Working for British Gas these days

[mickyg]

Mickey do you class a £688 million turn over and a £112 profit dismal

Your missing the important factor. 112million looks pretty, actually better than the 80million when I was there, so somethings working. The point is the investement required and the scale of the operation to make that profit, makes it a drop in the ocean. From an accountants point of view it looks like a risk investment, whether it is or not is another matter.

 

[namsag]

not missing anything , that is how management try and frighten employees it accounts for around 12 percent of overall profits and also has a large affect on a further 30 percent.
Dont under estimate how important the service side is to them why else have they never got rid of it even when it was making peanuts

 

[mickyg]

that is how management try and frighten employees

its not about frightening people, its common knowledge amongst anyone in the company, the city or wherever. The same reason why no one wants to buy it, even Mr Branson turned his nose up after sniffing around for a bit.
I'm not even saying its an issue as, as I pointed out before and what your hinting at as well is that its a marketing machine for residential, but if at any time they feel its devalued far enough to not be useful, they'll drop it like a stone.

 

[gas_man_gaz]

could anyone summarize the changes made to the way they measure productivity please? ant had that briefing and dont think i'll be having it soon

as for losing standby, has anyone still got the q & a sheet from the pay ballot briefing? makes interesting reading regarding the use of roster engineers and time choice appointment

 

[nickso]

could anyone summarize the changes made to the way they measure productivity please?

yeh i can do that.

same ****, different calculation.

makes interesting reading regarding the use of roster engineers and time choice appointment

in what way?

 

[gas_man_gaz]

lol i'll wait to they eventually drag me in then

it says that time choice appointments on a sat or after 5pm weekdays will only be covered by overtime/radicals not the rostered or standby engineer.
i've given a copy to my union bloke but bob all will get done, i might go on a 1man protest

do ya want me to try and upload a copy of the q&a sheet?

 

[nickso]

hmm, interesting. i never went to the brief so never got anything like that to read.

might have to pull that one out of the bag when required. i love to fukcing up a dispatchers day.

 

[Mike2007]

As I started the thread I should add something to the end of it.
BG seem to be fairly poor by what has been said, slavedrivers in a word. Paying modest wages for high productivity!
Unfortunately round here in Cumbria, work is like rocking horse s*it. The last thing I would ever want is see My House being sold for pittance due to me defaulting on my mortgage due to unemployment.
My son deserves his inheritance and I would cope with being a BG slave for that reason only.
I personally think its better to be paid than proud!

 

[nickso]

if you have never worked for them you may not find it that bad, especially the sparks side as it seems to be a little bit more laid back over there, dont think you do that many weekends or out of hours stuff either so that will make a difference.

the main moaners are the ones who remember the good old days of doing next to bugger all for 5 hours a day.

 

[gas_man_gaz]

i dont actually find it that bad!

 

[Mike2007]

if you have never worked for them you may not find it that bad, especially the sparks side as it seems to be a little bit more laid back over there, dont think you do that many weekends or out of hours stuff either so that will make a difference.

the main moaners are the ones who remember the good old days of doing next to b*****r all for 5 hours a day.

If there are laid back well paid jobs out there today, they will be running out very soon. High unemployment and few jobs is unitised by companies to screw their workforce down, brow beat them etc.
I have met proud people on the dole, " I am not doing that for that pay because I am better than that" type of thing.
If I am a begger, I am not a chooser (unfortunately).

 

[nickso]

i said a little more laid back, its still going to be an arsehole some days.

 

[nickso]

i dont actually find it that bad!

neither do i but compared to what i was doing for BG when i started its certainly worse. cant wait to see how bad this winter is going to be.

 

[JUGGERNUT]

Accountants running companies will always look for ways to "be more efficient".
Bottom line of that is invariably: you either do the same work with fewer people so you can sack them, or you do the same work with the same amount of people, but find ways to pay them less.
Two ways of doing that: you trim at the top, or you trim at the bottom.

hit the nail on the head benga
scumbags everywhere.
scottish and southern energy hydro have just shat all over their engineers.
they are run by sales people who are slimey *******s.
they sent out letters to all engineers telling them to either sign new contracts accepting new shift patterns or they would be sacked. 36 hours in summer with 44 to be worked in winter with a weekend to be worked once a month with the option of forcing you to work 2 in a month. no consultation just straight forward threatining behaviour.
the new shifts mean that engineers are required to work late shifts up to 8pm which means a stop to most overtime. with most emergencys after this point being booked in for the next day unless water leak.
so now the on call money has been cut by £50.
sales leads commission has been cut in half. everyone in the company was given a 4% pay rise apart from the engineers instead they have introduced performance related pay for the engineers based on the amount of sales/remedial work you generate in a 3 month period. the top amount which is unachievable. now after these bully boy tacticts the engineers from the fear of losing their jobs signed the contracts. now bear in mind the preformance related pay was started before we even knew about the new contracts. so when guys were awarded bonuses based on there performance, the guys who took a few weeks to sign their contracts were docked a precentage of their bonuses because they never signed straight away.
and it gets better if at the first visit chargeable work is required the engineer is to first give the customer a full quote then if that is refused we then have to offer a discount then if that is refused we can then exclude parts from the contract if this is then refused they then send a lead engineer out to try and convince the customer. the moves by sse management have demorolised the workforce, sales men who have never been on the tools making decisions for engineers.
you think that after all the bad press of dodgy salesmen they would have learnt but instead put one of the drippy cants in charge of the whole gas side to try n make a profit so i had enough and left.

 

[namsag]

Around 29k for a pi55 easy job i would not class that as a modest wages.