Taking offence

Has it ever occurred to you that whether or not you are offended by something I say or write is entirely dependent on what you think of me, not on what I actually said or wrote?

If your best friend says to you “F@*k off, you stupid wa#$er”, the chances are you will interpret it as banter and laugh.  If a stranger said it you’d be annoyed.

The current US Presidential campaign is a case in point.  Both sides keep throwing out ‘information’ about their opponent that is designed to make the opponent seem unelectable, but the only people who actually find it so are those who weren’t going to vote for the opponent anyway.  The Trump Campaign could accuse Hilary of murdering babies (for all I know, they already have) and the only people impressed would be the existing Trump supporters.  How people take what they hear is entirely dependent on what they believed about the speaker before they heard it.

This is particularly true on Facebook.  You are quite possibly ‘friends’ with people who are not really your friend.  If somebody you like makes a dubious post you are less likely to hit back with a damning riposte than if it’s someone with whom you actually have a positive relationship.  This perhaps explains why there is so much anger in Facebook!

So next time you hear or read something and find yourself feeling offended, don’t focus on what was actually said or written – think instead about the person saying or writing it.  Why don’t you like that person?  Have they done something in the past to hurt you, or someone close to you?  Or is it just that you don’t really know them at all?  Consider this before you leap to your keyboard or open your mouth and maybe you will decide that it isn’t worth the effort of hitting back against someone who isn’t worth the investment or your time.  Then we can all save ourselves a lot of anger.

Maybe I shall try to follow my own advice, here!

TC Post holders going on training

There has been a lot of ill-informed comment recently, along the lines that TC Post holders come here presumably qualified to do the job they are appointed to, so why do they then “go off on training”, usually at the taxpayer’s expense?

I can provide an answer.

Most TC Post holders will be members of Professional Bodies.  There are many such bodies and they cover most professions.  Being a member of your relevant Professional Body acts as a sort of quality guarantee for anyone seeking to employ you – s/he must be OK or the Professional Body would have kicked him/her out (usually, though not always true) – and it also through networking helps the person find future work.  If a TC Post holder comes here they will wish to keep up their membership of their Professional Body, so they can more easily find work when their contract is over and they leave St Helena.

However, remaining a member of your Professional Body has two ‘costs’. There is usually an annual fee, of course, but more importantly there is an annual requirement to continuously refresh your knowledge in your filed. CPD, it’s usually called – Continuing Professional Development.  The reason for this requirement is simple and entirely justified.  There are few professions where knowledge and best-practice do not develop over time.  Imagine being seen by a Doctor who didn’t know about the new treatments introduced since s/he qualified 20 years ago?  CPD is helpful to the individual’s employers/clients, and a minimum amount of CPD is usually required by the Professional Body.

In some Professional Bodies, the CPD can be achieved online, using the Internet, but some require you to physically attend conferences and lectures.  This cannot be achieved without leaving St Helena.

No member of a Professional Body will accept a job here if it means they will fail to meet their CPD requirement, and hence lose their membership.  And we really shouldn’t be employing people who aren’t good enough to be members of the relevant Professional Body.  So “time of for training” will always be necessary for some of our TC Post holders.  Who pays for it is simply a contract issue - either SHG pays, or the person will require more salary to cover the costs.

By the way, I lost my membership of the Institute of Management when I moved to St Helena, because I wasn't working for SHG and could not personally afford the trips to the UK to meet that body’s CPD requirements.