I’m going to be channeling all three….

Note Before Watching

Many of these slides require delicate interpretation – I have added links and even music to some, but many people have asked

for a copy, especially for the historical photographs which puts employment services into context. So with this caveat I make them

available.Stephen, August 2011

Where we came from

Where we are

… iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui

dabat olim imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se continet

atque duas tantum res anxius optat, panem et circenses.

(Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81)

… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the

People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a

time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two

things: bread and circuses

(Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81)

'Pogey' - from the CBC archives

The exhaustees - from the CBC

archives

Misuse acceptable for the maximum benefit

Tightest controls to force least possible use

Reward Punishment

Context:PoliticalSocial

Economic

Treating the Low Serotonin Society

Aligning Advanced Capitalism to our Basic Instincts

(Chapter Heading)Britain on the CouchTreating the Low Serotonin SocietyOliver James

‘...as more attractive than the other applicants. This can only be achieved by extensive comparison of self and others , both real and imagined.’

pg 139, Britain on the CouchTreating the Low Serotonin SocietyOliver James

‘This creates a preoccupation with self-definition through others, an altered mentality in which building your curriculum vitae and sucking up to potentially useful contacts becomes all-consuming.’

Pg 336, Britain on the CouchTreating the Low Serotonin SocietyOliver James

Context: political, social, economic1946 and 1969LMISelf sufficiencyAnger ManagementSmall, medium, largeTraining versus LearningJust as wise employers catch up….Santas

WHAT MANAGERS THINK EMPLOYEES WANT (in order)

1. Good wages2. Job security3. Promotion/growth opportunities4. Good working conditions5. Interesting work6. Personal loyalty to workers 7. Tactful discipline8. Full appreciation for work done9. Sympathetic help on personal issues10. Feeling in on things

WHAT EMPLOYEES SAY THEY WANT (in order)

1. Full appreciation for work done 2. Feeling in on things3. Sympathetic help on personal issues 4. Job security5. Good wages6. Interesting work7. Promotion/growth opportunities8. Personal loyalty to workers9. Good working conditions 10. Tactful disciplineThis survey first came out in 1946 in Foreman Facts, from the Labor Relations Institute of NY and was produced again by

Lawrence Lindahl in Personnel magazine, in 1949. This study has since been replicated with similar results by Ken Kovach (1980) Valerie Wilson, Achievers International (1988) Bob Nelson, Blanchard Training & Development (1991) and Sheryl & Don Grimme, GHR Training Solutions (1997-2001).

The year of revolutions – Paris, London, USA - music link

Context: political, social, economic

LMISelf sufficiencyAnger ManagementSmall, medium, largeTraining versus LearningJust as wise employers catch

up….Santas

The words we use

What do you call what has happened over the

last 2 years?

Context‘Good times’ – something

wrong with you(‘need’ help)

‘Bad times’ – something wrong with the economy

(shrug)

‘Said, meant, heard, felt’

Stephen Hill

• Ourselves• Our families and relatives and dependants• Our employer• Employers• Our agency• Our ‘funder’• The training/ learning status quo – ‘Big

academe’• The government• The people• Fellow citizens (putting the zen into

citizen)

‘Said, meant, heard, felt’

Who are we working for when……

Consider the following exchanges……

‘Said, meant, heard, felt’I’m going to send you for training…

I can offer you training..I’m referring you to…for training…

Go see my buddy Lana, she’ll set you up – you go up the stairs and

there’s a blue door on the right…Oh while we are at it, I’ve got some

time, let me grab my coat…

Mentorship Language from Ross LairdStatements to Avoid Whenever

Possible• Calm down.• I'll be with you in a minute. • It's not my fault. • No one else has a problem with this. • I don't make the policy. • There's nothing I can do. • I can't help you. • The rules apply to everyone. • We've always done it this way. • If you don't like this, you can leave.

Mentorship Language from Ross Laird

Statements to Work In Whenever Possible• Let me help you. • I can give you all the time you need. • Let's figure this out. • Whatever the issue is, I'll help you get it

resolved. • It's very important to me that you are satisfied

with what happens here. • You are unique. I'm happy to adapt things for

you. • I really want you to feel that this is a community

and that you belong here. • When things don't work so well, we fix them

together. • I take my role, and yours, very seriously. • I will stay with this until we find a resolution.

Craigslist is addictionRepeated use, greater use needed to satisfy, ‘just one more’ and the myth of the ‘perfect high’.

201,759 page views

looking at 1,976 job adverts

‘Said, meant, heard, felt’‘No time, not structured

like that, my program doesn’t allow me to….’

So who are we working for…

Out of the Loop?

Idiots!(inspired by Christopher Hitchins)

Supremely placed but impotent –

frontline!• Refugees• Immigration• Restricted/restrictive services• Welfare

Meaningless flow charts and ‘graphics’….

‘When I feed the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist.’

Hélder Câmara

CCDP?

The pupil is thereby ‘schooled’ to confuse

teaching with learning, grade advancement

with education, a diploma with

competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new.

His imagination is ‘schooled’ to accept service in place of

value.Ivan Illich ‘Deschooling Society’

(1973: 9)

200 reasonswhy

credentialingsu*ks

10 reasons why credentialing

threatens our ability to drive change,

innovation and model creative, spontaneous,

workplaces

• Education• Training• Grandfathering• Where’s talent & passion – clusters of

quirkiness• Incomprehensible title• Job security – actually job dictatorship• No taxation without representation• Where is apprenticeship and mentoring• Standards for admission many of those

we work for can only dream of• Assistance with the process

So a degree is ‘somewhere’ but a mere diploma is ‘Little Town’ – oh the arrogance and hierarchy.

How much help do we really need to fill in a few forms…….?

So employment counsellors can’t find work/leads for themselves?!

Recognize the artificiality of outcomes imposed by external regulatory bodies.

These have limited usefulness and tend to embody the myth of objectivity. Yet

outcomes determined by learners -- what am I learning, how will I know when I have learned it? -- can be immensely useful. But such outcomes must grow from the inside, from within the modes of inquiry pursued

by learners, and must be adaptable enough to accommodate the ever-shifting

landscape of learning experiences.Thoughts for the Upcoming Semester

2009-09-06 by Ross Laird

An Alternative Manifesto

Alternative work and action to keep current and certified

• A workplace innovation• A workplace alignment• 4 letters• Philosophers Cafe• 12 blog entries/comments/Enet postings• A new pathway• 4 marches or rallies• A forum for expression for those we serve• Mentoring and apprentices

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Work workW

It’s a fake, but why not hand some power back to those we exist to serve?

The Irish National Organisation of the

Unemployed

The frontline government welfare and employment staff are trained by unemployed people!

So perhaps the question is not who, or whom, we work for but what do we

work for

‘I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.’

John Cage