British Gas trainees and wages

[wilhelm]

enlighten us all wobbin. i do a search of hestia and come up with this errrrrrrrr. shy te

why do management like project names associated with gods?

sad muppets..

 

[nickso]

i found it strange that hestia, or hernia as its more commonly known, was devised by arse number 1 ( dave whatshisface), he was verbally kicked to death by the new managing director (is it mark whatshisface?) for inventing it. the managing director then continues on as if nothing has happened and fully supports hernia forever more.

gasaid.....you may remember that idiot new director coming round and meeting all of his staff and "answering questions". he certainly didnt answer any of mine cos i ripped him to pieces. ex SAS supposedly!!, probably got all his guys killed.

i still think with guys like him in charge BG is going to sell, we are better off out of it.

 

[scatmanjohn]

Harrogate Gas wrote:

BG home services is not a viable business. It will fold soon

You don't really believe that do you?

I just looked at their figures for 2005

Turnover over £1 billion.

Operating Profit £111 million.

 

[wobbin]

Well, if i recall correctly Hestia was supposed to be the Goddess of Kith and Kin or something like that.

Lord knows how it got chosen. Interesting comment at the start of ths thread.... is it really that bad ?

For those that don't know, the project was all about rolling out updated communications along with a phone/pda device with associated gps tracking in order to streamline the job allocation processes.

Happening everywhere these days !

 

[bster]

This sounds like what you are all talking about..


From..http://www.britishgasacademy.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=75

What next in the dynamic future of British Gas?
British Gas is still in the development stages of a new job allocation system, the dynamic scheduler, as well as a GPS-based (Global Positioning System) route guidance system, which will:
Allow engineers to be matched to jobs more effectively
Help deliver better forecasting on things that affect workload
Plan work more efficiently
Enable customer advisers to offer a choice of appointments
Help engineers find customers' premises quicker.

 

[namsag]

Yep must work a treat ,currently in midlands/east anglia all patches have move down one to help the southern softies with these horrendous winter temps in double figures Have a mate who travels 60+ mile each morning to start work in another patch. Excellent use of resources. And from what i hear red alert payments going through roof

 

[pannierstan]

I just looked at their figures for 2005

Turnover over £1 billion.

Operating Profit £111 million.

Yes but that is NOT the engineer side or service and repair arm you know

£111 Million profit comes from sale of gas and all sorts of things.
What HarrogateGas is saying is true in that sooner or later there will be no engineers left to do the work. They are already totally shafted and we havent had ANY cold weather and they still cannot cope.

 

[Agile]

BG are managing the repairs quite OK in the London area at the moment.

If they dont I immedately get lots of calls saying "we have a BG contract but they cant come for three days and we have babies/grandma/party and need it fixed today!

Tony

 

[Paul Barker]

Me too, no such calls, last year plenty.

Moreover far fewer calls alltogether, yet new plumbing van in area every day, new advertiser in paper every week.

went to hull last week to get part in hurry, apprentuce commented every tradesmans van we passed was plumber.

Recent estimate, she seemed to have called >5 of us. No I didn't get it. Two ofbthe estimates were from company guys doing govvy's. She couldn't see a problem, even though I warned her they aren't insured, can't gwn, (and she is fitting ch so it will sell quickly) and in any case they are expensive.

 

[Paul Barker]

If I start up national pat testing scheme who's going to come on board?

 

[nickso]

namsag.....moving people happened alot before. i regularly used to volunteer for a week or two away in another patch. from what ive heard its getting worse though.
im not surprised either....they lost a record amount of engs last year hence red alert pay incresaing cos they dont have the cover anymore.

stan....the servicing wing still made a massive profit last year and high level managers still swear its the most important part of the business for generating more business.

 

[BoxBasher]

Whats RedAlert pay?


Just for a non-BG person reading.

 

[nickso]

red alert is a fixed payment for getting out of bed on a day off and possible overtime rates as well just depending on what day fo the year it is.

usually used around christmas and new year when you can expect £100 fixed payment and one of BG's crappy overtime rates.....time and a fifth was the one that always got me saying no.

 

[namsag]

Nickso to be honest i don`t understand why the guys who just come out there training want to step up to be service engineers with all the hassle and shift patterns it involves... The money that can be earned by being a service fitter is not to be sniffed at.... If i ever got the lobotomy and decided to go back thats where i would head. Mind you would be a killer doing 5 days a week.

 

[nickso]

namsag i agree its a reasonable wage and plenty less hassle. servicing is boring but i reckoned i could have made reasonable money with the amount of spare time i would have had for sales and the like.

5 days in the summer would be a killer

the shifts are awful, especially if you are on weekend standby. GA was invented by the devil.