Clock Change

 

In the early hours of this morning, Sunday the 26th of October, all clocks in Britain will be wound back one hour. 01:59:59 will be followed by 01:00:00, not 02:00:00 as it normally does. This is common practice across much of the world, mostly in countries lying in the temperate or polar zones of the planet. Its purpose is to make the evenings as long and bright as possible. This has always caused a few problems for many people, especially in the NHS. As a twenty-four-seven operation we are working during the moment of this change which means service people on nightshift tonight will have to work an extra hour. The portering nightshift is 10 PM to 6 AM which is eight hours; but tonight we'll be working nine. We will not get paid for that extra hour. Unions have been trying for years to remedy that discrepancy, but management reply with: "Well in spring when the clock goes forward you work seven hours and get paid for eight so it's as broad as it's long." However there's no guarantee the same porters will be on nightshift on both occasions. We also have to be careful with log records during that extra hour, making sure to add the labels to every time stamp: (BST) for British Summer Time and (GMT) for Greenwich Mean Time. As for the early shift, that always relieves the nightshift at 6 AM regardless... or it should. When the clocks go forward in spring many members of the early shift will turn up at 7 AM and say: "Did the clocks go forward? Damn! I forgot about that." Are they just saying that as an excuse to turn up late? Probably. How do I know? Because I can bet that not a single porter will forget about the clocks going back tomorrow morning and turn up an hour early.

"It's Necessary"

 

As I've said many times that only a small proportion of people are true psychopaths; six percent is a common estimate. However, there is another category of people which I call "pseudopsychopaths" and there are many more of them. In fact I think probably the majority of people in society exhibit pseudopsychopathic behaviour to a greater or lesser degree. How can we tell the difference between the two? I've found that one major distinction is that pseudopsychos will try to justify their actions to themselves with moral excuses. A true psycho will not. The real McCoy has no conscience and so won't care. Whenever I complained about my treatment by civilians at the hospital, including "Sharon", see: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2024/01/how-dare-you.html and "Stacey", see: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2024/01/well-take-it-from-here.html, sometimes I would get an answer along the lines of: "This behaviour may seem nasty and demeaning to you, but it is necessary. The modern NHS cannot function without a highly organized and disciplined workforce in which everybody knows their place and behaves accordingly. It's nothing personal, Ben; it's just people reminding you of this necessity." It's an attitude illustrated well in two movie clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RZmWH-Fcws and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpoR10Zh0ig. This explanation has never rung true for me. Firstly, I've always "known my place"; and, as I've said many times, I'm very proud of my place and wouldn't want to be in another one. Also, I'm completely aware of the need for discipline and organization. We all have a duty to perform and an obligation to do it. In fact I was one of the first to raise the alarm about declining levels of discipline, see: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2016/12/nurse-sacked-for-praying.html. However, I believe a service base that is well trained, cared for, happy and treated well will develop internal self-discipline. In my experience, the ward sister who treated her nurses kindly got much more work out of them than the evil bitches who just shouted and criticized. And in my own profession, the head porter who was bullish and detached bred resentment among the crew. This encouraged us to move in a slovenly manner, cut corners and swing the lead as much as possible. The porters would feel less energetic and inspired. Could it be that the reason this idea has become so popular is because it provides a false justification, a convenient smokescreen? These people just want to treat other people badly. They enjoy being horrible to others; it's as simple as that. The idea that "it's necessary" appeals to them because it satisfies whatever remains of their conscience after they've desperately tried to suppress it.
See here for more information: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2023/12/hps-and-psychos.html.
And: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2015/12/nhs-nurses-destroy-patients-doll.html.

"It's our Job"

 

The 2003 film Boudica- Warrior Queen is one I can't watch too often because it will give me one of my legendary "Boudica moments"; and I can't keep having those. It's worth seeing though, even if you only do so once. It's a very good dramatization of one of the most significant events in history, one that changed the entire course of Britain's future, or even maybe that of the whole world. The reasons why I think this are complicated, but they're all in the background link below. One of the best aspects of the film is Michael Feast's performance as the Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. Not very much is known about Suetonius outside of the facts reported by the historian Tacitus, that he led the military response to Boudica's rebellion; but in the movie he is given a very interesting personality. He does his duty for Rome like any other good legionary, but privately he is filled with guilt, self-doubt and sympathy for his enemy. There's a scene in the evening just before the Battle of Watling Street where Suetonius is talking to his aide-de-camp and the following conversation takes place:
SUETONIUS: What a primitive way of settling disputes. All that slaughter. Better to toss a coin then we could all go home.
AIDE: And you and I would be looking for employment, sir.
SUETONIUS: Good. I'd like to learn to build a straight wall. (Chuckles) Look at them. They're fighting this war to save their people, to keep the right to their own land, to preserve their religion and the right to practice it; and we're fighting it because... we're here and it's our job and... Professional pride really. It's not enough is it?... I'll turn in now." (Both men stand)
AIDE: Goodnight, sir. And a glorious victory for the emperor tomorrow!
SUETONIUS: (Over his shoulder, cynically) Hmm. Quite.
Source: https://youtu.be/YNF7WGQYmd0?si=0qm6muxGruzrIOHA&t=4854.

What's interesting about this dialogue that it reminds me very much of the general difference between management and the healthcare providers, both hospital portering and civilian. People who get into medicine, nursing and other PAM's often do so out of passion. Their work becomes a part of themselves in every way, as I myself say here: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2024/01/its-not-job.html. People attracted to administration are very different. They tend to be very unscrupulous, not positively evil; just amoral, detached, indifferent. This is why it was so easy for me to predict which porters were most likely to be promoted. For them life is very simple. They do things, get things they like and avoid things they don't like. The kind of Hamlet-like introspection, dilemma and hesitation that I constantly experience is not only unknown to them; it is incomprehensible. There's a new phenomenon in popular psychology known as the "NPC", a computing term that stands for "non-player character". In a computer game an NPC is any character not controlled by a player and is instead generated and activated by the game's own program. The NPC therefore has no mind or personality. This has become a metaphor for a certain personality type, often illustrated by the Wojak meme with a simple line drawn face. NPC's are not to be confused with psychopaths. NPC's do have a conscience and can feel empathy, but they cannot act on it. This is because they have no internal thought dialogue and so are incapable of changing their minds about anything or generating an original action without an external mental stimulus. In the film, Suetonius jokes about building walls, but he is clearly in the wrong job. He forces himself to suppress his own conscience in order to function in the Roman army. I call these people "pseudo-psychopaths". He is clearly no NPC, but his aide-de-camp is. Managers can switch on and off their robotic nature depending on whether or not they are on duty, which is interesting. In the social club some of them behave like anybody else and are even good company. This makes it obvious that being robotic and mindless is not essential to running a hospital, even though many people will claim that it is. There's simply something about the modern healthcare system that seems to demand it of people. My own confrontation with this mindset was very revealing. It was in a strange way a bit like the Boudican revolt with myself on the side of the Britons, see: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2022/01/ten-years-on.html. This difference between myself and most other people I know could be the very reason I experience Boudica moments.
See here for more information: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2025/02/boudica-portal.html.