Former Chief Executive Alan Burnham penned the following comment in response to Dr. Mike Bolton's 'The Last Word....on sickness'. We felt that rather than post his piece as a comment it merited space as an article in its own right. Note that the views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily correspond to the views or official position of the Branch or the National Union.
So good to hear from a fellow grumpy old retiree who also finds that actually doing what you want when you want beats the hell out of shuffling around with the MOD corporate chains rattling around your ankles. I think we were successful in lowering sick rates in VA for two reasons. One, being active in managing individual cases - this isn't management-speak for putting the boot in - it really did mean trying to find good solutions for people.(But yes it does mean dealing appropriately with people who are just taking the piss). Second reason, and by far the most important was based on the amazingly complicated concept that happy people are less likely to go off sick. I don't know how successful we were - it's for others to judge - but I think that the AMT I worked with were 100%...OK about 94%...genuinely concerned to make the working day as positive as we could. Sad thing is that in the world of MOD our reward for lowering sick absence, improving customer service, hugely positive staff satisfaction rates and a host of business excellence awards was to gain a reputation for being a load of over-funded softies who would probably benefit from a damn good thrashing and a posting en masse to Diego Garcia.
