A council has come under fire for spending thousands of pounds on training its employees to be more assertive.
Argyll and Bute Council has gone out to tender for someone to provide a course to help staff identify “the characteristics of aggressive, passive and assertive behaviours.
“The council requires a one-day assertiveness course to be delivered to managers and employees on an annual basis to meet the requirements of our performance review and development process,” says the tender document.
“This course will be delivered to a wide range of council employees across the Argyll and Bute area including Lochgilphead, Oban, Campbeltown, Dunoon, Helensburgh and Islay.
“The council envisages the courses taking place between December 2014 and June 2015 and from September-June on a yearly basis. Number of days required and dates will be agreed in April/May of each year.
“This course helps recognise your own behaviour and identifies the situations in which you would like to have been more assertive. This course identifies the characteristics of aggressive, passive and assertive behaviours. This course will show you how to overcome your natural behaviour in these situations and help you achieve more successful outcome.”
But Alastair Redman, the Conservative Westminster parliamentary candidate for Argyll and Bute said: “Our council continues to tell us all that is has no money for vital services yet it seems to have ample money to take our over-stretched front-line council workers away from their ever-increasing workloads and put them through a daft course on how to be more assertive.
“I would strongly advise our council not to bother creating this non-job and instead spend the money on the things the people of Argyll and Bute expect their money to be spent on.”
Mr Redman added that he had never heard from people that he had canvassed on the doorstep demanding that council workers be “more assertive”.
“Instead it was the usual gripes about lack of street lighting, grass not being cut and why there was not enough affordable housing on the area.”
A spokeswoman said: “The council is committed to providing excellent customer service in all areas. To do this our employees have to perform at their best demonstrating the appropriate skills, attitudes and behaviour. Effective communication is essential for excellent customer service and assertiveness training allows employees to improve their knowledge and behaviour. This means that the public have a positive experience when they deal with the council.”