Yes it is The Cam but the River Thames which flows through Oxford is called The Isis
I realized today that my American colleagues have no idea what secondment means. Apparently it’s a britishism.
I sort of know what it means - but if I’ve gotten it right , it’s not just that the term is a Britishism , it’s that the concept doesn’t really exist in the US. If I understand correctly , it means that an employee of Organization A is working for Organization B and that although Organization A is paying the employee and providing benefits , day to day supervision is coming from Organization B although the employee remains an employee of organization A (and I think maybe it can happen within an organization) Literally the only time I have ever heard of this is when a person who was employed by a State Agency A went to work for State Agency B while officially remaining employed by Agency A because Agency A had a better pension. Other than that, it’s always something a little different from how I’ve seen “secondment” described.
Yeah, “secondment” seems to a version of “temp”–a worker on temporary assignment, typically filled by a company specializing in short-term positions.
Although the wikipedia article on “secondment” specifically says that it “is not to be confused with temporary work.”
I think I have heard the phrase “he’s been seconded to us” in some Britcom or other, but the noun form “secondment” is new to me. Based on the wikipedia description, it doesn’t sound like something that happens in the US.
I’ve only heard Guernsey from Australian Rules Football.
Cardigan, Raglan and Nolan were the three principal characters in the charge of the Light Brigade, and they all have styles of sweaters named after them. Adding in the Balaclava, that was truly a war that influenced knitwear
Looking over the last several posts, it looks to me like British “secondment” has a lot in common with what’s often called in the U.S. “contracting” or “hiring a contractor”. Note that this differs from “hiring a contractor” to do, for example, construction work or interior renovation. “Contracting” can also refer selling white-collar services to an entity (in the U.S., both private companies and public governmental entities make extensive use of contractors).
UK “Secondment” may not exactly equal US “contracting” in the details, but it seems like the function of secondment in UK enterprise is played by contracting in the US.
Kind of… but not necessarily. Secondments quite often take place within an organisation itself, say from one department to another, for periods up to perhaps 18 months. Then the secondee would return to their substantive role.
Also, note to anyone not familiar with the term: the stress is on the second syllable, rather than the first, where you would be talking about the position after first (if you follow my meaning!).
I suspect they mean “not chewy to the point of leathery and tasting good.” As if “buttery and flakey” are the only way they know to compliment pastry.
If it has no buttons, it’s a flyaway cardigan. If you go by google keywords results, a flyaway cardigan does not need to be knitted. That’s not something that Google decided, it’s a matter of sellers adding that keyword to that kind of garment.
Exactly so. For example, back in the day, when I was working as a Formulator (medicines dosage design) I was seconded twice - once to cope with an urgent need for help in medicines licensing, once to help out in the analytical lab. Both were for about six months (and I hated both of them at the time, but boy did it pay dividends in the long run).
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Ah. Within an organization, that would be described in the U.S. as a reassignment or a transfer – and then a reassignment/transfer back to one’s original position.
As an aside … here, 18 months would essentially be a permanent move unless there was some distinct and meaningful way you could keep a foot in your original position’s duties. Six months is even pushing it unless the entity’s work were structured just so (e.g. discrete projects that begin and end in several-months chunks of time).
I think this might be part of the communication issue. On one side of the Atlantic organizations have development plans for people that span 5-10 years. On the other side six months out and you’re replaced permanently.
I’ve been “temporarily” assigned to a project for over six months twice. My old job was no longer available at the end of the assignment. The person “temporarily” filling in for me became permanent. There was no place for them to go, because the job they temporarily vacated was also filled.
So I had to take WHATEVER job was available at my grade level. Whether I liked it or not, and whether I was likely to be good at it or not. Both times the position I went into got downgraded after I had been in it for a year or two. Because it was only upgraded to preserve my grade level.
Just piss-poor planning in US companies. Any commitments made do not survive the tenure of the boss who made them.
I think the idea is that on paper, you’re still part of your original department - for instance, you get paid from their budget, not from the budget of the department you were reassigned to. That may not mean much to you, but it means a lot to the organization.
I think that’s one of the parts that doesn’t typically happen in the US, the pay coming out of the original department’s budget. That and it’s not at all common to be reassigned with a specified end date when you will return to your original assignment. My husband and I both got reassigned to different positions at our employers - but when he went from customer service to the warehouse to purchasing to sales he never went back to the original job in customer service. Same for me - I went from one assignment to another without knowing in advance how long I would be in each assignment (could be 3 months, could be 10 years) , I was on the new assignment’s budget and I never went back to the original assignment.
Secondment is still a commonly used term at American law firms, where it refers to “lending” an attorney to a client for a stint of in-house work.
Not where I work; you’d come out of your new dept’s budget, unless there was some special agreement, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen.
This is my understanding. I once worked for a Toronto company that had offices throughout Canada and the United States. Our Vancouver office needed someone with my skills to work for a few months on a project they initiated. So, I ended up being seconded to our Vancouver office for a few months. When the project was over, I went back to our Toronto office.
Great experience; in my free time (generally weekends), I explored Vancouver and environs, and got to know it really well.
Here, you’re paid from your original department, but your department charges the other department, or client - sometimes at a rate quite a bit higher than your pay rate, for client secondments. One of my team is currently seconded at a client for 2 years, but I also have a member of our India dev team seconded to me for a similar period.
I’ve seen it both ways in the UK. I work for a company that has 3 separate companies within ‘the family’ - different P&Ls. We have both seconded team members to each other and charged the other company for it if it’s relatively short term,. but for longer contracts, the other company has take on their salaries and benefits for a temporary time., and also