Silver Anniversary

Twenty years ago today Sgt Pepper might've taught the band to play, but 25 years ago I embarked on what became my career. 25 years? Gosh.

It was never meant to be a career - it was the temporary job I took to pay the rent while I looked for my 'proper' job. It took me about three years to start thinking that it might actually be my real job and that's probably when my career really started and I started taking the job more seriously.

I started working in the personnel department of ACAS Head Office in St James's Square on 1 August 1983 (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) and that's where I first came across computers. It was a nice job in a nice office. St James's Square is just behind Piccadilly and was used to film a lot of those 18th and 19th Century Sunday evening TV series, what with it's Georgian facades and nice leafy square. I had a few jobs there but wanted something different...

For my next job I wanted to work with the public in a front-line post, so went to Fulham 'A' Unemployment Benefit Office as a Claimant Adviser. I had counselling training, learned a lot of obscure benefit rules and had the experience of a lifetime. That was the mid/late- '80s and HIV/AIDS was emerging, 'gay plague' was in the headlines and people were scared of the killer disease. A significant portion of my caseload were men with HIV, drug addicts were more evenly spread across the genders as were people who had no idea how to present themselves or get a job. I loved that job for a couple of years but when I started thinking, 'o no, not *another* addict' I knew I'd done it long enough and started to think about moving on.

I have a few vivid memories of that job:

~ my Area Manager (3 grades higher than me) wanted to know what Claimant Advisers really did so spent the day with me. One of my sessions was with a new claimant who said he was HIV+. My boss instantly powered his chair to the back of the interview room as far away from the claimant as possible. So I leaned closer, trying to compensate. After the interview my boss said I should've stopped the claimant's benefit there and then. I said no, because he was still able to work and do training and I would see him again in 2 weeks to see what action he's taken. My boss was clearly scared of 'catching something' but didn't say anything about me and my colleagues being 'at risk' on a daily basis. The boss would've retired years ago on a good pension. I vaguely assume that many of the claimants I saw possibly died in the '90s.

~ a young woman who was 10 days younger than me was on heroin. Both of her brothers were in prison for dealing and they were her own dealers. She was on methadone to try to come off and she was on an extreme course to get off heroin quickly because she was borderline. Letters from her doctor proved this and that she was on daily observation. I arranged for her to get off the dole and onto sick benefit instead, making life easier for a short time. She didn't come back.

~ another young woman, a Scottish woman who married a bloke from the Lebannon and lived in Beirut. Her apartment building was bombed and she lost her husband and baby son. She came to London since her parents in Scotland had disowned her. She knew no-one, had nowhere to live and no job. I saw her briefly and gave her a few suggestions for shelters and jobs that might offer accommodation with the job. She also wanted dental treatment since her teeth had been smashed in the bombing so I gave her information about dental services. That was it. I didn't hear from her again until three months later when I received a lovely letter saying she'd had her teeth sorted and was now a live-in assistant manager in a hotel and thanked me for my help. I felt so guilty at the time since I'd just thought of her as another 'case' but by giving her a few phone numbers and leaflets I'd helped her to change her life. She did it, not me.

I next moved into the Employment Department HQ in Whitehall in 1990 and I've been in and around there ever since. I started off doing industrial relations work and then moved into employment policy. I made the tactical error of going on holiday to Tangier in 1995 and got back to find the department had been closed down and I now worked for Education & Employment. I had various jobs and have good memories of working on age discrimination issues and legislation - it was hard work but I learned so much and I look on that as my real policy training (thanks to my boss, Mary). Ever the saddo, I really enjoyed the economics of employment policy and ended up working on the New Deal programmes before moving into education and technology.

I learned so much while working on ICT in schools, not only about technology, but about research techniques, about Government spending and spending cycles. Dull? Maybe, but a it's a good thing to understand more than most of the rest of the Department. I managed to attract about £5bn to my policy in technology over the years.

By and large it's been a good 25 working years. I've learned a lot, done a lot, seen a lot, influenced a lot and, I can honestly say, personally changed a lot because I was in particular jobs at particular times. I like to think that, if I'd been of a mind to clamber up the greasy pole, I could be higher up the corporate structure. I sometimes look around and think, 'how on earth were you promoted' but the answer is simple - they went for the promotions and I didn't, they had the guts to do it and the energy to do it. Good on 'em.

25 years of solid public service to Her Majesty's Government of the day. I can't believe it. Apparently, neither can my Department since it hasn't said anything to me. Years ago it was celebrated, letters were issued and gifts awarded. These days I *think* I can apply for a 'long service award'. The onus is on me to apply and I'll look up what I have to do when I have time next week. Long service isn't necessarily thought of as a good thing these days - a portfolio of skills is more valuable. The fact that I've acquired a significant portfolio of skills while in the Service is irrelevant these days. Ho hum. That's life.

Anyway, happy anniversary to me!