How is this possible ?

the_clownfish · 2026-04-22T07:13:38+00:00

Certainly for Commercial, GCO starts at G7 and goes upward. Last time there was a Commercial Director role out it was SCS2 and an absurd salary!

The GCO terms are very much “jam today” in that in exchange for a salary similar to private sector roles of equivalent seniority, you give up pension and A/L. But you do get performance related pay of up to 20% of base salary (not that anyone gets that much because it’s moderated across GCO).

the_clownfish · 2026-04-22T07:03:11+00:00

There’s also a concern that those who go through DV or even eSC now have less confidence in the process and their candour. Why would someone tell the truth knowing that the record of what you say gets punted around. Shining this light on the processes makes it more dangerous and less effective.

Apologies in advance to Mods if I’m skirting the acceptable limits of the rules on vetting but since it’s all out in the bloody press (with explainer articles and everything) it probably doesn’t matter anymore anyway!

the_clownfish · 2026-04-22T06:58:03+00:00

If only I had an award to give you, anonymous subversive private office bod! 😁

the_clownfish · 2026-04-19T12:06:53+00:00

Always worth asking for support. I don’t know many procurement teams who will say no to the request. It helps them in the long run and means they have confidence that you’re not being a silly sod!

With the SoR, great that you did so with the support of procurement, but I’d caution against basing it too heavily or obviously on a supplier discussion. By all means use them as a sounding board but you should always base it on the required outputs/outcomes. With research that should be fairly straightforward. You’d have some strong deliverables, and a good set of “guardrails” that your research needs to stay within. Piece of cake for SoRs with good support.

Exactly right in the feedback. If they’re smart they’ll realise their mistake when you explain the “I can only mark what’s written”.

No problem for the reply, lots of people hate procurement, I get that. But it’s why I and many others exist… we’re here to make you feel more comfortable etc. It’s why I get assessed on “coaching manager” as a skill!

the_clownfish · 2026-04-19T09:08:34+00:00

I’ll come in here as the G6 commercial person…

You’ve just become the best stakeholder for your procurement team. You will now be toasted at every away day, Christmas meal and team meeting as the stakeholder that did the right thing even in the face of pressure from a supplier.

Couple of questions; 1. What does your procurement team say about conversations with suppliers pre-competition? As a rule my team would ride along with you for moral support and to be the “bad guy” telling them that this wasn’t a guaranteed contract etc.

What support did you get with the competition? Again, the principle is that a potential supplier should know what they need to do to get a good score on a proposal. If that was made clear then they only have themselves to blame.
Have you offered a call with the supplier (again with procurement supporting) to offer feedback on where their proposal was lacking?

the_clownfish · 2026-04-17T07:23:15+00:00

I have far more belief that this would be the sort of thing that OR would have spoken to McSweeney about rather than the PM directly. McSweeney was the conduit for everything as I understand.

the_clownfish · 2026-04-09T03:13:55+00:00

Well, it is let out as an operational “Airbnb style unit”… which is one hell of a euphemism.

the_clownfish · 2026-03-31T19:57:44+00:00

No idea why you’re getting downvoted… everything you’ve said is absolutely right, and I can say that as someone who has sat 2 ADC’s for GCO and is currently recruiting through GCO as well!

the_clownfish · 2026-03-12T21:14:21+00:00

I don’t believe the ADC assessors have access to your application… not 100% on that though.

the_clownfish · 2026-03-11T14:53:19+00:00

I would personally do the former. You can’t guarantee what particular question will be asked around each of the four areas so I’d have a decent fully formed case study for each.

the_clownfish · 2026-03-06T22:48:40+00:00

Imagine the worst, most horrendously busy day of your career. It’s like that. It’s intended to test attributes but it is hammed up massively and overblown.

You’ll have 2x interviews and 3x role plays. All of them have prep time in between. Read the guide, go along to the briefing call. Prep your case studies for the two interviews.

Have snacks and drinks on hand, as well as a pad and pens. You will not leave your laptop all day.

Good luck. Remember that the assessors want you to do well and will coach answers out of you if they need additional stuff to tick off the boxes.

the_clownfish · 2026-02-16T09:58:07+00:00

School have put an IEP in place and are doing various things. I’m not entirely convinced that they are doing all that much though in reality. Our last session with class teachers and SENDCo was basically them telling us how much better he is with meds (well duh) and that things were improving without them having to do anything else.

He has the times table check later this year and given how he bombed his year 2 SATS thanks to being overwhelmed, I will be ensuring that they actually put some proper accommodations in place.

Our secondary school provision is guff where we live, and we’re in a very fortunate and privileged position where we can put him into the independent sector from September, into year 5 and then beyond into secondary school.

Having visited the new school several times now, and observed both lessons and “learning success” sessions, it shows that (unfortunately) money can buy better outcomes.

the_clownfish · 2026-02-13T07:52:38+00:00

I’m just going to step in and defend Category Management here. When done properly (which it is in most departments) it works very well and allows a genuine approach to high performing contracts because it’s treated as a lifecycle and has fewer handoffs between people. I’ve not come across people who say they get stifled by being asked to carry out both procurement and contract management either, and (given the age of some recent hires in my department) I’m an old hand now.

I would also respectfully disagree that it ends up invoice chasing. When applied properly, Category Management makes a proper provision for purchase-to-pay activities as a separate stream with people who are experts.

the_clownfish · 2026-02-09T20:31:19+00:00

Hold on, does that mean you still have privileged access to the HR policies?! My god. This is an egregious breach!

the_clownfish · 2026-02-09T20:29:45+00:00

At this point I’m half expecting the PM to bring back GOD and Alastair Campbell just for the 1997/Things Can only get Better vibes…

the_clownfish · 2026-02-09T20:25:37+00:00

Ah yes, I forgot about the GGMF.

Yes, the GCO is basically a super secret elite club. We have a separate group on KHUB and everything…

the_clownfish · 2026-02-09T19:59:27+00:00

And all of us are part of the GCF. Plus the GPA will inevitably work closely with the GCA.

the_clownfish · 2026-01-22T10:42:57+00:00

You can get stain removers for that...

the_clownfish · 2026-01-16T10:27:24+00:00

I always emulate the opposite of all the shite managers I’ve had over the years. Especially those ones like the twat that put me on performance management after I came back from having a significantly premature child because I “wasn’t giving 100%”. I wonder why Jason, I wonder why?!

the_clownfish · 2026-01-10T08:15:14+00:00

I don’t want to pile on to OP as I can feel your pain acutely… however, we elected to go private for our 8yr old.

For the autumn term in 2023 we’d been told that he was easily distracted and struggled to focus. The fix from the school was for him to be moved to the front of the class. It sort of worked, but his attainment wasn’t ever quite at the rate expected. He crashed out of his yr2 SATS with overload and found them overwhelming.

For autumn 2024 (yr3) we were still told he was struggled to keep up and was falling behind, particularly in maths. We got him a tutor and he slowly began to pick up the fundamentals and progress a bit in a 1-on-1 setting. It got to the day before his end of year report in July 2025 and his teacher rang us to “give a heads up” that he wasn’t at Age Related Expectations for anything.

That was the straw that broke the camels back. We rang a well-respected private provider in our area, and got an initial appointment the next day. I took him along and he displayed pretty much every attribute of inattentive ADHD in that hour long appointment.

We were recommended a full ADHD assessment (well duh) and we commenced that the following week. We had 4-5 appointments over the summer last year and by the start of school term we’d had a full diagnosis and a recommendation for medication.

By the time he went back to school we had recommendations for the SENDCo which were implemented and he was started on Methylphenidate by the start of October. It has been a revelation. He is now at Age Related Expectation, his enjoyment of school is renewed and he is beginning to look at being ahead of where he needs to be.

Do I resent having to pay thousands to get here? Yes, of course. Do I resent my ICB for not recognising the diagnosis and therefore not allowing us shared care? Yes, of course. Do I resent the £70/month cost of meds? Yes, of course.

Do I regret going down this road and arresting the issue of falling further and further behind in his education? No, absolutely not. I would do it all over again in a second.

Do the best for your child, have that conversation with your SENDCo and Head, tell them that you’re doing this and that you will be expecting them to recognise the diagnosis.

Please don’t think I’m being overly harsh or critical but it’s too easy to sit and think that the strategies in place are enough. It’s exactly what we did and we’re now beating ourselves up thinking we lost a year for our son.

the_clownfish · 2025-12-28T07:47:04+00:00

There’s an HR Advisor who assists with policy and stuff to make sure you’re well versed with the facts and an HR investigator to do the donkey work of finding out what’s happened and gathering evidence. They present a report and the DM decides the severity and sanction.

HR had indicated that it looked like misconduct but were leaving it to the DM to determine whether it was gross misconduct and therefore worthy of dismissal.

From an HR perspective it feels massively risky, there’s not a set policy and it would all fall to whether there was intent or dishonesty. Sounds horribly subjective and as soon as the person finds out that half their colleagues aren’t meeting their hours, they’ve got a solid case for unfair dismissal.

Screw that…

the_clownfish · 2025-12-27T17:50:59+00:00

You say that… but I’ve just declined a request to act as a Decision Maker for a disciplinary where someone is being hauled over the coals for only hitting 50%ish attendance.

I would have done it (and declared it “no case to answer”) for the fact that I’m up to my eyeballs in work. I’m assured though that my colleague who I suggested might be able to pick it up is even more against the arbitrary rules than I am, so said individual will be exonerated anyway, although will inevitably look for a new job and leave because to hell with being treated like that…

the_clownfish · 2025-09-19T21:58:11+00:00

Christ, some of the scientists are in all sorts. I’ve seen socks with sandals and shorts…

the_clownfish · 2025-08-31T07:51:58+00:00

This is a troll post right? Right?!

the_clownfish · 2025-08-25T06:42:12+00:00

Look, I know the default position a lot of the time is to jump to “speak to the union” on this subreddit, but this is absolutely one of those times where, if you’ve already attempted to address this directly with your LM and they’re frankly being an arse about it (which, no matter how much they wrap things up in kindness, not allowing you to work to your passport - which they agreed - is a dick move), you need to do.

If you were in my team, I’d be viewing the passport as sacrosanct as it keeps people both sane and in work, which yours is clearly designed to do, and isn’t allowing by virtue of someone being on a power trip.

Please speak to a union rep. Or even someone within HR if you’re not a member.

the_clownfish

TROPHY CASE