Picked up a copy of  The MJ, the management journal for local authorities being sent to me for a trial period, and am surprised by the front page.

No, it’s not the pay restraint that grabbed my attention, much needed though that is, but the first lines of the article,

“Chief executive’s union ALACE has backed down on a 3% pay rise amid the financial crisis, ….”

Local government chief executives have a union, cripes, what on earth for?

I thought chief executives are supposed to be drivers of transformational change, leaders and innovators. I’m sure you know the sort of person you’d be expecting to lead Councils. How depressing that some of them think they need a union to argue their case. I thought that’s one of the key skills for which they were selected for the job. 

Read the ALACE home page and be profoundly depressed.