Back in the good ol' days!!!

Yay I've made 2 posts in one month!!!

Some interesting things I've found from the following book:

Gosling, R & Nutley, S 1990 Bridging the gap: Secondments between government and business, Royal Institute of Public Administration, London.

The first formal secondment scheme started in 1968 - told you I'd find out!!! 8-)

They have identified 4 categories of benefits of secondments:

1. They promote understanding between different types of organisations/departments;
2. They promote the personal development of the secondee;
3. They allow for the exchange of management and technical expertise;
4. They allow the introduction of skilled and experienced staff.

Good to see that some of the benefits listed are ones that I have already identified in my research.

Something funny I found was that they found that there are three secondee roles:

1. PARROT - this is where the secondee "sits on the shoulders" of people senior to them and learn about the organisation through accompanying them in their day-to-day work;
2. FERRETS - act as "spies" (my favourite) placed by a department to keep an eye on a project or intiative;
3. WORKER BEES - are set tasks and get on with them without much change or disruption to the organisation.

Are there any secondees/former secondees that can relate to any of the roles listed above?? I'd be interested to hear your story.

I also wonder how many secondees/former secondee had objectives set for them prior to starting the secondment (objectives set by both sides, i.e. the seconding org and the host org.) If anyone can share if they had objectives set, please contact me or reply to my post!!

Till next time....

Break in the Weather!

Well not really a break in the weather - more like a break in the feeding/changing/burping baby!!

I managed to sit down and do some work on my research tonight. I have found that secondments have been around for quite some time. Very popular in the business industry as well as health and education. I am yet to read some of the articles I came across but it would be interesting to pin point when secondments actually started - I'll keep you posted on that one.

I'm also working on a few other things - just to keep life interesting. I could compare first time parenting to a secondment. Especially some of the feelings/challenges I've face/am facing. For instance, I feel I've been thrown in the deep end and am learning many new skills. How these will apply to the workforce on my return are yet to be known but I'm sure they will in some way. I have also felt a bit isolated or alone - well until I found a mother's group - this has presented yet another challenge, talking with people outside my profession. I have tended to surround myself with other LIS people and have such managed to restrict my conversational skills to that of libraries - so I'm now conveying with those outside the profession which is broadening my communication skills no end - including talking with a baby!! Is this making any sense!!??

I suppose the big difference with parenting and secondments is that one can not return to their original childless state. And one will probably never feel totally at ease or on top of the job - as with parenting the challenges change every day!! This is making it one hell of a ride!!! 8-)