Member Info for OliGarch

So, we have had Fruitstar and now Redfruit. The only thing left is to say 'goodnight FruitCEO'....lol

Wolves...."do you know the bloke who invented copy and paste died today??"
Did he hit backspace and delete his colon? (apologies, couldn't resist an old MS DOS joke)...lol

Shaunymac, you are absolutely correct, it is certainly not your problem even if there was a conflict of interest. The problem lies in the fact that if their RM workplace is on the same patch as your workplace then you can bet your life that there will always be an RM employee that will spot them. I have lost count of the times that I have spotted a colleague whilst on holiday or at a gig miles from home or at a shopping centre that is not in my hometown.

Shaunymac, RM employees are required to tell the business of any secondary employment as this affects the Working Time Directive. It may not be an issue for you but it will be for them especially if they have driving duties.

DerekR, spot in there. Southampton had an Automatic Letter Facing machine in 1958 which kick started the next generations of letter sorting technology.
Croydon has a Parcel Sorting Machine in 1975. All this technology was resourced and built "in-house" by the R&D department at Swindon but RM stopped investing in our own people in the 1990s and we started to purchase equipment from other manufacturers like AEG and Toshiba. We could have been world leaders in this field but typically of RM the plug was pulled due to a lack of foresight. Tragic really :-(

Shaunymac, I believe that VR is not on the table at the moment as it would be too costly to both the business and the pension fund.

Wolves, I would settle for a one hour reduction with no pay increase as the 2020 "pay deal" any day.

Fruitster, if changes are made to the UK's immigration policy post Brexit (as reported in the news last night) then any postie's that are made redundant will be able to name their price in a host of other professions as there will be a massive labour shortage.

Red, if RB is unable to turn the fortunes of RM around and get it back on track would you support a motion for a change of leadership in 8 months time?

Red, I am aware of the shareholders AGM every October but unless the pension funds and large shareholders have a private forum to discuss this share then I can't see how they can have a massive impact except for the AGM?

Red, surely it is the BoD who call the shots which are then acted upon by the CEO who uses excellent leadership techniques to ensure that the direction of travel is correct?
Therefore neither the union or shareholders call the shots.

Fruitster, as a shareholder, how would you define productivity and performance with regard to RM and how would you like to see it rewarded or penalised? Would you go with individual, unit, area or group targets? Would you have all staff on the same targets etc?

Fruitster, you are correct and that's exactly the point because each unit is dependent upon the others and an under productive unit failing would cause huge issues with the network which would put undue stress on it's neighbouring units. It also follows through that productivity is inter dependant so it would be unfair to penalise one unit for the failings of another unit.
In monetary terms, surely the only true measure of productivity is the bottom line on the finance spreadsheet?

Fruitster, RM have 1,356 delivery offices and 37 mail centres. From an investor point of view, surely by splitting the business down into almost 1,400 small units you could then invest in just the units that were performing well and ignore those who weren't or were highly unionised?
I have to add that I am playing with ideas here and not wholly in agreement with them.

Fruitster, a small friendly family run business sounds great So to play devils advocate what would you make of the idea of splitting RM down into individual business units who would be responsible for their own funding, cash flow, staffing policy etc?

Normal, I believe that having a second job is allowed as long as it is declared and doesn't involve working for a rival. There are a couple of part timers in our office who act as interpreters.

Fruitster, I get why you would put the comment "Why not join another company if things are not good?" but then you are not a RM employee so I wouldn't expect you to understand. Working for RM is quite an institutional experience that has a strange unifying effect on it's employees.
My step father doesn't get it either (he ran a successful central heating company) but my dad gets it (he spent 25 years in the armed forces).
I can't really explain how it works but it is a force that either takes you or it doesn't.

H-hi, I think that there's only room for one dog on this forum........right scampthedog?....lol

Fruitster, I don't know much about student loans but I thought that they only started paying the loan back once their income reached a certain level? Does it really cost £100k? crikey :-(

We have seen several graduates come and go over the last 18 months but only one has stayed and she is very good. The rest were young men who didn't really seem that interested so presumably were just after some work experience for their CV.