Any one got any replies to this new idea, it was accounced today as we had been talking about favourtism within a team, i.e. letting people sit wherever they want whenever they want yet stopping other people from doing it and having an enforced seating plan in place.
To add four people were taken into a room for an informal chat with the shift manager and ended later in the day with manager refusing to manage team and having a go at people.
I have contacted Chris Webb as the person announcing believed he was an acting union rep, something Shift Manager said was untrue.
Last edited by de-coded on 03 Jun 2007, 21:22, edited 1 time in total.
To give you some info MDEC101, on Nights a good while back we had a team jumble up, that was when there were 5 teams in existence.
Whether coincidence or not, this did coincide at a time when there was a fair amount of dissatisfaction from one team's keyers about their WGM.
I believe a decision was made higher up to make a clean break for all WGMs and Keyers to have a new manager, and personally speaking it was a good thing for my team.
Your second point of reference is also something that I have heard to be true as well. At least it is deemed as not an ideal situation.
For the posties out there, I'm sure the idea of working alongside your wives and girlfriends is more than a little unusual, but at our place it is quite commonplace.
In regards to your last points, I think it is seen as upto the WGM to "create" a seating plan in order to maximise efficiency - ie. not talking to your neighbour. As some of us know, this rarely works long term as it often crashes one's morale.
Good luck with challenging some of your team's issues and good call with contacting CW, he'll sort it if all else fails.
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught.
it never fails to amaze me that intelligent people on the mdec think that by splitting people up that they will perform better
it may well be that in the short term it does work but the overall effect it has on keyers has been known to lead to illness and sick leave, which is something that rm does not want
so come on managers treat us lowly paid mdec(er) with a bit of respect thats all we ask
i just wish we could be treated like adults. (i know but i can dream cant i?)
Shouldnt it be up to the couple in question how much time they spend together? if they want to sit together then thats up to them. Personally i like to spend the most part of of my shift away from my boyfriend but i know there are plenty of couples on the shift who have no problems with sitting together. Why should we be told who we have to socialize with? I've seen someone become so unhappy after a manager drew up a seating plan and they were seated next to someone that they had never seen eye to eye with that they had to go off sick.
And as for moving keyers and managers around when there have been complaints, when will they realise all they are doing is moving the problem not solving it.
I'm half of a couple and we've never been split up. In fact we were put in different teams at one point because our hours are different and all we had to do was ask and we were put in the same team the very next day. I'm sure we'd only be split up if we were taking the mick and yapping all the time *whilst* not doing any work. But we both work hard and it makes my day being able to sit next to him. There aren't many places I'd be able to sit next to my husband and chat to him and listen to music with him through 1 iPod whilst getting paid!
When the early shift went from 6 to 4 larger teams, as far as i'm aware, an enforced seating plan came into affect, presumably drawn up by each WGM, apparently couples were to be split up, i don't think it ever happened!!
With the original change, things seemed to be going well. And it wasn't until after xmas when all WGM's had to pass a new board, and the managers all shifted around again, that the problems have started. So i totally agree with the person who asked; when they are going to realise that the periodic changing is the problem? Managers and keyers need to build a relationship, a rapport, get to know each other, rather than this chop and change culture when things go wrong. Almost as if to just walk away!
Some of the decisons just seem to be nothing short of primary school teacher level, humiliating, patronising and demoralizing to the keyer(s) concerened!
However the one issue I do not see anybody grasping is that a MDEC Manager is held accountable for their team - behaviour as well as performance.
Now I have had a gander at this board and while it does state "for all Royal Mail staff and customers" it seems to be that most posts are biased in favour of the Union. I really have no issue with that, being a Union member.
What I do have issues with are off-the-cuff remarks about lack of management ability, harrassment, et cetera.
Seating plans will normally only be considered if there are problems in a team.
For instance on my team there were two little groups of keyers who started yelling at each other in the middle of the operational floor because the group of full time keyers had decided to sit in the part timers seats.
Note, there were plenty of available seats.
So because of the actions and irresponibilities of six people and entire team was then forced to adhere to a seating plan.
Performance will also dictate the relative harshness of a seating plan.
You see, most managers have no qualms with letting keyers sit where they like. If they impose a seating plan then they will normally keep you sat with at least one person you can talk to and get along with. Others have entire groups of friends sat together.
This is all ruined by the idiots who come in, have conversations with their friends that the entire team can hear and at the end of the day fail to achieve 5500 KPH and 80% accuracy.
You talk about demoralisation? Look at that from a coaching point of view.
Yes, the WGC may bring in £6 a day more than a keyer, but sometimes it is not worth the stress caused by the odd one or two. This keeps up for a while it can lead to severe depression. Which is always fun.
Anyway, I digress.
For the most part seating plans that are viewed by most as being overly harsh are normally designed to segregate the problem keyers. Because favouritism is frowned upon that means the same standard has to be applied to everyone on a team.
Anyway, I am bored now and wasting Annual Leave on this website. I am off to drink now.
~ Raise 'em, sink 'em, and lets pour another!
~ The enemy of my enemy dies next.
on the mdec think that by splitting people up that they will perform better