Thursday is Friday this week

A long week but thank god only a four day one. Busy today as I am also off on Monday of next week. Must tidy my desk and look like I am in control.

I suppose I should tell you what I do. I am a Housing Manager for an organisation in Newcastle Upon Tyne. What does this mean,I hear you cry. Well, I am in charge of an office which manages 2800 properties.We let houses and flats, make sure our tenants pay the rent, maintain the properties and deal with anti social behaviour. I do a lot of work with the Police. Sometimes I think I might as well have joined the Police force. I'd be a Superintendent by now and better paid! This what I have always done (i.e work in Council housing management- now called social housing). People I work with fall into two main groups.The pragmatists i.e. its a job, with excellent conditions of service. Many of this group are council tenants themselves (or at least they were until they bought their home under Right To Buy)and have a lot in common with some of our customers. The other main group (of which I am one) see the job as a real important part of the welfare state and are committed to improving the lives and living conditions of the people they serve. I call us the Idealist. Us Idealists have taken a bit of a battering over the last 5 years, ironically under a Labour Government.The pernicious growth of the Performance Management culture has reduced my role to number crunching and stats and some people (mostly the Pragmatists) have lost sight of the fact that we provide a service to some of the most disadvantaged , poor and excluded members of society. The processes have become an end in themselves to this group. I rage against it as I see my job disappear into bean counting and endless motivational meetings and 1-2-1s with staff to get them to be more efficient and "business like". I am afraid that I am well off the Zeitgeist pace of my organisation. It sounds like I don't like my job, and my wife often says this to me. I am bitter about some of the changes, if I'm honest, but I do genuinely believe I am doing some good here. That is what keeps me going. I'll tell you some funny stories one day, because there are hundreds.

I walk home most days from work , its about 3 miles. I often listen to 6Music and Steve Lamacq.He plays a good mix of oldies (i.e. ones I remember from my teenage years) and new alternative stuff. 6Music has been a bit of a dissappointment really. For a station supposedly influenced by John Peel its a bit "safe" But Steve L and Gideon Coe and Mark Riley are worth listening to.Get ourself a portable DAB radio, walk home from work and listen. You won't be disappointed. I have a Pure portable DAB. Its basic and not the cheapest but in my experience if you're going to go DAB, Pure are the best and most reliable.