FS Role What a waste of Money

[The BFO]

We are all doomed

And I believe most concur FS role a waste of money.

At least it looks like the FS will be first out the door.

Good riddance.

And good night.

What happened to my plea for some civilised discussion?

But you did make me laugh...

[onlyanother30years]

I am very pleased to amuse you BFO

Back in the day a lift of the leg and resouding Fart would get the same response

Sadly now you be sacked on the spot for touching cloth

[FinancialSpecialist]

Our FS said in a nutshell that if you are doing your 11 sales a week then you will be better off.
If not, then because the £1000 automatic payment has stopped, then you wont.

I think.

Oh, and they will only get half of the sales incentive scheme payout.

Did you go FinancialSpecialist? Do you concur?

As far as I understand it the £1000 automated payment has been consolidated into basic pay, but the next two levels of this payment have been taken away. FS will now receive 50% of the branch bonus - upon doing a calculation on what I would receive for Q1, I would have been better off under the old scheme and our branch bonus. It is frustrating as in the branch that I am in now, I have been really pushing the branch bonus as some on the counter kept coming out with "It's great until about a week before it is paid, then it disappears". I have been printing it out each week and discussing it in WTL's and we have over £300 due, now I am only getting £150 of it, plus less than £150 of a commission payment.

To be honest, I don't know of a situation when an FS could earn more than they could before and we have more compliance to deal with, with red, amber and green ratings provided on a monthly basis. They seem fairly easy to achieve though, e.g fewer than 11% cancellations in the quarter and no justified complaints against FS.

I think they should have given us a bit more notice of this deal. They have been discussing it for ages now and the information they have given us about it is inadequate. I was really hoping that the new commission structure would bring the FS target more in line with the branch target - it is a step forward that the income factors are now the same as for the branch, but I think that more should be done to bridge the gap. This forum clearly displays a gap between FS and counter colleagues which shouldn't exist and it would have been nice to see the bonus changing this.

It also isn't fair that they didn't let us know that FS are now concerned only with business income as all that work that we did for car insurance sales, instead of being worth £10 to us are now worth £2.58.

Another few years of this and maybe I will be on the other side ;)

[Blue8]

Welcome to the worl of the Post Office maybe you'll start to understand why we are always moaning!!!!

[The BFO]

upon doing a calculation on what I would receive for Q1, I would have been better off under the old scheme
To be honest, I don't know of a situation when an FS could earn more than they could before and we have more compliance to deal with, with red, amber and green ratings provided on a monthly basis
Another few years of this and maybe I will be on the other side ;)

Do you think there are any grounds for my suspicion that this scheme is a method of encouraging the less effective Financial Specialists to leave?
Or am I merely displaying my sceptical tendencies once more?

[Another Spartacus]

We're fooked

[FinancialSpecialist]

Do you think there are any grounds for my suspicion that this scheme is a method of encouraging the less effective Financial Specialists to leave?
Or am I merely displaying my sceptical tendencies once more?

As far as I see it, the very good Financial Specialists are more likely to be miffed by it? The proof will come out soon when we see how much is paid I guess, I wish they had given more examples of how much this commission would equate to, before we were asked to decide on it.

It seems to be that there is a lot of pressure on for performance management procedures and it is my own feelings that some are bound to be made an example of soon. I don't think they are going to make many much worse off, I think it will be the top hitters who will suffer most. I am not quite sure I understand the new commission structure fully though.

In the old scenario, in most branches it is quite hard to hit branch gateway each and every quarter and a lot of this lies outside of the FS's control - it is possible to be hitting your own target and in fact doing very well but still achieve no bonus. This would be eradicated by the new structure and would mean that this would be fairer. I am by no means saying that it is fairer to everyone in the branch, but certainly it is fairer where the FS is concerned. However, where there is a branch that is not hitting branch gateway, it is also likely that the FS will also be struggling for any number of possible reasons, so it could also be a hindrance.

I am going to take a look at a selection of the top FS in the UK tomorrow on the BOI figures and see based on week 11 what they would be making in commission alone, I am pretty sure that when looked at over a yearly context, that it would be less than they would have been receiving ordinarily.

[billyhayes]

Our FS and I worked out that there will be very few who are better off on this deal. Apparently there are emails flying around in all directions saying how bad it is.
Thing is, its been okayed by the executive committee of the union and it's now down to the FS CWU membership to vote NO on the ballot.

Although the amount of FS's in the union are low enough for POL to call victory early on this one.

Looking at the numbers, according to the CWU territorial recruiters it is external entrants that are more difficult to persuade to sign up.

They come from a background where there is no trade union and the unique type of brainwashing that goes on in the FS schools makes them think they are better off out.

Will be interesting to see what the turnout is on the ballot.

[FinancialSpecialist]

Every FS I know is a member of the CWU, I assumed that most were :/

I don't think the turnout will be too high regardless as most people feel a bit powerless as the general consensus is that the decision has already been made. There is also the question of what good voting no would do anyway - the union back the decision and the other staff members don't care, it will certainly not ever result in strike action.

The emails that were floating around were very annoying. There were as many emails back from disgruntled branch managers requesting that people stop sending them to everyone and I don't think this sort of public slagging match will help any of the individuals involved. There was some constructive stuff in there, but a lot of it was rambling and as confused as what has been communicated to us about the scheme. It is also ludicrous that they have changed the income factors and targets at the end of the first quarter - how were we supposed to try to achieve a target when we didn't know what it was or what the income factors were?

I presume that there are a lot on here who are glad to see the FS getting a crap deal, but I hope not too many, as more than anything else it shows that we are all in the same boat.

[billyhayes]

The good in getting a majority NO would be that the union would have to go back to the table and renegotiate a better deal... that would be the point... that is what they are paid to do.

When you say "the other staff members don't care" to who are you referring?
Only FS members will be balloted.

Your bang on about no strike action though.
The FSs would never walk to the gate alone if they were called.

But IF, by some quirk of fate and the planets all came into alignment, our FS ever did then I would stand by them in unofficial IA.
I would hope others would not cross their picket lines either.
THAT is the only shred we have left.
Defiance.

[FinancialSpecialist]

I'm not banging on about strike action - I just doubt the impact that the current ballot will have. I can't see POL being too upset about a no vote as under the current scheme very few FS earn commission anyway and under the new scheme the same. I can't imagine that they are too bothered tbh.

It has taken them god knows how long to come up with this scheme so I am not entirely filled with confidence that they could negotiate another any time soon, which would leave us with no bonus at all.

I know that only FS are being balloted. I don't feel that they would be too well supported by other staff for vigorously opposing the scheme as for some reason the general consensus amongst most here is that FS are overpaid and underworked as it is.

I have voted no and will see how far it gets me, but I won't hold my breath.

[billyhayes]

By bang on, I meant spot on, correct etc

Tis strange that you acquiesce to defeat already.

Goodness, don't you sound like the negative one now...

[FinancialSpecialist]

I have nothing against a rant, I just think it should be constructive.

Ultimately it won't make any difference to how I do my job, we are still being targeted on income and the commission structure before was crap anyway so it makes no great shakes tbh. I do think that if the purpose is to incentivise the top FSs thought, then they should come up with something better.

[onlyanother30years]

If our FS went on strike then I doubt I would be able to tell the difference to a normal "working week"

Never in office either on courses, or just popped out for fag.

[billyhayes]

If our FS went on strike then I doubt I would be able to tell the difference to a normal "working week"

Never in office either on courses, or just popped out for fag.

Well, there is that as well.