Why are there so many managers?

[fishtank]

1 to 10 is about the norm in business but that's an overall figure which includes non-operational managers,HR,Health&Safety,finance,senior management etc.

Frontline management ratio should be around 1 to 25 if you include line manager as a management role which Royal Mail do for some reason but most other businesses would just call a supervisor or team leader.
If there is savings to be made in Royal Mail management it's at line manager level which is far too highly paid for the level of responsibility and qualifications required.
Private companies don't even pay their graduates what a Royal Mail line manager without a qualification to his name can make.
I think there are around 15,000 "managers" in Royal Mail as a whole.

[dvbuk55]

I think from various conversations that they are more than aware how precarious their role would be in a privatised Royal Mail, I don't think it's our place to persuade any differently. The strange thing is that 3 of the acting managers from our office, over a fairly long period of time, have just been made substantive