Richard Barker Departs

[billyhayes]

I feel my work here is done.

I didn't want this thread turning into a 'farewell card' for Dickie-boy.

So I hijacked it with one of my famous rants.

But just back to the plot for a moment... Try not to see these comments about FSs directly about you FinancialSpecialist.
By your own reckoning you are different.
Fair enough.

B U T..... The majority of FS's in post today, (which means 51% or more), are exactly as described by others here. Hiding away letting the work come to them rather than taking the bull by the horns, then pissing and moaning to the manager that the counter did not generate enough referrals this week therefore they didn't meet their weekly target. Do you see the pattern here? It always seems to be someone elses fault. Just as we blame management, FS's blame the clerks....

[Super]

Just a reminder that the current VR terms could change-how do you know the MTSF agreement will still exist come this apparent magical March 2012 date. There is nothing to say that after 25 years or however long you will get anything other than statutory redundancy. Not saying I hope this happens obviously but it could.....

[TrueBlueTerrier]

No matter what anyone says, I will never see it as a god given right that just because you have worked for 25 years that you should just be paid off to get rid of you. That is completely ludicrous.

"
Blimey - it's the love child of Maggie and William Hague. "They are no use any more so throw them on the scrap heap approach. "

Joking aside, the statement I quoted above is frightening from a obviously well-educated and informed person. Redundancy payments are not a "god" given right (leaving aside the argument whether there is a Deity) the are both a Legal right and more importantly, in my opinion, a right that forms part of the changes over the last 25 years that you so wholeheartedly endorse. Just as you say that people should work hard and not just coast towards retirement/vr, because the job has changed, surely that applies to all agreements that have come in existence during that time.

[fishtank]

More than anything Redundancy Payments are a protection from an unscrupulous employer simply getting rid of people they just don't like,or are the wrong demographic or don't fit the current fad or business model....i don't think FinancialSpecialists would be immune to that either....especially with the number of ex-banking sector staff twiddling their thumbs on the dole.

After all how can you sell Financial Services to people with no job or income security?

[Super]

That's correct - everyone is entitled to a redundancy payment of some sorts under Employment Law. What is not a given is the amount-the enhanced terms for example are not a given. Just look at how the terms have been eroded already-particularly to CMA terms.

[obiwanknobe]

Mmm - a financial specialist joins the post office - now there's a thought!

[FinancialSpecialist]

I am all for redundancy and see its importance. I don't think that many of those on countdown are what it is there for, it is there to protect employees. When used in this sense it is all well and good, not when it is being aimed for instead of working until retirement - these are two very different things.

If your father had a business and you found out that a long term employee of his was just coasting by after years of working alongside him. Your father couldn't afford to pay him off but couldn't afford to keep the business going at that rate. What way would you feel about that employee? Would you have anything to say in their support?

I am not comparing POL to a family member lol, I just wanted to see whether you think it is truly morally right or wrong. It's very easy to say it's a big corporation and that others have done it before, but for myself I would prefer to get out when I was so miserable rather than mess things up for others and spread doom and gloom when I was in work.

If FS are ineffective that should be tackled. If counter counter staff are ineffective that should be tackled. If managers are ineffective that should be tackled. Of course everyone can blame someone else but proper management should be able to assess this.

[billyhayes]

...proper management should be able to assess this.

Still waiting...

[onlyanother30years]

Billy
"thanks for waiting"

[FinancialSpecialist]

I have noticed a trend on here that if you say everything is crap, the management are all crap and targets are all unachievable, that this is known as "speaking out". However, if someone disagrees with any of this, then they have the wrong idea and are conformist. My airing a different viewpoint on here is not conformist, I would just keep it for my office otherwise.

There doesn't seem to be any way to have a constructive debate without some resorting to name calling or misrepresenting my words.

For example, TrueBlueTerrier, I certainly didn't say "They are no use any more so throw them on the scrap heap". I said that there exists a particular type of person in most offices who don't want their job anymore because they think they have dedicated themselves to the business long enough. There may have been recent decisions they didn't agree with, so they feel justified to themselves in doing nothing and openly say that they would love for their office to close so they could get VR... they should go now. There is no room in any business for people who don't even make an effort to do their job and in fact feel like they are right to do so and just let others carry them, or not.

No one in their right mind would support this concept, however many people are actively doing it and convincing themselves that because they have been "so hard done by", that this is the only option. I reiterate, that the way I would deal with this would be to get another job and save myself the pain and humiliation of this method. It is not fair that you give up and just wait for yourself to be thrown on the "scrapheap" as you put it. You are, in effect, consigning yourself to it years before the act and simply going through the motions of work.

[PO1]

I said that there exists a particular type of person in most offices who don't want their job anymore because they think they have dedicated themselves to the business long enough. There may have been recent decisions they didn't agree with, so they feel justified to themselves in doing nothing and openly say that they would love for their office to close so they could get VR... they should go now. There is no room in any business for people who don't even make an effort to do their job and in fact feel like they are right to do so and just let others carry them, or not.

So you think that anyone who's grafted hard for decades helping to build the trusted brand that is the Post Office should now, when after succesive governments have tried and this one looks like achieving the closure of the Crown Office network, walk away just when the prospect of VR is virtual certainty. Are you for real? At the figures that are still in place it's £40k nearly for a lot like me. Walk away with nothing! I don't think so!

I started in this business in 1982 when everything you did was all done in your head. No computers in them days to add things up for you and if anyone thinks they have a queue now we never used to see the windows till 5:30 in those days.

Doing nothing! I serve the queue, I talk to the customers, I'll ask them time and time again do they want life insurance etc. and every day it's the same dreary answer. They are just not interested in our office in anything you try to pitch at them. We are a former very busy benefits office who, as I said earlier thanks to succesive governments, is now dying on it's feet.

So please, don't even attempt to lecture the likes of me as to the REAL problems in the Post Office. I've been there, got the T-shirt. And yes, when the time comes, I will go quietly. But hopefully with enough to help me sort out the rest of my life because believe me, we're all on borrowed time at the moment, the shutters will be coming down permanently pretty soon.

[BELIAL]

I am all for redundancy and see its importance.

Your words , i'll leave it at that, no need to expand

[FinancialSpecialist]

PO1 I am not referring to you from your description. I am referring to the ones who I described - from what you said, you are doing your job, therefore that is all anyone could ever ask of you.

I am referring to those who don't do a pick and expect redundancy, you must have seen this type about? I thought I made this quite clear in my description - I am in no way having a go at all counter staff or the necessity for voluntary redundancy, please do not misread this. I know as an FS that I rely largely on the help of the counter and I am sincerely grateful and appreciative of this. I am talking about one particular type of clerk - again my words have been misrepresented.

[The BFO]

PO1 I am not referring to you from your description. I am referring to the ones who I described - from what you said, you are doing your job, therefore that is all anyone could ever ask of you.

I am referring to those who don't do a pick and expect redundancy, you must have seen this type about? I thought I made this quite clear in my description - I am in no way having a go at all counter staff or the necessity for voluntary redundancy, please do not misread this. I know as an FS that I rely largely on the help of the counter and I am sincerely grateful and appreciative of this. I am talking about one particular type of clerk - again my words have been misrepresented.

‘FinancialSpecialist’ has a point, and is correct, they do exist. What he is less emphatic about is how many of us work hard, and try our best to sell things to people they do not want, whilst being hampered by inept management on a large scale.

[PO1]

‘FinancialSpecialist’ has a point, and is correct, they do exist. What he is less emphatic about is how many of us work hard, and try our best to sell things to people they do not want, whilst being hampered by inept management on a large scale.

It's the same in most offices