Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 54 total)
  • One job not enough for some :)
  • alexandersupertramp
    Free Member

    http://news.sky.com/story/1031459/one-in-10-police-officers-has-a-second-job
    Hillsburgh, miners, tomlinson, pleb gate and now this.
    Is this why they make so many mistakes or bad judgement calls?

    grantway
    Free Member

    To be honest for what they have to put up with I wouldn’t even do it has a First job

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    1/10 doesn’t sound very high. How does that compare to the general population?

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    firestarter
    Free Member

    If they were paid a decent amount for what they do they wouldn’t need a second job

    Bregante
    Full Member

    No problem whatsoever with Police officers having a second job, providing they have permission. My wife (a serving officer) runs her own business in her own time. I can’t think of a single instance when this has affected her ability to do the job.

    Well done in highlighting 4 mistakes/bad decisions (your words) though from the last 30 years.

    yossarian
    Free Member

    Can’t see a problem with second jobs. Not entirely sure why this is a story TBH.

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    I’m a lot more concerned about someone who doesn’t want one job than someone who’s doing two.

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    I think it’s more to do with the amount of time off they have.

    trailmonkey
    Full Member

    Can’t see a problem with second jobs. Not entirely sure why this is a story TBH.

    because people shouldn’t need two jobs. 30 years ago families lived on one income, now two aren’t even enough sometimes.

    rudebwoy
    Free Member

    if one job (fulltime) does not pay enough to live on- then its not a job- its charity work- work culture in this isle is seriously deranged, other developed economies– notably germany,sweden,norway, work less hours for more pay– and have something called a life– here folk seem conditioned to accept low wages long hours as some inevitability– and then turn their ire on those who have no jobs !! strange….

    paulosoxo
    Free Member

    deadlydarcy – Member
    I think it’s more to do with the amount of time off they have.
    POSTED 2 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

    Serious question. How many hours a week do they do? I would have thought it would be a standard 37 hour week like most people do, although I can’t remember the last time I only worked 37 hours.

    pingu66
    Free Member

    Don’t have an issue with them having a second job, at least it gives them a career choice when they are not very good at their first job.

    As for four mistakes in 30 years I imagine the OP didn’t have time to list all the errors the police have made in the last 30 years. One of those “4 mistakes/bad decisions” was an attempt to cover up the truth of a tragedy for 23 years that cost 96 people their lives by a police force, not an individual but over 100 individuals colluding to hide the truth. Personally I could list more however there are times when the police do a really good job.

    It would be good to see less failures and it is only right that when they fail they are brought to account.

    Bregante
    Full Member

    dd, to be honest mate in the past I’d be the first to acknowledge that far too many officers would take too much time off on the sick, however a lot of work has gone on over the last 5 or so years to drastically reduce that. I know that because one of my team goes off sick, the amount of work I have to do to “promote their early return to work”.

    My staff are sent automatically generated letters if their sickness levels even start to get anywhere near the minimum acceptable level and have to attend compulsory “attendance support meetings” some of which have been nothing short of bullying sessions. Officers suffering from properly diagnosed stress or depression being given poorly worded letters talking about unsatisfactory performance procedures. I could go on.

    I had Guillain Barres syndrome a few years ago and was in a great deal of pain and stuck in a wheelchair for five months and I had no end of home visits from bosses and HR personnel asking me when I thought I’d be back at work.

    Nobby
    Full Member

    One of the officers mentioned in the daily wail article is our local priest now.

    Top bloke.

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    Breggie, I can’t disagree.

    Only taking the mick really (before I get my arse chewed off) 😉

    Bregante
    Full Member

    Paulsoxo. It varies between 37-40 hours a week mate. Many do more and get paid overtime when they do. (Insps and above don’t get overtime)..

    In recent years though the overtime opportunities have also dropped, especially in specialist departments. In the past I have worked up to and beyond 100 hours in a week on occasion but obviously those occasions have been relatively rare and I’ve been paid accordingly.

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    yet more public sector worker bashing as far as I can see…..

    alexandersupertramp
    Free Member

    My point is that how do they have enough time time to do jobs. There has been posts on here here about how overworked and stressed they all are. How many are signed of sick due to stress? My step father is retired from the force. I’m not a police hater before the many bike riding police start posting. The ones who post on threads like this and the officers down thread, but not on the Hillsburgh and Yorkshire miner bashing threads.

    And the pathetic reply about highlighting the 4 cases so police mistakes. Is anybody that naive to believe we hear about the misconduct cases.

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    I imagine the shift patterns make it possible for most – if you’re on nights, you’ll have free daytime hours even allowing for sleep, and days off will often fall on weekdays so it’s easier to find something productive to do.

    If you’re married to someone who works 9-5 Monday to Friday, it must be hard for some to sit around the house on a Tuesday with nothing to do. Obviously we’d all go off riding, but for others, they fill it with work.

    br
    Free Member

    If they were paid a decent amount for what they do they wouldn’t need a second job

    Yer, right – not only are they decently paid for what is a ‘semi-manual’ type job, their pension costs work out at about the same as a basic job on top of that. Plus they can retire in their early 50’s.

    I imagine the shift patterns make it possible for most – if you’re on nights, you’ll have free daytime hours even allowing for sleep, and days off will often fall on weekdays so it’s easier to find something productive to do.

    Predictable hours is the key here, if you work five 12-hour shifts you can then not work for another, say, seven days. No different to a Nurse friend of ours.

    glupton1976
    Free Member

    Well done in highlighting 4 mistakes/bad decisions (your words) though from the last 30 years.

    Hillsborough could hardly be described as a mistake or a bad decision. Nor could the miners strike or Tomlinson affair to be honest. You can have plebgate though.

    Coyote
    Free Member

    here folk seem conditioned to accept low wages long hours as some inevitability– and then turn their ire on those who have no jobs

    Seeing this more and more to be honest. I can work loads of extra unpaid hours and still be pressured to cut costs and find savings. There is zero recognition of the additional hours.

    paulosoxo
    Free Member

    Paulsoxo. It varies between 37-40 hours a week mate. Many do more and get paid overtime when they do. (Insps and above don’t get overtime)..

    So in a nutshell, they get no more time off than Joe Public, so I really don’t see what business it is of anybody how an officer spends his day off (usual caveats around morality and conflict of interest applies)

    onehundredthidiot
    Full Member

    Selective reading? It does say officers and support staff. The secondary question is how many are full time? And of them how many have these second jobs?

    OH is currently in bed having got in from a cover shift (5pm-3am) and will be back out today from 2pm-12am. 4 covers then a couple of days off ain’t that restful.

    Ready for another round of Gov cuts?

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    because people shouldn’t need two jobs. 30 years ago families lived on one income, now two aren’t even enough sometimes.

    You are assuming they have to. Many will choose to to supplement their income. And makes no mention of which staff and whether they are part time or not. What is the average police wage? And who says 30 years ago people only needed 1 wage, 30 years ago my parents has 3 jobs between the two of them to support the family. And do people NEED more than one wage provides or do they just want more? I think people have higher expectations of basic living, yet this is leveraged politically. As per this article.

    deviant
    Free Member

    In the Ambulance service I work for we do 12hr shifts, we work one week of three shifts and the following week consists of four shifts, averaged out and with unpaid meal breaks subtracted from each shift it works out at 37.5hrs a week.
    I don’t think that is a long working week personally and with 12hr shifts eating up the hours I have loads of time off….basically we work 7 of every 14 days….very nice.

    Given that overtime isn’t always available I have two bank contracts with other companies and do maybe four additional shifts a month for them in the private sector, it pays the mortgage.

    If the shifts were shortened to 8hrs and we did five a week I wouldn’t have these extra contracts…it’s purely the amount of rest days we get, I think to myself that I may as well earn some extra pennies….I’m sure as I get older i’ll enjoy the rest days more and stop the extra work, trying to bounce back from a 12hr night shift when I’m in my 50s and 60s will be crappy I’m sure.

    I do it because I can, the salary by itself is fine but I have expensive taste in some areas….of course if the government want to give us all a pay rise to tempt people away from having second jobs then that would be very well received!

    Bregante
    Full Member

    My point is that how do they have enough time time to do jobs

    The issue with Police not having time to do jobs is somewhat different to what people outside the emergency services will understand.

    A shortage of frontline police officers on duty at any time leads to officers being pressured. Imagine being at an incident from which you cannot leave for several hours. Your colleagues meanwhile are all chasing their own tails responding to emergency calls. The comms officer (not a cop, so doesn’t really understand how long it takes to take a statement from an assault victim, or why you can’t leave that person at hospital on their own after you’ve just got them down off a motorway bridge) – is pestering you asking when you will be free because there is a queue of jobs building up and no one to go.

    Then one of your colleagues presses his/her emergency button because they’re getting their head kicked in and nobody is free to respond or the officer shouldn’t really have gone to that job on their own.
    That’s the issue with police shortages.

    So the shortages affect officers on the frontline when they need the backup of their colleagues. I don’t see how what the officers do on their days off (subject to approval) affects this.

    trailmonkey
    Full Member

    You are assuming they have to.

    i’m not assuming anything. i know that some households have to have two wages coming in because mine does.

    and it’s still not always enough.

    yunki
    Free Member

    and then turn their ire on those who have no jobs !! aren’t gonna fall for that BS.. strange….

    rudebwoy
    Free Member

    thanks yunki– mine was stream of conscious, yours more measured ! 😀

    in fact, since there are so few jobs, it is more altruistic to let those who really are desperate for the extra ‘income’ to have first option–

    Drac
    Full Member

    Predictable hours is the key here, if you work five 12-hour shifts you can then not work for another, say, seven days. No different to a Nurse friend of ours.

    Please tell us where this nurse works, I reckon the trust is about to get 3 million nurses asking to work for that trust.

    Ok so there’s some who have second jobs, bit like firefighters everyone knows that every single one of them has a second job. And everyone knows that not one person in the private sector has a second job.

    I get loads of time off working in the ambulance service but I get it as I do long hours at work, I really couldn’t be bothered with a second job. I earn good money as it is, I average about 3-4 hours running overtime a week due to late finishes. If want extra money for holidays I’ll do some overtime but even then I pick and chose that. I value my time off more than the money, I do know others who seem to work most of their days off but that’s their choice. I did it last year for a few month to introduce a new bit of equipment so I could pay for my family holiday without having to use our normal monthly budget. It was horrible, I never seen much of my family my bike was never ridden in what was the best weather of the year and I was always tired when I got home.

    Still haters got to hate.

    WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    How many MPs have second jobs?

    Just wondered…

    BurnBob
    Free Member

    The disproportionate amount of people on here who clearly have a strong bias of opinion against the police here again has made me decide to take a bit of time away from here. The news story published by Sky must be the least news-worthy story for quite some time however it has descended into the usual police bashing on STW.

    yossarian
    Free Member

    We have a flouncer!

    allthepies
    Free Member

    nealglover
    Free Member

    however it has descended into the usual police bashing on STW.

    Has it ?

    A few negative comments maybe, but not many.

    If you can’t handle a bit if negativity when dealing with a random collection of opinions, I would suggest you are too delicate for the Internet, and should turn if off completely.

    yossarian
    Free Member

    slowoldgit
    Free Member

    As WCA, how many MPs have other jobs, and are these regulated to ensure they don’t conflict with public duty? And over on a police blog, commentators described their ‘second jobs’. On the basis that it’s essential to register, the data might be a bit ropey. Examples given were – one half-day a year lecturing at uni, and owning a flat that the copper’s mother lived in.

    This comes from the perception that failing to register something, even something trivial, could be career-ending.

    Lies, damn lies, and what was it? GIGO.

    Woody
    Free Member

    deviant wrote –
    of course if the government want to give us all a pay rise to tempt people away from having second jobs then that would be very well received!

    Actually, I would be a bit more happy if the 1% pay rise in four years hadn’t immediately been grabbed back in increased pension contributions, leaving me £30 a month less in actual pay than 2009.

    What that works out at taking inflation into account I don’t know but can’t far off needing a ‘little sideline’ to maintain the same standard of living. Don’t see what the problem with a second job is anyway. They’ll be paying tax, won’t they! 8)

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    Its Sky quoting the Daily Mail – I can think of no reason not to be sucked into the weasel wording of the article

    This[employment] was found to include selling ice cream, undertaking, giving skiing lessons, holding seances and pole dancing.

    Police staff are allowed to take second jobs or run companies if approved by their superiors.

    Unless there is a direct conflict of interest, permission is usually given.

    Figures from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary showed at least 23,043 police staff had second jobs out of a workforce of 201,575 in May 2012.

    so its police staff NOT COPPERS per se- I assume this means its largely the support staff working PT who have other jobs – its hard to believe a copper would be a lap dancer for example and the Chief constable would think this was ok

    Its the Daily Mail its got to be an abuse and misrepresentation of statitistics

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 54 total)

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