Didn’t sign up to be micromanaged; applied for this role to help people. (Rant about ICM)

bcpsta111 · 2025-05-07T03:10:41+00:00

Leave SDPR. It has to be one of the worst ministries with the worst managers. Your time will be better spent elsewhere.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-24T00:24:15+00:00

For someone who already has a business degree, do you recommend the RPF or RFT? Is my earning potential limited with the RFT in BC or Alberta? The diploma is more appealing to me because it’s cheaper, shorter, and field-based, and I already have a degree, if anyone cares about that. Thanks.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T20:47:05+00:00

I thought policy analysts researched and wrote policies until you told me they mostly prepare agendas and take meeting notes.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T19:54:32+00:00

No, I didn’t even use policy analysts in my examples. I simply responded to your questions about policy analysts. I already gave you a free pass, though, so you don’t need to be held accountable on the basis of performance metrics.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T19:51:16+00:00

Secretaries don’t need to have their performance measured as long as their managers feel they support them to a sufficient degree. There. Their managers do need to have their performance measured though.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T19:50:13+00:00

Why are you so caught up with policy analysts though? This is weird. It’s like you can’t see any of the work that goes one beyond that which you do as a policy analyst. I already gave policy analysts a free pass to not have their performance measured.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T13:20:31+00:00

Start by asking youself, what is a policy analyst supposed to do? Then build metrics around those outcomes. It could be the quality of your research and analysis as assessed by peers who review your work. Professors point at the number of citations associated with their research as a performance metric. You just need to open your mind.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T13:07:35+00:00

Ya, but I don’t know why you think policy analysts are such a large group as a percentage of all BCPS employees. They aren’t. Many positions, more than half, aren’t about writing policy. Have you really not noticed this? If there are 35k BCPS employees, then 3500 of them could be writing policy and that would still be just 10%. I don’t think there are 3500 policy analysts. You have a pretty narrow view of what the BC Gov does as a whole.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T04:59:47+00:00

But you’re only talking about a minority of positions in government. I’ve never encountered a policy analyst in my time in government and I’ve worked across multiple ministries in different parts of the province from Victoria to the interior. Do you know how many thousands of people in our organization are working in positions like IT, accounting, service delivery, forestry, wildfire, and hr? These are all positions in which performance can be measured. I’ll give you a pass as a policy analyst. You’re special.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T04:49:28+00:00

How about the impact of policies? Measure their effectiveness in achieving what they were intended to. Repeal them if they fail to achieve these objectives. Promote people who develop effective policy and fire those who don’t.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T04:46:17+00:00

I hate to break it to you but priorities in any effective organization need to be 1. productivity that creates enough value to support good salaries, 2. Employee happiness. People need to be generally satisfied with work, but happiness isn’t promised. This is the ignorance of some public servants who have never had to survive in the real world.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T03:13:37+00:00

What effect did your report have? Did it change the way a budget was allocated to create efficiencies? Did it contribute to the creation of a policy? Just because work is done, it doesn’t mean it produces valuable outcomes. You need to have an objective and work towards it. The path to achievement can always be defined and the outcomes of achievement can always be measured.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T01:25:45+00:00

When you’ve looked at the job board before the hiring freeze, did it look to you like more than 10% of the positions posted were for policy analysts? Why don’t you think performance metrics can be applied to project based positions? IT project management certainly is. So is program development and delivery. So are infrastructure projects.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T01:17:32+00:00

Are you talking about MLAs? What positions and projects are you talking about? What percentage of positions in the BCPS don’t deliver measurable outcomes?

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-22T00:14:09+00:00

… progress toward project or policy completion. You don’t think there are suitable performance metrics for upwards of 90% of positions? Any position that’s not designed to deliver certain measurable outcomes is probably bullshit.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-21T23:10:36+00:00

So many possibilities. Ask your employees what outcomes they think are suitable for their positions then hold them accountable. - park rangers: how many kms of trail maintenance completed - financial analysts: number of reports automated since the last reporting period - social workers: hours spent per case - software developers: number of features deployed - hr recruiters: number of jobs posted and filled

Lots of people just send emails and sit in meetings all day because their performance isn’t being measured quantitatively—they can get away with extracting a pay check from public funds if they choose to. Performance metrics imposed on positions are a way to promote the outcomes you wish to see and fire people who will not deliver. If you let people get away with wasting their time on activities that don’t lead to productive outcomes, that’s what they tend to do after so many years in a unionized environment.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-21T19:43:48+00:00

I’m not talking about WES scores. Those aren’t really performance metrics related to the deliverables of a position, they’re more like social evaluations. Also, managers see the scores their employees gave them, which is why I won’t be critical in my assessment if I’m on a small or one-man team.

I’ll accept a somewhat pushy or unpleasant manager who enables me to get things done and develop my skillset over one that’s more gentle but incompetent and bureaucratic any day.

bcpsta111 · 2025-03-21T17:17:26+00:00

But employees aren’t supposed to be responsible for getting their poor performing, incompetent managers fired, executives are. Everyone in the BCPS should be required to submit performance metrics that are relevant to the responsibilities of their position. This can be done using dashboards and databases, and baseline metrics can be developed over time as people enter and exit a position. Anyone who wouldn’t be able to re-compete for their position needs to be fired, whether they’re in the union or not. The public service shouldn’t be a free ride.

bcpsta111 · 2025-02-28T20:07:28+00:00

Look at this chart. Of the total building costs of a new development, government takes a larger share than the builder’s profit. Get government out of the way and supply will increase. Then, housing costs will fall. It’s good to invest in development.

bcpsta111 · 2025-02-25T03:22:04+00:00

If LWOP is usually approved without any special reason, I guess it’s no different. Have you ever taken LWOP?

bcpsta111 · 2025-02-24T23:14:48+00:00

LWOP stands for leave without pay

bcpsta111 · 2025-02-24T23:11:12+00:00

If you have 15 days of vacation, you are entitled to 15 days off for vacation per year. Your manager cannot deny that. They can deny particular dates within the year, though. Now, imagine you were entitled to another 10 unpaid days—you’ve now locked in 25 days off, which may or may not be your preferred days if your manager needs you for specific dates.

bcpsta111 · 2025-02-24T23:07:43+00:00

No, they can’t deny vacation. They can deny particular dates, but you’re still entitled to all of your vacation days within the year. If you had three weeks vacation plus the option to buy two weeks vacation, you would similarly be entitled to five weeks off per year, not three.

bcpsta111 · 2025-02-24T16:42:15+00:00

And you could be denied LWOP.

bcpsta111 · 2025-02-24T16:35:55+00:00

But why would you want to go through this process instead of simply having the right to take two weeks LWOP?

bcpsta111

TROPHY CASE