Pros
Most of the staff really try to deliver a good service to the people of Cardiff. They do this despite negligible training, low salaries, the constant threat of cuts, unresponsive and barely visible managers, lack of further opportunities, and poor office accommodation IT systems and equipment.
Cons
The first thing that hits you when you enter Willcox House in south Cardiff is the smell of the toilets, it’s all downhill from there. As a new recruit you might want to see an organisation chart of your dept., or the council even, well tough luck there aren’t any. Perhaps business process descriptions???? 😊😊😊 you’re joking. Well you might find out more on the induction course, except there isn’t one. Training is basically picking up the job from those around, which is how to permanently embed bad practice and inefficiency. IT systems are a ragbag of the monstrous SAP, various out of date packages and uncoordinated bespoke applications built and maintained on a sort of hobby basis by one or two individuals who hopefully will never leave or fall under a bus. Still, maybe your managers will help? Unlikely, between my post and the council cabinet member responsible, there were four managers, two of whom I never saw in a year of working there, as for the chief executive I visualised him as some wizard of oz figure, although I never made it to the emerald city.
