Globalisation - The implications for ordinary working people

MOnica My family members live within metres of the areas they were brought up in. Crucially, they went to the same schools (normal state schools) as their parents. Education (and doing well at school) has been the key, alongside being involved with their communities. I'm not going to give any more details because I respect their right to privacy. You really don't seem to have much actual experience of living in deprived communities. You comment as an outsider.

The point is that opportunities need to be available - and that won't happen if the solution is to provide low-skilled, low paid jobs.

I live in the North East, and work in a city with high level of deprivation, none of the middle class teachers, lawyers, etc etc live in the deprived areas, they move out as soon as possible, they work in those areas but don't live in them.

growstuff Your family are exceptional.

I do not respond to ignorant personal comments.

I was definitely brought up to be compliant, in those days it was very painful if you got caught disobeying rules. The same rules and standards are relevant today but nobody upholds them. Blame parents, blame society, certainly bad behavior and violence in schools is widespread, social media makes it worse.

When you begin work you have to accept instructions and do the job whatever it is, that’s going to apply to most workers throughout their working life, there is a system and it has to be followed. Only those at the head of an organization, wether self employed or CEO have the choice of changing the system

I am not sure whether I was brought up to be compliant or not. I do know that I certainly never was. I always asked questions and queried things. But that is nothing to do with how you work.

A job is contract between worker and employer. So you follow the conditions of your contract, but a good worker does not obey blindly. They should have the guts to query and possibly refuse if asked to so something dangerous or illegal and often checking and querying is part of the work your do.

One manager I reported to told me, with approval, that our IT department saw me as being 'difficult'. He said that meant that I was quite clear about my department's IT needs and I was not going to be fobbed off with an IT system that did not do what it we wanted it to do. I absolutely wasn't compliant.

growstuff People don't have to move outside their own environment if there are local opportunities. My own extended family comes from the North East (Teesside). Many of them are graduates who have chosen to stay in the region. They were all state-school educated, went to university and then returned home. Housing is cheap, so they live in houses which seem like mansions to those of us living in more expensive areas. They have a great quality of life.

I agree, my family have a great quality of life in a low cost area.

Excellent appraisal.

M0nica

growstuff Your family are exceptional.

I do not respond to ignorant personal comments.

No MOnica they're not exceptional. They are "ordinary working people", like most people in the country.

Why should Putin blow up his own pipeline? He's only got to shut it off. Someone else did the blowing up. America?

M0nica

I am not sure whether I was brought up to be compliant or not. I do know that I certainly never was. I always asked questions and queried things. But that is nothing to do with how you work.

A job is contract between worker and employer. So you follow the conditions of your contract, but a good worker does not obey blindly. They should have the guts to query and possibly refuse if asked to so something dangerous or illegal and often checking and querying is part of the work your do.

One manager I reported to told me, with approval, that our IT department saw me as being 'difficult'. He said that meant that I was quite clear about my department's IT needs and I was not going to be fobbed off with an IT system that did not do what it we wanted it to do. I absolutely wasn't compliant.

Ever job has a working system, that system has evolved often over many years to ensure safety, reduce fraud and improve efficiency.

There are always shortcuts that might make the job easier, at risk to the other factors. In a large company or government department those changes come from the top, not from some operator in the local office.

If you are a Teacher, Solicitor, or Accountant you are a slave to the system, there is no point questioning it, you have to be compliant. It is really helpful if children learn at an early age that fitting in with the system is much easier than rebeling against it

David in every system there is a point in challenging it if necessary, it is the way you do this that matters. Were it not for people challenging rigid rules we would still be in the dark ages.

Even sentencing guidelines, for example, that must be followed, are at the same time as they are being applied rigourously and carefully, also being challenged, leading to change.

As the serenity prayer says: Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

It is always surprising how many of the things people say can never be changed are actually susceptible to change if you go about it in the right way.

You say^ It is really helpful if children learn at an early age that fitting in with the system is much easier than rebeling against it^ That sentence made my blood run cold. It is the basis on which China wields control over its population and every other dictator the world has known.

Children should be taught to question and challenge in a constructive way.

Children need to learn how to follow rules and how to effectively challenge stupid rules.

David49

M0nica

I am not sure whether I was brought up to be compliant or not. I do know that I certainly never was. I always asked questions and queried things. But that is nothing to do with how you work.

A job is contract between worker and employer. So you follow the conditions of your contract, but a good worker does not obey blindly. They should have the guts to query and possibly refuse if asked to so something dangerous or illegal and often checking and querying is part of the work your do.

One manager I reported to told me, with approval, that our IT department saw me as being 'difficult'. He said that meant that I was quite clear about my department's IT needs and I was not going to be fobbed off with an IT system that did not do what it we wanted it to do. I absolutely wasn't compliant.

Ever job has a working system, that system has evolved often over many years to ensure safety, reduce fraud and improve efficiency.

There are always shortcuts that might make the job easier, at risk to the other factors. In a large company or government department those changes come from the top, not from some operator in the local office.

If you are a Teacher, Solicitor, or Accountant you are a slave to the system, there is no point questioning it, you have to be compliant. It is really helpful if children learn at an early age that fitting in with the system is much easier than rebeling against it

My goodness! So let's all become robots! I can't believe I've just read that. I'm just grateful I went to a school (a girls' school) where I was encouraged to question the status quo. Otherwise, I might have been very proficient at needlework and baking but little else.

Reading David's post about rule following and changes coming from the top reminded me of the series "Troubleshooters" with Sir John Harvey Jones. When he went to a business in trouble he always spent time talking to people on the shop floor first rather than the managers because he thought they would be able to identify what was wrong with the business they worked in. Generally, they had a much clearer view than the managers who had made the "rules" and "decisions" that they were expected to follow. It's a huge mistake to imagine that people lower in the hierachy have nothing to offer apart from being compliant rule followers.

We are robots in our working lives we only tolerate it because we are paid to. The Chinese comparison is very apt if you fit in with the system live can be good, if you challenge it will be hard.

If you’re a boss you do listen to feedback and try to incorporate changes, what you don’t want is continual dissent that it can be done better.
If you work for the NHS, Teaching or Local Government there are strict regulations how you work, you either comply or leave - most stay because it pays the rent. Coming back to education the sooner all children learn to comply with system the better.

I do not know what you did for a living David, but it sounds really unusual to be so robotic.

Most of us work within a framework of rules, but that doesn't stop us also having personal autonomy. A teacher has to teach a fixed syllabus, but some do it well and some badly because of the way they teach, how they work with children and how they behave.

Exactly the same applies to those in the NHS, law, accounting where there is a clear framework, but how you do the work and what you bring to it is up to you.

Having had several very bruising encounters with the NHS over the last year or so. I have seen things that worked well and others were a disaster. the difference wasn't the rules, it was the individuals applying them. Those in blinkers 'just following the rules' and others doing exactly the same thing but seeing links, and referring people to other departments, or other services or taking time to explain something.

All I know is that in all the jobs I had from start to finish I always had a level of autonomy. Even when I was a waitress, I could be a friendly helpful waitress, or a grumpy one.

Of course you have autonomy in your personal interaction but the best way to promotion for most is to apply the existing system well, when you get to executive level you then have a chance to make changes.

I’ve always been self employed, technical college taught me how to manage a business, Farming, Building, Restaurant, Commercial property, all on borrowed money. Just the Building and Commercial tenants now they are really good to deal with.
I play by the rules, get on with all my neighbours, avoid the crooks and local politics

I think David49 we will have to agree to differ.

‘Compliant is just complaint with the letters reversed