Another gem from PS News’s Wild World of International PS News this week with a report that the newly appointed Leader of the British Parliament has circulated an updated, renewed and modern ‘Style Guide’ sky-rocketing Her Majesty’s tradition-bound Government well into the 1800s.
According to our report the new Leader (pictured) has declared that all males, other than knights and other titled gentry, are to be referred to as ‘esquire’ in correspondence, that commas after the word ‘and’ are to be banned and there shalt be a double space after full stops.
The new Style Guide has also declared war on a bookload of unfavoured words declaring as unacceptable ‘hopefully’, ‘very’, ‘due to’, ‘equal’, ‘yourself’, ‘ongoing’ and ‘unacceptable’.
It also bans ‘lot’, ‘got’ and ‘I am pleased to learn’ as well as the phrase ‘no longer fit for purpose’.
And, in readiness for the day Britain Brexits itself from the European Union, the new Style Guide also bans the use of metric measurements, despite the United Kingdom converting to metric in the 1960s.
The full story, for all us esquires and esquiresses, is at this PS News link.
Seat of intrigue
Congratulations to the NSW Division of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) for hosting a string of informal, and informative interviews with senior PS leaders.
Billed as ‘On The Couch” events, IPAA says the interviews “explore the person behind the role, along with their motivations and priorities.”
A great idea and bound to be popular but PS-sssst! ponders on whether the couch-focused marketing might be bordering on the over-informal.
IPAA’s September gathering will feature the Deputy Secretary of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet with the advertising promising “On the couch with Amy Brown”.
For the intrigued amongst us, bookings can be made at this PS News link.
Career into oblivion
A kind response to the not-so-controversial comment last week that your correspondent (i.e. me!) took the plunge into Canberra many years ago to take up a role with the now non-existent Department of the Navy.
The fact that the Department demised prompted a brief revisit to one’s eminently undistinguished PS career which saw this butterfly flit between nine Departments and an Agency, every one of which no longer graces Her Majesty’s MoG list.
For the record, the 20 years or so spent on Her Majesty’s Service saw me warm seats in the Departments of Civil Aviation (gone!); Supply (gone!); Postmaster-Generals (gone!); Navy (gone!); External Territories (gone!); Post and Telecommunications (now Communications); Home Affairs and Environment (now Home Affairs); Environment, Housing and Community Development (gone!); Sport, Recreation and Tourism (gone!), and finally, Arts, Sport, Environment, Tourism and Territories (gone!).
The single Agency was the Australian Development Assistance Agency (later AusAID).
If nothing else this litany of flibbertigibbetry proves that even a jack of all trades and master of none can still find a job after the PS.
And thank goodness for that!
A best giveaway
To Rama Gaind’s ever-popular giveaway now in which last week’s lucky readers stood the chance to win copies of the professional development guide book Best Behaviour by Tony Holmwood.
To be among the winners, all we needed to do was repeat to Rama the strategy Mr Holmwood said would change the face of HR professionals, managers and leaders.
The answer is that they would benefit from a strategy that would change the face of human resources by elevating the profile to a transformational coaching capability.
The first three readers with the correct answer to emerge from the PS News Barrel of Booty were Krista C from the Federal Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, Michael N from the national Department of Industry, Innovation and Science and Anne B also from the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone for playing. The copies of Best Behaviour will be on their way very soon.
For another chance to join Rama’s circle of winners visit this week’s giveaway and give it a go.
Good luck!
Record month
And finally, the wintry month of July saw PS News readers around the nation reach red hot records with six of the nine PS editions hitting dizzy new heights in readership and subscriber numbers.
Victoria’s Public Service took July’s line honours with the strongest increase for the month adding 152 subscribers to its list, taking the State’s total to 24,286.
Next in line was WA reaching 13,432, then NSW hitting 24,225; Northern Territory 1,036; SA, 9,437; and the ACT 12,684, all new heights for 2019.
The NT record deserves special mention as its increase saw it make mincemeat of the all-important 1,000 milestone, an achievement our dedicated Northern Territorians should be very proud of.
Once again the unrelenting growth leaves PS News lost for words other than to say thanks to each and every one of our cherished readers for the encouragement they give us and to promise, as usual, to keep delivering as long as you keep reading.
Till next week……
