Fewer but better paid managers?

[SierraOscarBravo]

If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. So the thinking goes.

If or rather when there is a nationwide culling of management across Royal Mail, should the aim be to have better paid and exceptionally qualified managers with wider responsibilities than at present?

[Interested-seeker]

If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. So the thinking goes.

If or rather when there is a nationwide culling of management across Royal Mail, should the aim be to have better paid and exceptionally qualified managers with wider responsibilities than at present?

What would you class as exceptionally qualified?

Personally, I think the most qualified people would be someone who has firsthand knowledge/experience of the company, has good interpersonal skills, conscientious, and is forward thinking.

I never agree with the culling of jobs. Understaffing is already an issue within the OPG grade. To have managers doing the work of three people (taking on wider responsibilities as you stated) would be a disaster...nothing would be done to a high standard despite how big the salary.

[clashcityrocker]

I thought this is what they were doing with the removal of the DSM role?

[rubberbond]

They're well paid already. Fewer of them would be just fine , if the company actually staffed the job properly,everybody's life would be better.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

There may be some benefit to having the PHG role redefined and reintroduced and this would tend to reduce the need for managers.

However, it's not the dedication, experience, work ethic or remuneration that needs changing. Pure and simple all they need to do is have some kind of formal training for managers in such mundane subjects as employment law, H&S responsibilities and people skills.

If they improve the training, they'll get better leaders, better managers, a more and happier productive workforce and best of all a company that in my opinion would go from strength to strength.

I am afraid 1-day courses just don't teach the skills required to have a good managerial structure capable of supporting the board and the day to day operation. You need a more formal classroom approach, and a system to ensure the skills are taken in, with real mentoring in operational roles before managers are released into the real world. Learning on the job can work in some roles and companies, but not in one such as Royal Mail which is by its very nature both geographically dispersed and labour intensive.

[datasaint]

You could put Richard Branson in a delivery office, it would still run at the same as before. Although the number of Virgin Media d2ds would sky-rocket.

[teesdale]

Shadowing has never seemed to work. The wrong mentor can just produce another clone from someone who was originally ok when they started. Classroom teaching with role plays and presentations would be a better way to start before any work experience. Very few managers I have ever seen were good communicators with the people listening to them out matching them in every way. Unfortunately having all graduate managers would not improve the problem, it's the personality of the candidate that matters not their qualifications. Don't they have something where you have to have one manager for every 20 postmen, although you can even get 1 to 7 at Bristol Mail Centre. I don't think any thing will change they do not have the ability, the company will just get smaller as DPD and FedEx get bigger.

[walkthewalk]

My expeience of the current manager role is you have 6 months in the job on a 24 hour p/t contract elevated to 39 hr contact not knowing diddly squat about the job apart from the DOM telling them that there is not enough mail on today so the posties must take the lapsing #w@nkers

[ewancurze]

I think I understand the business...but my interpersonal skills are crap
No...really crap.
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Should I apply???
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Being a bit unfair here,my Lino ain't bad.

[rubberbond]

[quote="TrueBlueTerrier"]There may be some benefit to having the PHG role redefined and reintroduced and this would tend to reduce the need for managers.

However, it's not the dedication, experience, work ethic or remuneration that needs changing. Pure and simple all they need to do is have some kind of formal training for managers in such mundane subjects as employment law, H&S responsibilities and people skills.

If they improve the training, they'll get better leaders, better managers, a more and happier productive workforce and best of all a company that in my opinion would go from strength to strength.

They are trained in such subjects, or at least some of them,man management you cannot teach. It's partly the training that's at fault,but the other part of the problem is too many managers have been here too long and are impervious to change thinking that bullying and shouting st people is all they need to do. The bullying culture is endemic in this business and the current senior management and board members ,are incapable of leading and inspiring people, thats why we are heading for a dispute,but of course a fish rots from the head. It will never change,it never has.

[clashcityrocker]

a fish rots from the head. It will never change,it never has.

Of course, the proverb isn't a lesson in piscine biology. The phrase appears to have been used in Turkey in a metaphorical rather than literal sense from the outset. That's just as well as, in reality, it is the guts of fish that rot and stink before the head.

[Lounge Lizard]

Clash,
Not just fish but all of us.
It's the bacteria in our guts that start our decomposition as soon as we're dead.

[Brandy]

Managers would be better if they knew the job inside out,knew how to motivate their staff to get the best out of them,treat them with repect,not have favourites that get all they want regardless,not get nasty and take it out on staff when things dont go their way. You dont need better paid managers just managers that are firm but fair and have good people skills.Its a shame that RM seem to think its best to have a heavy handed approach. Most posties are a hard working bunch and its about time they were appreciated.

[postslippete]

RM do want fewer mangers because there isn't really much admin work that they should be doing

But the managers they want, they want them to act like supervisors who ensure that all the duties get delivered and are often out there doing delivery work as necessary.

[pinstripe]

[

To have managers doing the work of three people (taking on wider responsibilities as you stated)

They already do the work of 3 people...Curly, Larry and Mo.