SES Treated Disgracefully?

Nice on Evil; Oh, and speaking of giving your mates jobs; I’d heard that ESA now stands for ‘Ex-Servicemen’s Abode”.

Yes, this all seems a bit out of proportion, but I don’t have a problem with the people of Canberra (albeit through the media) trying to ensure the hogs in HQ look after their staff; volunteers or otherwise. Don’t blame the SES, it will turn out (in typical Canberra fashion), that somebody knows somebody else who works at the paper and hey presto, one persons opinion is flouted as a popular concensus.

You can’t look after the volunteers if you’re too busy getting your mates good jobs in the ESA and making sure you have a nice new uniform every time you’re on tv. 😉

Thumper, couldn’t have said it better myself – I wish I had your eloquence.

“All this”

Yes because, like tinkerbell, we’re incapable of holding more than one feeling at a time.

Is it the biggest issue in the world? No.

Is it an important local issue if SES units used to have the ability to feed themselves and it got moved to an HQ responsibility which then dropped the ball?

Why yes, yes that is an issue worthy of some consideration on local news forums.

I’ll leave Al to others, I’m appalled but nothing suprises me anymore.

What a load of whiney shit! Hungry? Then go and get something to eat you dumb-arse. It makes me sick that these people can try and laude their volunteer status over the rest of the community, and we have to put up with this whingy bullshit – because why – oh they’re the friggin good Samaritans from the SES.

And another thing – what’s this crap about being “forced” to use unsafe equipment or to breech OH&S requirements – bullshit. I will bet that no one can come up with a scrap of evidence to prove that anyone was forced to do anything of the sort – sure, this being the SES, by definition, there’s going to be a lot of hero wannabe’s prepared to go the extra yard in pursuit of glory (not to mention stupidity). Just name me one situation – hypothetical or otherwise – where there could be absolutely no option but to go up a ladder with a chainsaw or to use a chainsaw without the right safety gear.

I guess that’s the thing about common sense – its not actually that common.

All this over missing a meal..my God

Agreed. These guys do a great job for free – the least we can do is give them some friggin’ sandwiches or a cooked meal.

I’ve seen this “if you don’t like it, just walk away” attitude a few times now – fortunately there are some people with better priorities.

Many thanks and kudos to all the vollies (SES and beyond) for doing their bit. You should absolutely be well equipped and fed for what you do. I think the powers that be in these organisations really need to take a look at what the point of the organisation is.

Puggy, When you’ve been out since finishing work the previous day and it’s rolling up to lunchtime or dinner on the next day, you’d think that there had been ample time to plan and prepare food wouldn’t you ?

‘rolling into Maccas’ isn’t an option. SES members don’t eat shit, which is what maccas is, and I’m sure that after a day and a half doing manual labour you’d appreciate that eating mildly flavoured cardboard that gives you no energy whatsoever isn’t really a sensible choice.

You may think that Pizza might be a functional option as well, but try that for breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch, and see if you still want pizza for dinner.

The issue with SES food IMHO is simple; provide nutritious food and prepare to cook alongside with planning any callout.

From what I have gathered from other sources, SES units used to do their own catering, as it was an inbuilt capacity. It has since been outsourced, to the HQ level, and has consistently failed to provide catering ever since, even in the previous example of after you have been out slogging for a couple of days.

I’m sure we’d all love to pay for meals like you so freely do, but volunteer work isn’t the sole realm of the rich and famous, and some extremely poor people, yes people that have bank accounts that have $2 or less in them, come out and volunteer.

Would you still insist on a volunteer paying for a meal when only a few members of the team have the money to pay for that meal ?

That’s not even getting into food tastes, allergies, dietary requirements or any of the myriad of problems that going to a fast food restraunt involves.

As I said earlier, the solution to this is quite simple, if you call out SES, ensure you organise catering straight away.

The only problem with that is some members of the HQ have consistently failed to grasp that idea since responsibility passed to them.

OK. All I will say is that if I was volunteering and didnt get fed then I would make arrangements to pay for my own meal and not bleat about it in the media.

Equipment issue a different story but FFS, plan ahead and have something ready, or send one of the ‘team’ down to Maccas or whathever tickles your fancy.

And if it all gets too hard, unvolunteer. I would lay good money that no-one went unfed for 12hrs.

The SES did a great job fixing my house a few years ago, so I’m not being vindictive, but since the Fires the complaining has been non-stop