what are RM manager looking for in their managers.

[Straight4ward]

Our manager is brilliant!
He shares his thoughts with us and listens to our concerns. He respects our opinions and works with us to ensure a successful, contented and productive workforce.

(Nurse, give us some more of those bleedin' pills, will you?)

[blue1873]

In all the years i have worked at RM...i have never come across a good manager....yet in the construction trade i came across good managers all the time..who respected work 'mates',mucked in,looked after their work force,trusted staff,and gave them the tools to do their jobs....all RM managers (and i use that term loosely)...is put obstacles in front of staff and make their lives a misery..all in the name of profit/budget...sod customers and staff is what they are about....to be honest...we do not need managers in any office....they are an hindrance ....the business and the people who count(workers) could do a better job than what is being accomplished now!

"Postypie" sounds like you work in my office,like yourself i have worked elsewhere where Managers are Managers
and not the jobsworth cretins RM favour,how many of them have left or could leave as a RM manager and go
straight into a Management position in a private company, one in ten.....one in twenty....one in.......?

[DirtyHarry]

hi. just wondering what does rm look for in new managers. as there are managers in my workplace who have no indeal how to manager but seems to manage to pass interview.

Well, it certainly isn't intellect, common sense, honesty, or any other decent attribute. The degree in moronics seems to be enough.

[Stella102]

they look to see if your an aggressive coffee drinking fat oaf - if you are then you got the job

[DirtyHarry]

Perhaps the real question is not what are they looking for, but what are they not looking for.

There seems to be the same old distrust you find in most industries between the managers with tons of Royal Mail experience but no formal managerial training and the professional managers who come in from outside with a CV full of qualifications who wouldn't know a York from a CSS machine.
If they had any sense they would realise that they could learn a great deal from each other but they don't mix unless they have to and constantly bitch about each other weaknesses.
It's a very childish company to work for from the shop floor right up to the boardroom.

How very true, fishtank.

[TheCobra]

they look to see if your an aggressive coffee drinking fat oaf - if you are then you got the job

So true, I guess as it's such a male-dominated environment they are looking for strong characters who can manage a load of blokes. It's not like being a manager in certain other types of company is it - the Mailroom is a unique environment I suppose and I guess that's why the big oaf bully types seem to do well and get promotions. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just trying to think of a reason why so many managers are of this type.

[chunk]

my two pence worth..
if you look at whats happening in other professions like policing where a system of targets need to be met.
officer clocks 50 street cannabis busts because thats quicker than kicking down the doors 50 crack houses.
policing can not be said to be improved.

back to rm where your manager is pressured to meet targets . Reductions in man hours and overtime.which basically means absorption.
Result lip service to health and safety, quality of service and respect in the workplace.

No place in rm for a manager who doesnt want to play this game.

[Lincox]

Tiny Ears

So they hear nothing, do nothing, manage nothing, but great at taking orders to bully, harass, disregard national agreements, all in the name of staff reduction by way of dismissal, rather than Royal Mail reducing staff by compulsory means and having to pay out under MTSF arrangements. Get real CWU. You have brought this about by having a no compulsory redundancy agreement.

[SpacePhoenix]

Give it long enough and RM will probably make all line managers into "Team Leaders". Line managers seem to be doing a postmans work so often now that they may as well be made Team Leaders now. There would probably be just the shift manager or DOM (depending on the office type), though it wouldn't surprise me if they were made "Advanced Team Leaders" with just a small increase on the Team Leader supplement for doing all the paperwork.

[BettySwollocks]

I've always said that to be a gaffer in RM, u will only survive and keep your sanity if you are a complete and utter heartless c**t, and don't care for the employees you are paid to look after,
You have senior management on one side who are always turning the screw, trying to trim down budgets and improve efficiency,
and on the other side, this baying mob !! US !

what chance has a nice person with morals got in that environment ?

the first manager i had when i started, Brian, i'll never forget the guy for as long as i live, my mother passed away within 2 months of me starting the job,
he took the time to go to the funeral
most managers nowadays would be ringing your mobile as you were throwing some gravel on the coffin asking if you could come in on "light duties".

[Budfrog]

Clones who follow RMs key capabilities and recite them every night before they go to bed ....

I am not going to tar every ‘manager’ with the same brush however there is something very unhealthy about the standard of these people and little is being done to improve matters. There is a climate of fear/mistrust and this promotes bullying and harassment with these types of behaviours being role modelled. Behaviours such as these and are now deeply ingrained in the structure with a PDR system that penalises those who demonstrate correct and fair management styles.

When we talk about managers within RM we are really talking about those on managerial grades (ML/MS/SB) however this label is quite inaccurate. Most junior MLs are supervisors at best as they have little responsibility for anything more than basic man management and are restricted in the decisions they can make by their superiors or RM guidelines. Most MSs (Planners etc) are not managers at all and are only given this tag due to grading, the same for many SBs.

The recruitment of managers (from outside and within) also is quite divisive with many graduates being treated as a special group over and above their equally capable RM recruited counterparts. There is some truth in the tendency for lazy OPGs to make successful managers as they know all the angles and use this knowledge to their own benefit.

A full review of management recruitment and structure is needed and those in post need re-assessing. Above all RM needs to adopt a zero tolerance of B&H and employ managers/supervisors who are capable of working with their staff and listening to their concerns. Working as one team may come in the future but it needs a business that is fair to all grades and affords everyone dignity and respect .

[Lincox]

Dignity and respect comes right from the top. How can you respect a CE who loads her bank account at the expense of the manual workers. Yes, I know she has a contract and is doing nothing illegal, but morally?

[newtimes]

http://www.simplypsychology.org/obedience.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
someone who will follow orders.

[LinChong]

Craig Zobel's film "Compliance" is based on actual incidents that happened at least 70 times over a 10-year period across different parts of the US.

A man would call fast-food restaurants saying he was a police officer and convince the restaurant’s manager to aid in catching an employee who had stolen from a customer. The caller would lead the manager down a series of events where the employee – usually a teenage girl – was held captive in the back of the store while ‘under suspicion’, often culminating in the teen being strip searched naked, spanked, and in many cases eventually coerced into sexual assault situations. The actual episodes usually lasted for up to four of five hours. Upon discovering it was a hoax, the victim and other restaurant employees would be shattered.

The real police officers investigating one of the cases tracked calling cards back to a security guard hundreds of miles away in a different state. In his apartment they found police equipment, applications for police academies, and a collection of phone calling cards linked to dozens of similar hoax phone calls throughout the country. The suspected caller was brought to trial in that case, but was found not guilty and was not convicted.

After this case went to court, there have been no further calls. In a separate civil suit connected to that same case, the victim partnered with the restaurant manager and shift supervisor to successfully sue the restaurant’s international corporation for failing to protect her. Similar – though less severe – hoaxes had been perpetrated at other of the corporation’s restaurants throughout the country, and the lawsuit cited that they didn’t sufficiently warn the employees of the threat. The manager and supervisor were awarded their legal fees paid, and the victim was awarded millions of dollars in damages.

This is the real incident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFXeXK3szOk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lazycarton]

Seems to me these days (and not only at RM) that if the work force are unhappy, miserable and ignored that managment have done their job and are in line for a bonus. Whatever happened to the promotion of staff morale.