Harsh. Just re-read this, and it's harsh.

Is weakness a weakness, and the missing robust bonus

There are, without question, some serious questions to answer. Most of the answers, I think, come down to money and political will.

Medically, fantastic advances, heart transplants commonplace for example, run parallel with less interesting, less sexy, less funded, and rather less glowing examples of progress. Caveman bones show recovery from a broken leg. Six weeks. Back to normal or near normal, bit of a lottery. Unless you are a top-level professional athlete, guess how long and what outcome you face now? No change since the prehistoric. Cancer, cosmetic surgery, antidepressants? There’s gold in them there hills. Broken wrist love? Join that queue over there and we’ll see what we can do, no money, love, no…no juice, as they say, no machines that go ‘ping’, no glory, no bucks.

There is no doubt that people suffer post traumatic stress disorder. There’s no doubt in my mind that it can be cumulative, too. Person A can see one event, scale of distress 10%, and fall apart. Person B can see twenty, thirty, fifty events, scale of distress 75%+, and then see that one too many, that one too close to home, that pushes them over the burn-out edge.

These guys need all the help society can give them. Unless and until we come up with some predictive diagnostic measures that determine predisposition to falling apart and advise people that certain jobs just are not suitable for their mental make-up, when they fall apart we need to offer maximum support.

Then…

…here’s my problem: I’m not insensitive or callous, but I’ve proved robust enough, over just short of twenty years, in being able to deal with all sorts of those traumatic situations…

Examples:

[Radio message: “Can I send an ‘apparently dead’ to control?” “Reckon you can, me and Gibbo’ve got most of what’s left of him in three buckets.”]

[“Can you get me some spare firegear? Size tall and extra large? Yes, done that. Mine are covered in soot and debris, the other set in claret, one set of Andy Mac’s (borrowed) up to the elbows in claret, and one of Monster’s (oh, yeah, sorry, one green watch, one red watch sets of kit emergency borrowed and likewise contaminated). Blood. Mainly blood.”]

[“Either we’re dragging her out, or they’re moving the train, but something’s going to have to happen soon, because she’s just about alive and isn’t going to last long while you lot debate what’s the best thing to do.”]

…so: the weak and the needy get the support they deserve. They’re weak and needy after all, and have pitched up, through no fault of their own (the problem’s with the selection procedure) and that’s all fair enough. The cheats get the big stick, the weak and the needy get the there, there, there. What do the robust, the success stories, those that manage themselves, the job, the demands, pick up in the way of bonuses? Nada, ziltch, sweet FA. When failing bankers and NHS chief executives are getting huge failure payments, that sticks in the throat.