Have management changed in 10 years....

[fishtank]

It's 10 years since Lord Sawyer said this about Royal Mail Management.....

Such managers are essentially supervisors - or, as they were described to us - “body watchers”. We were more than once presented with a picture of a front-line manager as someone who stands in the middle of a work area with his arms folded watching the employees and whose permission has to be asked whenever an employee wants to go to the lavatory or get a drink of water. That may be a stereotype, but in fact we observed some of these behaviours for ourselves.

Such managers direct the work but they do not manage the staff. When they come to apply the Conduct Code or the Attendance Procedure they are liable to treat them simply as punitive procedures to be applied mechanically and to ignore the emphasis on correction and counselling which have been deliberately written into them. When asked to carry out tasks which involve leadership and communication skills - such as conducting briefings and meetings requiring genuine discussion with employees - they are often out of their depth. They are ill-equipped to face the challenge of motivating employees at a time of rapid change.

The same attitudes can be found in more senior operational management. It shows itself in a refusal to correct or (in extreme cases) punish unacceptable behaviour on the part of front-line managers. Many senior managers, like their front-line subordinates, often have little concept of how to deal properly with their employees or their union representatives. Many used the language of “Management control” - reflecting a prevalent “command and control” attitude.

Has anything changed?
Will anything change?
Is this the real reason behind the fact that the business is a "basket case".

[POSTMAN]

Have you a link/doc to the actual report,i have seen it before but can't rem where.

Oh and 2 no's and a yes in that order.

[fishtank]

Have you a link/doc to the actual report,i have seen it before but can't rem where.

Oh and 2 no's and a yes in that order.

http://www.ocp.co.uk/_Attachments/Resources/235_S4.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DGP1]

Is this the real reason behind the fact that the business is a "basket case"

Yes but the real problem is the senior management who have let this happen, there are people in the management role that you wouldn't trust to run a bath.

[clashcityrocker]

Nothing has changed in 10 years.
The culture hasn't changed. If anything the dire situation of the business has made matters worse as the "body watchers" feel the need to show their managers how hard they are for fear of losing their job.
And the Conduct Code and Attendance Procedure are increasingly used mechanically in a desperate attempt to rid the business of f/t staff.

Very depressing reading for a Sunday evening.

[ldsposti]

In a word NO maybe it should to moya and her henchmen

[fishtank]

The differences between the national leadership of the union and union representatives at the local level derive at least in part from a perception that the national leadership is not truly in touch with grass-roots opinion and local conditions and circumstances.

[drb]

The first rule of the term "union avoidance" is the "supervisor role". They carry out orders,with no questions asked. They push through the company line and inform "those" of whom does not carry out the company line. The "supervisors" who do not comply are threatened and bullied. This would explain the "silence" we get when we question our managers why they put up with it. The days of Line managers fighting back stopped about 10 years ago.

To prove my point,how many "supervisors" have been in on the resource meetings? (Thats offices who have them!). None!

[osgoody1970]

I was once told, that a senior manager had given a briefing on a particular issue, by the time it trickled down to the shop floor, it had completely changed direction and was not what the senior manager had said at all, there's the problem.

[Dorset Plodder]

I was "Spoilt" at an early age by being in the Military, and having Leaders that had Training and Experience. We did have some idiots but the majority were pretty good at their job. Do RM actually train their Managers in Man Mangement and Problem Solving Skills? If they do they're not doing a very good job!

They obviously have no authority to run their Office the way they'd like, as every time they get things nearly right they're told by their boss to cut hours and save money! It must be very frustrating from a Managers point of view.

I know we normally slag them off and have very little sympathy for them (and a lot of that has to do with the way they treat people) but could you imagine a system where Everyone was on the same side, and pulling in the same direction? The Accountants would have to loosen the purse strings and recruit FULL TIME Posties to man offices to the correct levels but at least we'd have an achievable target!

[POSTMAN]

Sawyer report ignored,Hopper report gospel.

[clashcityrocker]

Has anyone got a link to the Hopper report?

[DGP1]

Mr Hoppy

[bunkerland]

Has anyone got a link to the Hopper report?

Once park and loop is consigned to room 101 i think the space hopper could provide a very attractive,and cheaper alternative,also,it would match our new orange uniforms! The future's bright,the future's orange!

[Martin Walsh]

It's a very good question. In my opinion we are not comparing like for like.

When the Lord Sawyer was asked to write his report and then oversea changes we had very bad industrial relations , when we had more industrial action ballots than all the rest of industry put together. On top of this we had loads of bouts of unofficial industrial action. The final straw came when Watford went out unofficially and work was diverted to Liverpool who walked out and then London who walked out including delivery offices. John Keggie the then DGSP got Royal Mail to agree an independent report. That report led to groups being sent up in each area with an independent chairs but very little changes and the sawyer groups broke down when Royal Mail announced the share offer.

Delivery Office managers were not as centralised as they are now and some were completely out of control and led to breakdowns in IR etc. However on the plus side some senior managers knew the business inside out and certainly would not have bought in such thinks as park and loop.

Back then we also still had 2 deliveries and the break between the first and second delivery allowed for union meetings to be held on a wider basis.

10 years on there is only a handful of senior managers who have operational experience and DSMs and DOM are told on daily and sometimes hourly conference calls what to do and rarely can they no ! In some cases the DOMs are bullied and given no choice some then because they are under pressure do the same to our members.

The introduction of Royal Mail sanctions for taking unofficial industrial action in 2003 has reduced the number of unofficial walk outs compared to what they were in 2000.

However has bullying increased or decreased since 2001. I would suggest that is has decreased especially after some of the high profile cases like the Birmingham suicide case. However clearly bullying by managers still continues.

The industry has change massively in the last 10 years , there was no DSA , there was 2 deliveries and the vast majority of delivery postmen and women were on a 6 day week earning £250 for a 41.5 hour week. Now look where we are , a lot has changed some for the good and some for the worse.

Did Sawyer really change anything ?