Is a county groundsmans' lot a happy one?

Hi Doctor,
One needs to remember who the groundsmans paymaster is, that being the club, who employs him. If he constantly refuses to accept direction from his "superiors", then he runs the risk of losing his job. Whilst many will not agree to this practise, they will have to go along with it. Also in this age of two divisions, there are financial benefits to be gained by getting the teams to the top. Home advantage or cheating? A very fine line.
Whether it is OK or not for the groundsman to be pressured, the fact is that it happens and has for years.

Preparing a wicket to suit your own attack makes perfect sense to me , but it must be tempered with caution.  If your attack is predominantly a seaming one , then leave some grass on. Alternatively if you have some decent tweakers , then a dry pitch with some bounce has to be the way to go.   What isn't okay is when the preparation is pushed to extremes and the wicket turns square on day one or some average trundler is completely unplayable - that's just not cricket and the ECB rightly comes down on such dodgy pitches with hefty fines.
              Groundie is right , the curator is an employee of the club and his directive must be to make sure he's on their side - if they're winning , then so is he.

If however the groundsmen were employed by the governing body, home advantage should be reduced, making for a much more level playing field. Would also stop those employers from doing away with staff who they don't like.

I think it would be a good idea to have groundsmen employed by the governing body in each country - like umpires are - a level playing field, literally, could be maintained and an even contest between bat and ball would result.

Wakey, wakey boys
In the first class game, if players can be banned, heavily fined, for what is titled match fixing, how long do you think it will be before groundsmen get sucked into the fixing argument.
It will only take one person to start a campaign, high lighting to the media that this kind of home advantage  is taking place on a regular basis. The ECB currently sit on the fence, they know its happening, but whilst thier guide lines state, that a  pitch should be manufactured to produce a fair competition between bat and ball. luckily that gives enough leeway to tweak a pitch one way or another, with out a cry of cheating.
Umpires, PL officers, decide when a pitch is deemed a poor pitch, pitch panels called, and a kangaroo style court takes place. I believe it is at this point when you learn whether your own club officials like you enough to back you, or not. You can bet your bottom dollar that if they do not back you at this stage of proceedings that you will be looking for a new job pretty soon.
One way of discouraging the home advantage, shall we call it tweaking, would be to do away with the toss and invite the away team to have the choice of bat or bowl first.
If the points marking system conducted by the umpires were to be not used, then a grounds man would not have the additional pressure of deciding if he wants to be in the running for top marks at the end of a season, giving him a chance of grounds man of the year, or seeking the angle of home advantage, to which case the pitch marks will suffer and you can kiss good bye to the prize money that goes with the title of grounds man of the year, but in turn your club secures the title, with a hefty bonus for the club and players, and a tray of John Smiths for you and your boys to share.

I like home advantage, makes the game spicier.  What's sweeter than seeing your team go in alien conditions and hammering the living daylight out of the opposition?  It's what makes a sportsman/team champions, they win no matter what!  Australian easily beat India in 2004, ran through Pakistan, Sri Lanka, SA, WI, England - everyone in their own backyard!