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Chains of command

What should a housing worker do if they are charged with implementing draconian policies, asks Inside Housing’s anonymous columnist

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A colleague in an organisation I once worked for loathed its bureaucracy. He refused to answer calls with his name and instead would state, mechanically, ‘small cog’. His whimsical act of defiance came close to earning him the sack.

I could see his point, even though his joke wasn’t original, or even very funny.

We are all cogs in the giant wheels of our organisations, some of us small in big bureaucracies, others large in small ones. We keep those wheels turning smoothly by slotting into our place in the machinery. We are not robots though, and our likes and dislikes could yet throw a spanner in the works.

Pyramid of power

The sociologist Max Weber once compared officialdom not to a wheel but rather a vast pyramid in which each level follows orders from above, with no right to question the higher strata. The chain ends at the apex of the pyramid.

At the top in our case, is the government. Whether we agree with its policies or not we are responsible for implementing them. Does this mean we have to leave our personal feelings at the door, along with our politics, before entering the building?

Most of us work in social housing because we are committed to our jobs. If we just wanted to make money, until the downturn at least, we would have been better off becoming estate agents. Apart from certain housing association chief executives, of course.

So when a policy comes along that conflicts with our values and our sense of who we are, what do we do about it? This was brought into focus for me last week, when I gave advice to a woman I hoped I would never see again in our office.

Not because she is difficult or manipulative, or a time-waster, but because I thought we had settled her case. In my head she occupied the pigeon hole that has a ‘job done’ tick beside it.

Mrs Smith, I will call her, has learning difficulties and some years ago suffered a complete breakdown, when her husband walked out on her. She spent time in and out of institutions before falling off the radar and sleeping rough. Luckily for her she was helped by outreach workers and, after they invested much time and effort, was gradually returned to a stable state.

She met a man with a similar background and eventually we found them a tenancy where, as far as we knew, they were living happily ever after.

So why was Mrs Smith in my office looking for housing advice?

Her condition means she will never be focused enough, nor alert enough, to hold down a regular job. Her partner is in a very similar state and has other medical problems. Both are on the highest rates of disability living allowance and only survive without external support because they help to prop each other up.

A timely problem

Unfortunately, we allocated them a two-bedroom flat, thinking they might sometimes need overnight care, but as yet they don’t. I am sure you can see the implications.

Out of their now shrinking, subsistence-level income, they must find more than £50 a month extra, to pay for their ‘surplus’ bedroom. We would be happy to move them to somewhere smaller - but one-bedroom flats are rarer than clued-up politicians, in our area.

There is nothing unusual, let alone exceptional, about Mrs Smith’s story. If your housing service hasn’t dealt with people like her already, you will be among a select few. You can be sure a similar case will be right along shortly. It is the kind of story we will be hearing about from now until… well, until the next half-baked policy fad.

I think you can tell that I am angry. How about you? Do you want to join your tenants on a placard protest? Will you be writing to your MP, to the papers, telling anyone who will listen about the collateral damage from the unintended consequences of ill-conceived policy-making?

Or will you just shrug and say to yourself that it isn’t your fault, that you don’t make the rules and after all it is only a job - and you are lucky to have one.

Stuck in the middle

It is not an easy choice, given that housing workers in local government are civil servants. As cogs in the machine we are not supposed to express any views that interfere with its smooth running. We might share our concerns about the policy among colleagues in private, but going on protest marches or taking part in any other campaigning brings us very close to breaking our contracts.

Of course some housing workers may agree with the government. I do myself, up to a point. I don’t doubt that the crudeness of the present housing benefit rules creates a disincentive to work. One of the few merits of universal credit is that it seeks to put this right, by extending the taper.

But when the people at the top of the pyramid refuse to listen to the legitimate concerns of their minions that a policy they cherish is cruel and unworkable, what are the cogs supposed to do?

I don’t know the answer to my question. But I do know that my colleagues share my sense of frustration, even despair, that those at the top have stuck their fingers in their ears, deaf to cries for help.

Inside Housing’s anonymous columnist is a senior housing officer

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