense of their own worth and knowledge, don't actually know much about the area which they are appointed to a committee on, and cover up their ineptitude by throwing their weight around.

There largely seems to be a misguided need to appear cleverer than everyone else - even qualified experts who are literally paid a professional wage to advise then.

I once entered a room early with two councillors. Just to be chatty, I commented on how much reading there was to do in preparation and they both laughed and said 'oh we don't have time to do that'. I have met good ones too but they are in the minority.

I've had personal experience of this and you're very alone when a councillor takes a dislike to you.
In my case there were cultural differences between myself and and the councillor and he made my life a misery.I remember being disappointed that I woke up one morning as it meant I'd be tormented by him again.

I have met many good, diligent councillors too, but it is far too easy for poorly behaved councillors to be poorly behaved in public office.

In my last role a councillor purposefully encouraged overworked officers to slate other overworked officers, secretly recorded them and then played the recordings back to each. Absolutely toxic behaviour and nothing done.

I get this and I’m sorry it happened to you too.

I may have misheard but it seems that a councillor suggested she resolved the issue by giving one of the difficult councillors a hug!

Yes that’s right. I walked away from a £70k a year role in a local council. Toxic bullying culture, few people stayed very long. Often people who get elected at this tier are a bit thick, being elected seems to help them develop egos and then they form cliques, or political representation gets in the way - before you know it point scoring gets in the way of serving their communities.

Over 8 years clerking in this sector and bullying councillors will always exist - there is no mechanism to remove a Councillor from office, no sanction for poor behaviour etc.
Monitoring Officers are ineffective at best, most can't be arsed to listen to the complaint, largely because they know that they can't do bugger all about it.
Meanwhile, good clerks are leaving the profession left right and centre, often in favour of a more junior role elsewhere.
Sad really, we're paid as clerks to advise on legality, ensure transparency and record democratic decisions- though democracy is long gone in a lot of councils now and decisions are predetermined by councillors outside of the meetings, often with the those whose voices are the loudest getting their way.

I’ve watched a bit more, my experience is that it is actually rarely a female/male thing, but a clique A vs clique B thing. I’m a lawyer, I would have had their arse on a plate if I thought it was the former.

I used to work in local government and now work with central government.

Councillors are by far nastier, more egotistical bullying bastards than MPs are. they think they are so high and mighty and important because they never pop their heads outside their little world where they are the main character.

Fair point. There is usually a clique A and B, in my experience mostly men. What are your thoughts on a potential grievance from the clerk?

This is why I always shudder at the idea of devolving power and having more representatives at local level. Because the calibre of so many of these people is appalling. Why would we want more of them?

The Community Clerks Network on Facebook provides fantastic support and a safe place to vent for any clerks who find themselves in these situations. It has saved my sanity on many occasion. It is tightly monitored and only clerks can join.
Not to be mistaken with Clerk’s Corner which anyone can join, including councillors.

That clerk was incredible, I watched some more and the constant jibs at her were relentless.
The men acted like schoolground bullies.

@TubeScreamer

Agree on both FB pages

The amount of bullying that goes on is awful. Cllrs seem to forget that Councils are in fact businesses and are subject to all employment laws, they think the clerk is nothing more than a secretary to do their bidding and throw toys out of prams regularly in the most nasty way, often directed at the Clerk

They wouldn’t be happy if their family members were spoken to that way, but are happy to bully Clerks and Cllrs alike

It really is time sanctions were put in place. There was a survey sometime back from the Government on this and I am hopeful something will come out of it

You are absolutely correct. The VAST majority of local government councillors have not achieved professionally, they cannot hide their jealousy and treat professional, qualified, intelligent officers with spite.
Most of them are thick as mince and barely articulate, as can be seen in the video.

@WomenInCouncils post Ledbury I think a grievance would be a complete waste of time. I did some work with unions around the time of the Ledbury case. The bar is set very high for MOs finding behaviours bad enough to uphold complaints against councillors, so high that 9/10 fail. Even if they didn’t the standards regime doesn’t have any teeth. None whatsoever.

These councillors are literally untouchable, without the sort of staffing structure at a larger authority there’s no protection for officers who are required to work directly with them.

I agree with @GCAcademic , devolving services to town councils with the calibre of people involved in them is really concerning.

Instead of focusing her attention on businesses/the private sector, Angela Rayner should be looking at local government and getting that straightened out first.