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Boris offers mind coaching for City Hall staff made redundant
Boris Johnson is offering City Hall staff confidence-boosting classes as part of their redundancy packages.
The workshops, with titles such as Cresting The Curve, Create Your Own Luck and Me, have been set up in the wake of a jobs cull aimed at saving millions of pounds.
Posters advertising the sessions, which will cost the taxpayer £9,000, have appeared in lifts, and they are being publicised on the staff intranet.
At least 120 posts have been axed at City Hall, including half the environment team - the group in charge of London’s bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Mayor wants to save about £7.5million from an £80million budget. Many of the cuts are of middle managers earning about £40,000.
Greater London Authority chiefs claim redundancy “coaching” will boost self-esteem and help those who have lost jobs find new ones.
The GLA said existing staff including those working out their notices, were eligible for the workshops. A spokeswoman said: “This approach has been used successfully by the London Development Agency during a restructure, and so the GLA has agreed to pilot three sessions. The workshops have only just been advertised to staff. Twenty places are available on each session.” Staff are also being offered CV writing and interview skills workshops, while line managers are being sent on half-day events called Managing Change to teach them how to support workers. There are drop-in sessions where staff can ask questions.