Police Line (c) R Dennison June 2013
Job satisfaction is important for most people, whether that is happiness for 40 hours a week, or during their shifts spread over a nine day fortnight. If one’s goal is job satisfaction and that goal has been attained the world is a sunnier place. Perhaps one might even say customers are satisfied interacting with happy workers, who in turn are able to enjoy life outside work.
Many people are not that lucky in their work. According to its website there will be more than 31,000 officers and recruits in the Metropolitan Police Service in 2013/14. From the customers’ perspective their mission to deliver Total Policing surely depends, in part, on job satisfaction and on all of the staff respecting the public and each other.
An easy milestone to reach would be ensuring the organisational culture support a goal in which ‘colleagues respect one another’. Kevin Maxwell’s situation suggests there is still some distance to go before that milestone is reached.
The former detective has been successful in pursuing Employment Tribunal cases against the Met, after raising concerns having experienced some colleagues’ racist and homophobic behaviour.
I guess large institutions contain diverse views and there are management challenges involved in establishing a basic set of acceptable language standards.
It may seem a small detail, given the hugely challenging operational agenda the Met delivers. Yet getting the details right may make organisational cohesion and corporate delivery a little easier in the long run.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/17/kevin-maxwell-gay-black-police-officer-hounded-out
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