We're taking a bit of a breather while the world rearranges its underpants. Meanwhile, the other blog is here.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The world is such a cheerful place when viewed from upside down

There are times lately when Milton's driven me barmy, making me wonder why he's doing stuff that I would have thought were within my remit and not always letting me know about what he's up to in the process. Before I get too pissed off with him I need to take into account our working realities in this land of lies and treacle: like everyone else, there are times when he needs to do something because it can be done not because it can be done by him.

I'm reminded of this today because we've been doing yet another Impact Assessment exercise. Lately we've been required to do Risk Impact Assessments, Equality Impact Assessments, Target Impact Assessments, Cultural Impact Assessments, Reading Goals Impact Assessments, oh, the list rolls on. If somebody were to tell Jim that there's a Two Weeks In Scarborough With A Drag Queen Called Bubbles Impact Assessment I dare say he wouldn't bat an eyelid (I'd like to think that I might).

This time it's a Customer Service Impact Assessment (the grammarians amongst you will have noticed the lack of 'doing' words). Working through the forms with Milton it's pretty apparent why he's getting frustrated and looking for Things That Can Be Done. Although he's held responsible for our reference library services he doesn't actually have any authority over stock selection and expenditure, staffing, local studies or any of reference libraries themselves.

In the circumstances...

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