Wednesday 29 April 2009

True To Form

I had completed all of my annual staff appraisals prior to submission date. I'd done the lot form and interview and then just had to wait for the centre to decide how they wanted them submitted. Once said new submission policy was decided off they went .. Goodbye and Goodnight!

Oh if it was so easy. They all came bouncing back with a missive stating they were on the wrong form. I looked up the new form, which probably wasn't in existence when the Personal Development Review (PDR) was opened last year. It was 99% identical to the old one with two irrelevant questions that somebody in an office has decided are important.

I could have just added these questions to each form. Somebody else who was in the same boat told me that he'd already made enquiries and offered to add the questions, but NO , submissions would only be accepted on the new form.

I have therefore spent the best part of 4 hours copying and pasting each part of each box onto the new form and resubmitting the whole lot again. This will no doubt replicated across the whole force area. Some people have twice as many as me to do.

Not a good use of time. If somebody just made a decision to allow the questions to be added to the existing form hundreds if not thousands of hours would be saved.

10 comments:

PC Michael Pinkstone said...

Oh the great and glorious PDR! A copy and paster's paradise. If you multiplied the time you have had to spend on this sycophantic crap by the number of officers in the country ... oh, lost count.

Anonymous said...

Inefficient use of computer technology strikes again!

Programmers are taught how to design things so that this kind of crap isn't necessary. It's quite unfortunate that a lot of things then get derailed by management types or other programmers.

Stressed Out Cop said...

Pinky

You are right it is a waste of time. I actually write a bone fide one for each of my staff .. one year someone "borrowed" one I'd done and then did some C + P and it came up on a dip sample. I was accused of copying his and told to write mine again, which I didn't.

Crap system - I've had a good boss and haven't written my own for 2 years now.

Anon

About sums us up. Just had a system change and that's it - we're assumed to be instant experts.

Constable Confused.com said...

SOC,

are you talking about the paper PDR or the new and vaunted E-PDR that we are now subject to?
This online disaster which involves approximately 10 e-mail transactions between me and my "SGT" per page is surely the way forward. Saves on ink and paper I suppose but not your time.

Regards

Stressed Out Cop said...

CC

Glad we're not the only ones. We've just gone E - PDR and it's not good.

Nobody actually cares about these reports as they serve little purpose except for those in need of development. If they're not upto scratch they go onto action plan anyway (more forms)

Vetnurse said...

They have to justify keeping people in pointless jobs and dreaming up pointless exercises. God forbid they did not have that the whole country would collapse.

I am sure that since the advent of computers while they have done a lot of good, they have bugged it up in many ways. It is to now to easy for someone to invent pointless forms and memos.

kingmagic said...

We've just started using e PDRs. First impressions...whats the point? And all it does is kick out a shit load of emails to all and sundry...who then ignore them.

Noonday Sun said...

So...the police are s**t. What else is new?

Hogdayafternoon said...

I wouldn't have minded the new age PDR's if they were used to address the useless time and space-wasters, but no, they were a manipulative schmooze-tool. QED? :See `The Apprentice` for a classic example of being nowhere near as good as you crack yourself up to be. Utter bollocks.

Stressed Out Cop said...

Kingmagic

Not you lot too? Do you have to embrace diversity as well? Is that really on your mind when trying to save life?
Vetnurse

It's another idea stolen from business and not suited to policing. Good in theory .. but we are not a business. The process produces little .. I actually went 5 years without one and the world didn't come to an end.

Noonday Sun - but shit in a caring sort of way, brought about by those imposing their agendas on us.

Hogday - Of course inefficiency or under performance is the action plan with monthly reviews. Leading to ... nothing. I've posted on this last year.