WRT Staff …
Staff morale has been getting lower for years (it’s not a recent phenomena) and it’s down to a multitude of factors.
I know of more people who have had more jobs in the last 10 years due to redundancy than they’d had in the previous 10-15 years, which puts more pressure on them to prove themselves in new jobs. There is more pressure from employers in terms of demands for working different hours. I know a lot more people now who are self-employed or work in a way that makes them effectively self-employed, which brings a whole different level of pressure and a lot more who do shift work, which only gives in essence 1 or part of a weekend a month off. They get time off during the week, but isn’t much use for those who are staff in the Corps, as all the activity courses are at the weekend.
Which means the ability or want to do other things diminishes.
I know of two staff who sent off their CRB and when they were told they were suspended as their CRB had ‘run out’ because it hadn’t reached Wing, they resigned on the spot, one of them put it in the post themselves and the other saw the adj do it on the way home. One told me I’d put so much into the organisation and if they can’t have a mechanism to deal with this, it’s not an organisation worthy of them.
Add into this the increased requirements from the Corps in terms of courses to do things, need to be qualified and then requalify a few years on in some cases and add in extra requirements such as WHTs, First Aid. The extra faff to do the most basic of things that didn’t exist years ago. All drain staff’s enthusiasm.
I was away last week and the older ones among us reflected on what we used to do, the actual work to say do a hiking weekend hasn’t altered and in fact being all on paper could be done anywhere without a need to be online. But the work to do visits and community events has increased as have FMS and shooting. I have passed organising things to other staff and they missed getting bits of paper from organisers or providers which just adds to the ‘fun’, especially as things like PLI are annual renewals.
I don’t think we should look at us as being unique in terms of morale, enthusiasm etc in the voluntary sector.
What we shouldn’t also ignore is that in society in general getting people to assist in a voluntary capacity has been getting harder and harder. For reasons stated above and people lacking what IMO is community spirit, which means more and more gets done by fewer willing people. Add into this the need to submit to checks if you want to do things with vulnerable groups. I know a lady who coordinates voluntary transport and she has said their pool of drivers has got smaller and new people are like hen’s teeth. A couple of people I know who are “Scout” leaders have said they used to rely on parents, but they aren’t so willing / keen to help as they once were. Even within RAFA and the RBL getting branch members to do their bit with a tin, it seems to be the older (least able) members who are most willing.
WRT Cadets …
I can quite accurately determine when it became more difficult to get cadets to do things … 1994, increasing from around 1999. 1994 was when Sunday trading laws were relaxed in England and Wales and many teenagers started working Saturdays and or Sundays and then a bit later on the supposed need to have to go to uni, which meant more teenagers doing weekend jobs, that could also mean some weekday evenings, to get a bit of money. Our kids started working at 16 at the weekend, which all but removed family life and an ability to do other things reduced. Our son was a keen footballer which all but stopped from when he started weekend working. I had a Saturday job which was working every other weekend in Woolies, as there were a lot wanting the job, so I all but stopped doing things on Saturdays and lost out on a GS. If I’d said I won’t be down for the next x Saturdays, I’d have been out of a job. You see it in older cadets now who can’t get the time off to do things (there are a good supply of teens wanting jobs than jobs and the retail sector is probably the least forgiving), when you combine it with education pressure home/course work exams and so on, it’s all you can do to expect them at the sqn. Also within education parents being unable to take holidays in term time means that school holidays (probably with the exception of the February ½ term) are now family holiday times. We always went on holiday for 2 weeks at the end of July before the schools broke up, can’t do that now. As mentioned I was away for a few days last week on DofE exped which had been opened to 3 sqns initially, but ended up with 7 to provide 12 cadets. Not that the original sqns didn’t have a need, but the cadets who needed to do it were on family holidays at one point it was touch and go if it was going ahead. Over the last 2 weeks we had two thirds of the cadets away and there are already 8 going away at Whitsun and 7 over the May Day weekend.
The biggest concern is that those in the Ivory Towers don’t seem to realise any of this, spinning as they do in their own little universe, oblivious to the real world. When the great and the good turn up somewhere and see lots of faces, they don’t realise what those attending might have had to do get there and that some will be going to work as soon as they’ve sodded off, with no thanks at all. When you consider cadets attending these things, how many will have given up a social life to do home/course work and or throw a sickie to attend the really, really important cadet activity? As long as those of us willing to sacrifice family and personal life and even duck/dive with our paid employment and cadets make sacrifices, continue to do so, nothing will change.
