Yesterday morning I was stood at the end of Chapel Walk opposite the stage door of The Crucible waiting for SWMBO. For fifteen minutes I stood there enjoying the sunshine and watching Street Force working on a hole they'd dug in Norfolk street.

A digger was moving the rubble into a waiting lorry. One bloke was working, - the digger driver, but there were five others stood there watching him. Presumably one was the lorry driver and the other four were foremen ??

SWMBO turned up and we walked down into the car park emerging about five minutes later. The situation hadn't changed - five watchers - one worker.

How much an hour are the watchers being paid on a Saturday ?

I would say you had an argument if you were working yourself. But you were spending your time staring at some blokes who were staring at a hole.

I would be more impressed with your argument if you had taken any trouble to ask the men what the hold up was. There may have been a very valid reason for there to be that many men.

I know what it looks like but I overheard them discussing this job on friday and things aren’t always what they seem. I have never met a harder working bunch of men in all my life and I take my hat off to them. If only you knew, but for now will you take my word please?

Best regards

Graham.

What do you expect them to do - climb in the hole and cop for the digger bucket to the head?

I worked for Streetforce for a summer season cutting the grass in the west end of town. Some people worked hard, some didn't - like any job. The problem seemed to be a glut of summer workers, too many gaffers, and inadequate management. We'd go up to the Norton nursery for a load of soil and there'd be lads sunbathing on the trucks, fair enough as they'd not been told to do anything else. The Council's cut back massively on permanent staff and relies more and more on (unqualified, often young and sometimes unmotivated) seasonal temps for the busy summer period; the chain of command has so many links that the system's bound to be economically inefficient (which is why local schools, for instance, now usually choose prviate companies for their grounds maintenance); and there seems to be a bizarre insistence on sending five people for a job that two could do perfectly well. They're a great employer with a noble heritage, and I want public services to be the obvious choice for Sheffield, but they ain't going to be if they carry on like this...