CURRENT IND CLIMATE - SAWYER REPORT WORTHY OF A RE-READ

[brothermagrew]

What with multiple MC's having been recently balloted, and in view of the current industrial climate in which we again all find ourselves, it is worthy of all CWU members to take time in reading or re-reading the published report of Lord Sawyer. Independent Review of Industrial Relations between Royal Mail and THE COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION.

http://www.psc.gov.uk/policy-and-consul ... sawyer.pdf

[BELIAL]

What a load of s**t. RM can cut your pay by 50% but responsibility for strikes are down to the union. Just read that bit and it told me all I needed to know ,Fat cat propaganda laced with establishment bollox,know your place serf's

[brothermagrew]

What a load of s**t. RM can cut your pay by 50% but responsibility for strikes are down to the union. Just read that bit and it told me all I needed to know ,Fat cat propaganda laced with establishment bollox,know your place serf's

Having said that paras 35 - 37 is an intersting observation nonetheless.

35. We found that in the failing Mail Centres this culture was still all too
common. 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.

36. 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.

37. 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.

Wouldn't say that that was a load of s""t.

[BELIAL]

No I quite agree. But bearing in mind where these Queens Councils etc, are coming from you might have to question their motives. Local Dims and lineo's might just be the fall guys,a nice safe issue or big fat red herrings and hang the saps out to dry. Fall and fail guys the lot of them, they've got no real say,but they do nicely deflect folks from the real issues of political decisions and national management scams.

[brothermagrew]

No I quite agree. But bearing in mind where these Queens Councils etc, are coming from you might have to question their motives. Local Dims and lineo's might just be the fall guys,a nice safe issue or big fat red herrings and hang the saps out to dry. Fall and fail guys the lot of them, they've got no real say,but they do nicely deflect folks from the real issues of political decisions and national management scams.

Wouldn't argue with you there brother BELIAL

[norbert]

No I quite agree. But bearing in mind where these Queens Councils etc, are coming from you might have to question their motives. Local Dims and lineo's might just be the fall guys,a nice safe issue or big fat red herrings and hang the saps out to dry. Fall and fail guys the lot of them, they've got no real say,but they do nicely deflect folks from the real issues of political decisions and national management scams.

Wouldn't argue with you there brother BELIAL

the worst of both RM cultures - New Labour's "answer " was DTI Minister Stephen Byers being instrumental in appointing :lfo with his Walmart " trade union avoidance " as the CWU would be a problem if RM had to be split even further - so soften up the CWU and everything will be rosy - typical New Labour trying to " manage" everything with their "public service reforms " - failure seems to be built into them .

I agree with Brother McGrew - you've got a corporate version of the RM command and control - instead of hopelessly out of touch middle management - you've out of control egomaniacs doing Senior Management's bidding - no wonder people say :lfo & :cfo have taken RM backwards

[DGP1]

36. 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.

It seems that they have taken the failures from the MC's and just transfered it to the DO's (I know that our current manager was trained in a MC so it now makes sense why he does what he does ).

[norbert]

36. 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.

It seems that they have taken the failures from the MC's and just transfered it to the DO's (I know that our current manager was trained in a MC so it now makes sense why he does what he does ).

Got it in one - most MC managers tend to have been there since they were cadets - they tend to be very negative , very instuitionalized - just like some of the staff - everything is within a box - there's also "boy's clubs " for the three shifts ( bit like a school bully and his mates - they tend to be glorified playgrounds )
- the shift mangers tend to be the "puppetmasters " - command and control - the managers get weaker as you go up the foodchain as they are completely dominated by Area / Middle Management and L&C of course - so it's a old school RM manager who becomes " Mr Post Office " and parrots off everything from on high .

A lot of them tend to be badly run and thrive on their own corruption - so it's a case of keeping Area away if at all possible . You also have sections which become the older Lino's " little empire " and he'll have a junior manager to be " his bitch " - basically to do all the running about - the more junior manager would have "learnt " the job off the more senior manager - who probably wasn't that good in the first place - the domino effect !

The kindest thing I've heard about a particular Shift Manager was " he'd been all right 20- 30 years ago but he's a simple man , an idiot and a bit thick and these days - you need a bit more upstairs - should never have been promoted " - when things go wrong and RM bring " Troubleshooters " in - this sort is usually the one that gets threatened with the sack and that has an effect down the foodchain "

A lot of the Linos are basically jumped up PHG's - or the lazy , drunken ones too - that's why Sawyer brands them as glorified overseers - with L&C , the half decent ones say they are just glorified key office staff and have to jump to orders barked out by middle management - regardless of the fact they know most of the stuff won't work and why it won't work .

[baldrick]

It used to be that managers came up through the ranks. At least 7-8 years as a postman/woman, then at
least another 3-4 years as a PHG before becoming an Acting PED, then being made substantive after proving
you could do the job. During the Thatcher years in the mid-eighties RM changed the criteria. Anybody who
wanted to could put themselves forward tobecome an Acting Manager. It attracted the Tory supporting
'Essex Man (or Woman)' who thought they were better than others, and relished having a bit of power.
These have now risen to senior positions as the older Managers have retired and are still using their positions
to bully and intimidate, though they have to be a bit more careful how they do it these days.
And they set the tone for the newer ambitious junior managers.

[Tman]

]

It used to be that managers came up through the ranks. At least 7-8 years as a postman/woman, then at
least another 3-4 years as a PHG before becoming an Acting PED, then being made substantive after proving
you could do the job

.

Exactly right, and that's why the postal style of management is the "body watcher" because that's all they know, having seen just the same style when they were posties. They know no different, and still apparently believe that wearing a tie and calling out "tea time" somehow makes them management.

Should anything out of the ordinary occur though, it's headless chicken time.

[Sandyman]

Should anything out of the ordinary occur though, it's headless chicken time.