What I like about my job

• I can wear jeans to work.
• The salary/ pension is reasonable.
• I am largely independent.
• Some of my colleagues.
• I am interested in language development - at least in an academic, theoretical way.
• Phonetic transcription.

What I don’t like about my job

• SLTs are a homogeneous bunch:  white women in their twenties and thirties, mainly.
• This means there are very few men in the profession.  In the Trust I work in at the moment, there are no male SLTs AT ALL!  My previous Trust was quite remarkable in that we had three male SLTs … quite a coup!
• There is always more to be done.  I never go home from work having finished everything.
• I often take work home.  Although I am really trying not too as much, Norman (before you tell me off!)
• I am frequently by myself in the clinic (I’m the only SLT based where I work).
• There is so much fucking paperwork.
• Agenda for Change.  Under this NHS reform, SLTs lost 2 days’ annual leave per year.  We are also required to work 37.5 instead of 35 hours per week FOR THE SAME PAY!  (Many SLTs work way more than they should, anyway - but that’s not the point).
• Not having time to keep up with all the SLT literature … although it’s all such a yawn anyway, so it’s probably for the best!
• Colleagues who are on higher banded jobs who don’t do any reading AT ALL, and do the same type of therapy year in year out without stopping to think about clinical effectiveness.  (I’m thinking of one or two people in my previous Trust, in particular).
• Having to pay to be a member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and Health Professions’ Council (both mandatory for NHS therapists) … and the fact that RCSLT membership fees are the same whether you are a lowly band 5 or a super high earning manager on band 8c.  I keep meaning to write to the RCSLT’s magazine about this but haven’t got round to it yet.  Apathy.
• In my previous Trust, having some people who were doing almost exactly the same job as me (and in some cases not as well as me) earning £10,000 a year more because they were on band 7 and I was on band 5.  Agenda for Change was supposed to ensure that people got equal pay for equal work.  Yeah, right.

STILL MORE RANTING TO COME FOLKS …