Jacob Rees Mogg revamping Civil Service training

[achillestoes]

It’s a sad day when you see Jacob Rees Mogg doing anything and you’re happy about it, but here we are. He is calling time on Civil Service training budgets being used for ‘ridiculous’ diversity courses that open the CS up to ‘mockery’ and don’t represent value for money. He’s writing to all government departments to make it clear that staff development should be about providing workers with the training needed to do their jobs.

I don’t like JRM but if anyone thinks the general public aren’t behind him on this, they’re deluded. Most people don’t believe training in your role should amount to moral indoctrination about your privilege, or requiring you to describe yourself within the frameworks of ideologies you don’t accept.

Apparently there was some sort of empathy training that was the last straw, involving a gay Japanese grandfather. Why anyone thinks anyone needs special training to treat a gay colleague the same as everyone else, I don’t know. It’s just a legal requirement. Not sure what him being Japanese would have to do with it either, or how many grandchildren he has.

I’d love to see the materials.

Agree OP. A colleague has been describing the outrage of her friend in the tax office who attended a training day and learnt about the need to respect asexual people and "other kin". "Other kin" are people with genders that align with animals apparently.

Yet whenever you call the tax office, DWP or any government office you're on hold for 100 million yrs or end up speaking to a half wit. Why don't they use the training budget to actually employ competent people to provide a decent service.

‘"Other kin" are people with genders that align with animals apparently.’

Right...

The CS needs to work on its psychometric testing, then.

And here's a thread about a person who identifies as a bird and uses ey/em/eir pronouns because birds don’t inherently have a gender

I wonder what happens if she works with a cat identifying otherkin 🤔

twitter.com/svphillimore/status/1542395917772390400?s=21

Do birds use any pronouns at all?

What happens if a birdperson tries to fly? Could that be really risky? Or is that birdpersonphobic? Would that be aversion therapy? Should I just accept that if a person says they are a bird they are a bird and that they should be encouraged to do all birdlike things? Struggling to get this right.

The people in the call centre will be on nit much more than minimum wage and are usually subject to awful working conditions (eg timed toilet breaks and having to explain why you were over 5 minutes, if you are). I can't imagine the people who are attracted to, or indeed remain in these roles are highly skilled

Interesting. Birds don’t have gender (that we know of) because they don’t have a society that forces gender-based roles onto different sexes (unless they do - how could we really know?). All of their behaviour that we could think of is sex-based (eg peacocking, different markings dependent on sex). Whilst it is fairly ludicrous to identify as a bird (do birds therefore have to be inclusive and recognise ‘eir’ bird status?), it does help to point out the general insanity. Anyone know if she’s for real? Or if she’s being quite clever?

Oh dear lord, JRM has called it right on this one. Learn how to do your job, and then do your job. Simple but effective. Just do your fucking job.

Is the person who identifies as a bird asking for free flying lessons on the nhs?

Exactly they spend money on stupid woke training instead of paying decent wages that would attract decent people......

“Would that be aversion therapy?”
Aviarysion therapy, perhaps…? 🤔🦜

The main problem with these courses (or a big one) is that they target the wrong thing and they have the wrong effect. Their aim is to teach reasonable people that they are very racist/homophobic/transphobic. But they’re not, so they only succeed in either convincing people that their normal thoughts and reactions are actually prejudice, thereby normalising prejudice (because people can’t help their thoughts and reactions), or just in pissing people off, which is more likely to create prejudice than help address it.

Birdpeople ARE birds. But we should remove the word bird from all official documents and change it to "creatures who tweet" to be more inclusive. Also of course birdpeople can fly - how rude. Cisbirds were born with the ability while birdpeople must wait years on the NHS just to start flight training and eventually get their PRL (Pilot Recognition License).

Educate yourselves ffs. Ignorance is violence.

I came on to comment on the civil service but I've been distracted by the bird people and it may sound harsh but why are they identifying as such fancy, flamboyantly beautiful birds that seem so at odds with how they come across onscreen? Why cardinals and blue jays rather than starlings or crows? It really is identity substituting for personality.

I am glad that we are trying to get a more diverse civil service, and that we are trying to be more empathetic and inclusive - isn't that a good thing for both service users and employees?

Part of "doing my fucking job" is understanding everybody who uses our service and making sure that it works for all of them and getting the best out of my teams to deliver the service in the best way.

This is good news even though it's made me agree with JRM. Surely the civil service recruitment and screening process is rigorous enough to weed out and people with strong prejudices. The only training that should be paid for with public money is that which will enhance specific job skills. I am an ex-civil servant but thankfully I changed careers before all this stonewall propaganda training became the norm.

If you are providing a decent service I would wager that 99.99% of the time yours or your client/customers gender identity or sexual orientation is completely irrelevant your job.

I agree with @TheSmallAssassin about a more diverse civil service. Which wanting people to travel to an office in London, all the working week, does not promote. Jacob Rees-Mogg wants people in offices, as the 'notes' he left demonstrated.

As for training, most can be delivered online, in much less time, and without the costs of a venue etc.

‘I am glad that we are trying to get a more diverse civil service, and that we are trying to be more empathetic and inclusive - isn't that a good thing for both service users and employees?’

It might be, if that was what it was doing. I am a service user and I do not want to be called ‘c*s’ and I do not want it to be assumed that I am prejudiced against people because of their race or ethnicity. I see no value for money in you spending work time talking about how to empathise with fictional gay Japanese grandfathers. I expect those people to be treated fairly by you, and if they aren’t, I expect you to be treated fairly in any investigation, then fired.

‘As for training, most can be delivered online, in much less time, and without the costs of a venue etc.’

In people’s lunch hours? Do you believe that’s right?

Surely gender Is just stereotypical male/female behaviour and birds definitely have that? I mean what’s with all the stone piling up and feather flaunting if not?

Well @Alltheprettyseahorses I think that's a bit like people who who lived a previous life or who have a spirit guide (Ssooo last century )
They were always an Abyssinian princess or they communicate with Tutankhamen, (even though they don't speak ancient Egyptian) I've never heard of anyone who lived a former life as a slave.

Though funnily enough just the other day I was watching swallows swooping around our quiet country street and one swooped so low it came right at me before swerving away and up and I thought of all birds, they seem to be flying as if they've just discovered they can do it and it's so much fun. If I was going to be a bird I would be a swallow. These thoughts predated the discovery that I almost certainly have a bird gender. I haven't told the cat yet, she's currently doing her morning body grooming on my bed.

I work for the civil service. We work hard to provide a good service (this was especially true during lockdown with two kids home from school; no furlough or key worker status for me) despite being bashed and trashed by everyone from the PM and the editors of the Daily Mail and Telegraph down. We do not spend hours and hours in diversity training. I've not been on any courses except to gain knowledge for my job. I daresay there are some I could do but I'm too busy working and haven't looked - they are not mandatory. Possibly this is branch specific, and I'm not going to say where I work but I wish people like JRM would Give. It. A. Rest.

This post triggered Nelly Furtado ‘I’m like a bird’ earworm for me. 😠