I was going to reply to this - but there he was, gone!

Oh well, what a pity, never mind.

WRONG!

All the Housing Officers I know work in the field of "Social Housing" (Local Authorities or Housing Associations). They provide real accommodation solutions to low income families and the homeless. They are also involved in the administration and maintenace of the properties for their tenants.

It can be a pretty demanding job because they have to often deal with irate tenants (and potential tenants), juggling housing waiting lists, housing welfare problems and the like.

I work in Housing Benefits on the customer care side of things, but we share premises with a newly established Housing Association and I reckon the Housing Officers get more grief from the punters than us Benefits Botchers do.

Housing Officers are relatively low paid yet provides a vital public service. I reckon it's a damn decent job, certainly nothing to be embarrassed about.

Lets give some credit to the boy.

This is not good news.

lurcio, do you think its possable for a housing officer to be exempt from dealing with the homeless? I ask because Alex has a history of attacking a homless man who selling the big issue (I think it had Kate on the cover).

Thanks for your explanation of the HO role.

Oh bless you DD for dragging that disproved story up again, nice to see you back in action, you've been missed

Thing is lurcio, Alex was supposed to be heading for Broadway (if you listen to some of the housewives) but instead ended up doing something that requires very little talent imo.. not that a Housing Officer isn't a wothwhile job, cos it is.. it's just not what we'd of expected from the sublimely talented Mr Sibley.

How hard can that be? All they have to do is pick up the phone and ask somebody from maintenance to go over and sort it out.

"Oi! Maintenance Department! get yerself over to Number 10, they've sprung another leak"

Perhaps I wasn't clear about the more demanding aspects of the job, so I'm afraid you'll have to defer to my superior knowledge and experience with regard to "how hard can that be".

Housing Officer (like any job that involves direct contact with the more disadvantaged elements of society) = DAMN HARD.......

Incidentally, I'm not bothered either way about Alex, but some people on this site clearly are......

However I reckon it's a shabby tactic to scorn his choice of employment (if true) in order to score some spurious point that he is somehow degrading himself, 'cos the inference is that those also engaged in that field of employment are also of less worth in their contribution to society ("Jobsworths" Bystander?.....Dear gawd !)

Cheers anyway. I'm giving up on this thread before you folks turn it into something like a Daily Mail editorial.....I've got real work to do tomorrow.

lurcio - don't go

I think all that has happened here is you have taken something said in jest to wind some of us up as being meant in all seriousness. There is a long standing tradition on here for some people to knock Alex and for others to come to his defence, it is meant as a harmless game and I'm sure that bystander was only playing along and not demeaning you or others who do your job at all. I think you may have missed the smilies on the end of his posts.

Eek...I've just defended him there, must go lie down and get over the shock

Did anyone spot Alex at the National Television Awards tonight ?

As Elderflower has pointed out Lurcio, it was all just a bit of fun, aimed at the Alex fans. I have no doubt that in some areas yours is a very tough job and I had no intentions of seriously upsetting you.............................unless of course you're an Alex fan.

I knew I'd get you in the end EF.

See, you let your guard down for 5 mins and look what happens

He hasn’t been a Housing Officer for ten minutes, and he's already moonlighting as a cloakroom attendant.

(NB I am not having a go at cloakroom attendants, they do a very difficult job for low pay, although I'm sure most supplement this by going through pockets for loose change)

Was he there? If so, where and when? I only watched a bit of it. I turned over when Big Brother won the reality award. Complete travesty. IAC was loads better.

Don't know, darling...........I didn't see him

Oh well, if no one else saw him, he probably wasn't there.......hehee................


Gotcha !!

Oh well. Glad I missed it then. :sleep:

The thing with Sue Johnston tracking down her ancestors on the other side was good though.

Ooops.... apologies for sense of humour bypass.....I've got a streaming cold.....Ironically today a flaming Housing Officer offloaded a load of old cobblers into my workload. I'm going to side with the anti-HO's from now on!

Hope you are feeling better soon