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Jan. 29th, 2014
I realised this week that GDS, the agency that runs GOV.UK, have broken me.
After a year of involvement with this group, I cannot see a way of keeping my job, and retaining an even keel. I'll have to leave my current work place at PHE - a place and role and job that I was so pleased to find, and so happy to hold, when I got it - and find something else. Because I can't work with GDS, and PHE's future lies with them.
I've been angry with GDS for awhile, and my anger has seemed out of proportion to the scale of their offense. They're arrogant, smug, cavalier about other people's work, utterly convinced that their way of developing a website is the One True Path. And they seem collectively oblivious to the effect they have on others - on other professionals, with their own experience and knowledge of the field, who might have something to contribute.
But I'm beginning to think that their approach has daily undermined my sense of self - my sense that I'm a capable professional with good skills.
And it's their choice of communication (or lack thereof) that I think is the breaking point. I, and PHE, are powerless in this project - GDS hold all the cards, and we have no means to resist the mandate of the Cabinet office. If they had been a traditional supplier, we'd have thrown them out a year ago and found someone capable to negotiate with - but that's not an option.
This week it's become clear that their intent to change the language of government and convert it to plain English is strategically unsound.
To get any major change in a large organisation, you need the cooperation and support of management from the top. But they haven't approached anyone in senior management that I know of; instead they've set out a style guide and told those who upload content to it that they have to adhere to it. That's the people like me.
This would be fine, if I was actually author to the works I publish. But I'm not, and there's many times that really quite tortured press statements have been through multiple rounds of approval, with the participation of many people. Having me rewrite it at the end so that GOV.UK are happy with it is a non-starter.
Instead, I find myself trying to sell plain English to people - busy people, who are not trained authors, who are struggling to understand why their writing isn't acceptable, after they've checked with all their superiors.
And I and my colleagues are the ones getting squashed: I can't please my scientist colleagues in the Agency who have important health messages to convey, and I can't please GDS because even if I change 4/5 of the dreadful style points, they'll still point out the one that was left as a peace offering.
GDS seem to have no grasp of how comms departments function. They want to train editors, but they don't seem to want to teach writing skills to the actual content authors.
GDS have neither the people skills, nor the communication skills, to work with other agencies - instead they spend their time testing google stats and slapping themselves on the back for their awesome work. It's an echo chamber of awesome for them.
So after a year of this...I can't wait for my job to improve anymore. We've had promise after promise of change, that there's new people coming, new positions to apply for, work that will advance the transition to GOV.UK, restructuring of the team...and none of it has happened. And I don't think I trust my own department's ability to hire, restructure and find the right people to make this happen. I've tried - it hasn't happened.
I'd hoped I'd be strong enough to see it through - to not let them get to me, and ruin a job I've loved. But I'm not. I'm out of energy, and they've driven off the person who is best suited to help them do their job for PHE.
After a year of involvement with this group, I cannot see a way of keeping my job, and retaining an even keel. I'll have to leave my current work place at PHE - a place and role and job that I was so pleased to find, and so happy to hold, when I got it - and find something else. Because I can't work with GDS, and PHE's future lies with them.
I've been angry with GDS for awhile, and my anger has seemed out of proportion to the scale of their offense. They're arrogant, smug, cavalier about other people's work, utterly convinced that their way of developing a website is the One True Path. And they seem collectively oblivious to the effect they have on others - on other professionals, with their own experience and knowledge of the field, who might have something to contribute.
But I'm beginning to think that their approach has daily undermined my sense of self - my sense that I'm a capable professional with good skills.
And it's their choice of communication (or lack thereof) that I think is the breaking point. I, and PHE, are powerless in this project - GDS hold all the cards, and we have no means to resist the mandate of the Cabinet office. If they had been a traditional supplier, we'd have thrown them out a year ago and found someone capable to negotiate with - but that's not an option.
This week it's become clear that their intent to change the language of government and convert it to plain English is strategically unsound.
To get any major change in a large organisation, you need the cooperation and support of management from the top. But they haven't approached anyone in senior management that I know of; instead they've set out a style guide and told those who upload content to it that they have to adhere to it. That's the people like me.
This would be fine, if I was actually author to the works I publish. But I'm not, and there's many times that really quite tortured press statements have been through multiple rounds of approval, with the participation of many people. Having me rewrite it at the end so that GOV.UK are happy with it is a non-starter.
Instead, I find myself trying to sell plain English to people - busy people, who are not trained authors, who are struggling to understand why their writing isn't acceptable, after they've checked with all their superiors.
And I and my colleagues are the ones getting squashed: I can't please my scientist colleagues in the Agency who have important health messages to convey, and I can't please GDS because even if I change 4/5 of the dreadful style points, they'll still point out the one that was left as a peace offering.
GDS seem to have no grasp of how comms departments function. They want to train editors, but they don't seem to want to teach writing skills to the actual content authors.
GDS have neither the people skills, nor the communication skills, to work with other agencies - instead they spend their time testing google stats and slapping themselves on the back for their awesome work. It's an echo chamber of awesome for them.
So after a year of this...I can't wait for my job to improve anymore. We've had promise after promise of change, that there's new people coming, new positions to apply for, work that will advance the transition to GOV.UK, restructuring of the team...and none of it has happened. And I don't think I trust my own department's ability to hire, restructure and find the right people to make this happen. I've tried - it hasn't happened.
I'd hoped I'd be strong enough to see it through - to not let them get to me, and ruin a job I've loved. But I'm not. I'm out of energy, and they've driven off the person who is best suited to help them do their job for PHE.
