DOES Sir Bob Kerslake as the new head of Britain's domestic civil service feel ready for the unvarnished truth about the organisation he heads? Leviathan hopes so: a new survey may make him brace himself. The civil service, once the “safe” career choice for Britons oiling the wheels of the state machinery, is not in chipper mood. A survey by the Boston Consulting Group and the UK Civil Service People Survey flags up problems of low morale, aimlessness and worries about career decline.Your blogger does wonder how much “depression offset” should be built in to questionnaires asking people how they feel about their occupation. Big organisations especially tend to suffer from a collective anomie, in which people asked about the ventures they work for can sound down in the dumps about it, while getting on perfectly well in the day job. It is, as the great radio wartime character, Mona Lott, once put it, “being so cheerful as keeps me going” (Those unfamiliar with Mona should know that this line was always delivered with an attitude of terminal despair).The civil service however does have real problems to contend with, not least the uncertainties following David Cameron's decision, against the advice of many in the Whitehall bureaucracy, to split off the home service from other branches and Number 10. This sense of confusion seems to permeate the BCG research.From pride ...
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