A few weeks ago an article appeared in The Irish Times telling of a threatened strike by security guards in the National Gallery. Unusually, the attendants are not striking over financial issues, but are instead protesting against the high levels of boredom involved in their jobs.
The working shift of a gallery attendant begins at 9:30am when they assume their position in their allocated room. They then stay in that room until 5:30pm when the gallery closes, and until 8:30pm on Thursdays when there is late opening. As security guards they must remain focused at all times, so they cannot relieve the monotony by reading or listening to music on headphones. Regardless of how many breaks they get, the tedium of their task is undeniable.
However, it could be that this boredom is a by-product of a deeper issue, that of a fundamental lack of autonomy.
Previously, the gallery attendants divided up their various tasks among themselves, sharing the time spent guarding pictures, patrolling and manning the entrances. Now they are divided up into two teams leaving some attendants standing in the one room all day.
The reason the management made this change is not stated. Maybe they did have legitimate cause to implement the new system, however it is clear that they did not consider the implications of this change from their staff’s perspective.
The National Gallery would not be drawn on the issue, stating only that they will “elicit the assistance of the Labour Relations Committee”. They did not mention whether or not they had entered into discussions with their staff on the matter. The very fact that the issue has reached the point of potential strike action would seem to indicate that there has been a break-down in communication between management and staff. The attendants clearly feel that they are not being listened to.
It would seem that the gallery management have really got themselves into an undesirable situation here. Removing the decision-making capabilities of their staff has only served to demoralise them. It does not seem as if the management really values the well-being of their staff, expecting them to put up with extreme boredom on a daily basis. Even if the situation is resolved before reaching a strike, the damage done to their relationship with their staff will probably take some time to repair.
I know in these days of rampant unemployment some might say the gallery attendants should consider themselves lucky to have a job at all, but this does not absolve the management from their responsibilities to their employees. If this article has made me realise anything, it is that the role of a manager is not simply ensuring that what tasks need doing get done, but that the manager is beholden to their staff on a more holistic level. If I was in the position of management in the National Gallery, I would be very uncomfortable with the notion that I was making so many people miserable for such a substantial portion of their day-to-day lives.
