Debbi wrote: People may wish to ask some difficult questions regarding the current BW restructure and why instead of getting rid of "100 managers" the people who are going are mainly front line workers such as mooring staff, customer services, engineers, project managers etc. Also what has been the effect of the restructure on staff moral and productivity? What is all of this going to mean for customers? What service improvements will this restructure provide for boaters?
In my opinion BW has been a lost cause for ages (although we shouldn't give up trying to sort it). The morale of the hard pressed ground staff has appeared (and probably rightly so) to be down for years. I certainly know of one highly respected and, hitherto, totally loyal employee who told me ages ago that he was just waiting to retire and it couldn't come soon enough. The restructuring just seems like another of today's techniques for those in power; let's have another restructure because then it looks as though we doing something. The idea that there will be any improvement for the 'customers' is far fetched and illusory but restructuring will allow an achievable target against which the payout of bonuses for the senior execs can be justified. Any comparison to the situation with MG Rover and the Phoenix four is purely coincidental. In my opinion it's a downhill slope from now on for some considerable period of time. Let's hope that the bottom of the slope is not so deep that the system is irrecoverable in many places but I'm not holding my breath. Roger
