The DomPost test

People outside Wellington may not have heard of the Dom-Post test. For those not in the know, The Dominion Post (or Dom Post) is the daily paper made from the merge of the daily Wellington papers the Dominion and the Evening Post.
When I first heard of the DomPost test, it was known as the Dominion test since the Dominion was the then morning daily. (That's quite a few years ago now...I think I'm showing my age..).

Anyway, the Dom-Post test is basically what ever actions one is doing, we should ask our selves, "what would this look like on the front page of the Dom Post in the morning?".
Nothing is more likely to give grief to a government ministry or department more than having some scandal on the front page of the DomPost in the morning. It'll set the tone of the day from the minister down to the lowest level clerk.

ACC and CYFS seem to be the two favourite that springs to mind, but Housing, IRD, capital coast health have all been front page headlines too. Nothing makes my thoughts go "f^$k" when I see the governmental area where I work on the front page, with yet another scandal.

Mind you, a lot of the time it's a media beat up. Like every time a child has been in contact with CYFS for something and their parent kills that child, yet it's as if it's CYFS fault since they are there to protect the children. That one bugs me since the blame should sit squarely on the killers shoulders.
Or when IRD supposedly drove a man to suicide and then the guys kid also killed himself.
Since many people declare bankruptcy and don't kill themselves, it had all the hall marks of a media beat up. Reading through the lines in the media report, you could see it was someone just looking to blame for the death of their husband. Tragic as it was, it's just someone playing the blame game and the media buy in as it'll sell their papers.

Which all brings me to the point of this post. I'm actually a PSA union delegate for my area, which is a little surprising since I object so much to the PSA leadership direction. Lately I've been assisting a member in a employment dispute. It's one of the code of conduct issue things and when they are brought up, it tends to be very serious.
If this person had just applied themselves to the DomPost test, they would still have a job, instead they finding employment in alternative industry.
Sad, as in as much that they are a nice person and have blown their career chances, but that is the effect of their actions.
What they did is confidential, and I'll respect that, but it still wouldn't have looked good on the front page of the DomPost.