Cushy.
A diplomat with the Foreign Office is said to have spoken "out of turn" in her Blog, when she describes her posting in the Seychelles as "cushy" with "amazing" beaches. You can read more here
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Good for you. There's nothing wrong with appreciating the good things in your career. Just consider this, next month it could be the DRC or Khazakstan.
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I'm an ex FCO spouse and can also praise what can be 'The Good Life'. Paris, wow! A few fantastic years, managed to get work in the Embassy as IT Manager. Hard work, often 08:30 through till 19:00, but a challenging job. Same for the wife who was employed by the FCO. Again, hard work and often long hours but Paris, what a great city to be sent to live in - and the food.
Other postings have been Islamabad in Pakistan and Cairo Egypt. Cushy? Well it really depends on what you make of a place, while many staff remain on the Embassy compound, their own "little britain", rarely mix with the locals and subsist on the imported commissary food, we were known regulars at the local markets, explored the desert and mountains, delved in to the local archeaology developed many friends in the local community and had a great time!
Being paid to go and live in foreign parts, yes its pretty good. Overall a realistic payback for the high risk of working for some pretty poor quality managers that the FCO seemed to retain - you know who you are Brian, Norman, Robin! Then there's the nepotism!
What would be our favourite posting? Naples of course, a flat on the Bay of Naples, and the most challenging task, carrying the Prince of Wales' luggage as he arrives for a holiday. Why else have a consulate in Naples?
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I thought she said that some might think it cushy -- which is a bit different. Anyhow, as simmob2 puts it at @1, why not? Getting posted somewhere pleasant is a bonus in what can be a series of dreadful or dreary places.
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Nice work, if you can get it...
But as she said, she's only in the Seychelles for 4 weeks before heading elsewhere. And for about 8 hours a day M-F she's probably in the office - the diving etc. is almost certainly outside office hours!
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Simmobb2@01 & C_G@03
I agree.
Ms. McCurrie, is, telling the story as she sees it.
Life, as the saying goes "...is sometimes, a beach".
It's a job and someone's got to/going to do it. So, why not Ms. McCurrie?
She should, I think, enjoy every moment of it whilst she can.
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It is just typical that a serving civil servant would make such a comment, I say civil servant because as a diplomat that is exactly what she is but in my mind she is no more than a freeloader enjoying a live of ease at the tax payers expense, if she thinks that her posting is cushy then she can't be doing the job properly because if she were doing the job properly, she wouldn't have too much time to spend on the beaches would she, perhaps she needs to be reassignen to somewhere less cushy, perhaps Goma or Baghdad or one of the other worldwide trouble spots, personally speaking I feel that the diplomatic service is overstaffed end too expensive, aside from the ambassador and his/her wife/husband and their children, the necessary intelligencia and maybe a consul, the rest of the staff could be made up of local people and only when their presence is required need the other officials be sent to the appropriate location to do their job and then return home.
The government of the United Kingdom is very wasteful and a great deal of waste is generated by the diplomatic service what with official dinners serving exspensive wines and brandies, this is one service that can and should be thinned out starting with the likes of the lady in question.
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A while ago, I had a contact in the FCO, which got us some key information, after being in a disaster area.
Some months later, when a death caused a major problem for a friend, the FCO contact sorted everything out and the local office went to extraordinary lengths to make a terrible situation bearable.
Let them have some fun in between. I will forever support them.
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Hmmm... there don't seem to be any comments on her blog beyond 30th of October, I find it hard to believe no-one else has commented...
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I think we'd all agree her post is 'cushy' - but she just needed a bit more decorum than to come out and publish it on the FCO site (besides I'm sure a lot of people in the Seychelles lead less than cushy lives). It's a bit close to her saying 'it's a doss' - it may well be, but keep it to yourself, dear.
Sack her! - Only joking! Just remove the offending words from the blog and everyone's happy.
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God bless her and her honesty. I doubt whether it is 'decorum' that she lacks. It is a poor human survival tactic to show you are too happy or that a job is not too taxing. There is always someone in a human group ready to attack you if you do. I suggest she goes diving , has a sauna then before she hits the bars , she should sit down and blog about the long hard hours at work. Where would we be if our govt officials all told the truth? They would be lynched through collective envy. When I was in the security services I would often recline on a sheepskin rug and do a crossword.Then I'd roll in a flower bed before going back to the office and saying '......don't get up, I'll be OK, that was a tough one today'.
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Perhaps all that's needed for balance is for her to post her experiences of some of the less cushy postings.
From what she wrote, she appears to be kept busy during working hours, but that's only 8 out of every 24. Assuming 8 are spent sleeping, that's another 8 to potentially soak up the atmosphere.
As her postings are brief - anywhere from a week to a month - chances are she's living in a hotel, so is probably fairly close to the office, and has meals served for her.
Evidently there are downsides to this lifestyle, in that you can't settle down or build up friendships (either colleagues or social), as you'll be moving off in a few weeks. Hence she mentioned she'll probably look for a more settled post in a few years. Probably in a more middle-of-the-road office, as she wouldn't want somewhere like downtown Basra, and vacancies somewhere like the Seychelles would understandably be few and far between!
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Downtown Basra might have a couple of retention issues, you are right.
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Mind you, if you think Basra's bad, I've heard a rumour that Kabul may have serious problems with recruitment, although if you are accepted it's pretty much a job for life...
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Vince Kabul?
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I'm still not sure who criticised her in the first place.
Whoever it was it smacks of envy and jealousy.
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I can't see anything at all in what she has written that deserves any criticism.
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Fair play to this woman. She's been lucky enough to find herself posted somewhere nice, and she's happy about that. We'd all feel the same if we were doing her job. Given the semi-nomadic existence she must lead, I don't begrudge her making the most of the opportunities that this posting presents to her.
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ingeniouscliff - So if, in theory she was time wasting on public money you'd be happy with that?
While the idea of reclining on a sheepskin rug and doing a crossword sounds like pure tedium to me, I guess people are more upset if public money is being wasted, rather than the setting of the job or the conditions.
If public servants can get their work done, and have a good time, fair enough envy isn't so much of a problem. If someone rolls around in flower bed (!) all day instead of doing work I think most people would have a problem with that. The perceived wastage of public money and 'big government' helped get George W elected..... ...so we need to be creful.....
Ultimately her post comes across as a wee bit silly - surely there's some more serious issues to be talking about than going diving. As another poster says, she could have balanced it a bit - the twee stuff and the political.
And to the inevitable 'but it's nice to hear about FCO staff having a good time' - I say grow up, don't you get enough postcards from friends and family every year?.
And yes, I am very envious. Although to be honest I don't like hot weather, so I'm only partially envious.
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I must admit to being slightly amazed by everyone's goodwill on this matter, you do realize the reason this is news is not because 'A lovely woman put a delightful description of her delightful job on the FCO site and why not take a look at it to cheer yourself up'???? as some of you seem to think but rather to cajol and enrage the bitter twisted people like myself.....
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That was my intention too Bloofs. I never had a sheepskin rug or even looked at a flower bed. But my point about human envy was the thing. On reflection if I was appraising this member of staff I would have a chat to her about how the written word might be percieved by the public. It is an insight/awareness issue. Either that or she is loaded and thick as...and her powerful Daddy got her the job.
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To be fair to her, apparently her blog was intended to address people considering applying for the FCO, so making it sound 'cushy' was sort of the point. And she succeeded...
To be honest my main problem with her blog is that it made want to throw up, it was so twee.
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She's moved on to talking about Lagos now, which may be to counterbalance the 'cushiness'.
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