gas board

[gavinda]

Obviously the BG method of recording efficiency is based on the number of visits rather than the number of faults fixed so its better for the engineer to fix the second fault on another day. Thats not efficient for BG though.

bg record 1st complete on safety checks and breakdowns. you are worse of going back to do second fault on the second day as it still only counts for 1 job visit. im far better off taking longer and fixing the 2 faults rather than 2 lots of driving to and from the job and setting up twice.

like any big company we are spoiled by the few rather than many. the problem is good news is no news and we make a fantastic target.

 

[mickyg]

35 visits is rather alot even for BG. I wouldn't have liked to be that TSM everytime that job came out again. I used to get grief from my RSM on 3rd and 4th recalls. BG do use alot of contractors for installs. However it varies across the country and its most common in London and surounding areas, which isn't unique just to British Gas. A number of large insurance providing companies and even manufacturers use a large number of contractors in the London areas, simply because its very difficult to employ quality engineers in these areas. Anyone who's brave enough to work in London can usually earn a pretty decent living self employed, and the PAYE jobs at British Gas and manufacturers don't pay a great deal more than there northern counter parts, meaning a lower standard of living. I think British Gas pay about an extra 3 or 4k to their London employees, personally to make it worth it at all I think it needs to be nearer 10k.

 

[mickyg]

like any big company we are spoiled by the few rather than many. the problem is good news is no news and we make a fantastic target.

I don't know what your patch is like but like many BG employees you are slightly blinkered as to the bigger picture in terms of the ability of BG staff.
It may be your patch is blessed with highly skilled engineers who take every care to do a good job with the customers best interests in mind. However this is not to be said for other areas. I've worked on a few different patches in surrounding London patches and also as a TSM, and I can safely say that on those patches the ability of the majority of staff is extremely poor. However one of those patches was far better than the other, despite being bordering areas.

 

[gavinda]

sadly you are a bit righ micky. im blinkerd in that i just ignore a lot of the tossers on my patch. they dont get their calls answered or thier messages replied to. i just like to get on oand do the best i can. there is a lack of experienc eon my patch as well. im one of the more experienced with a mere 10 years service, theres about 10 guys at the most who've served longer than i have and a they mostly deal with the ld work anyway. i also feel our standards are slippingwith the dross we've taken on as apprentices, some of these guys can barely speak to customers and **** themselves if theres any sign of conflict.

o h **** it its bloody awfull actually

 

[mickyg]

thats more like it a bit of honesty
In respect to experience I don't believe its as important as some people think. I became a TSM at the grand old age of 23, and I would always go out to people who were genuinely stuck. Most of these people were guys over 40 who had failed to keep up with technology and could not grasp how a combi or condensing boiler worked, and to be honest I don't think they cared, if it wasn't for the pension they would be long gone. The younger guys were overall better at working out complex faults, because their apprenticeships and taught them to properly use a multimeter and the basics of logical fault finding. However as you have pointed out, their customer skills can leave alot to be desired.

 

[gavinda]

I became a TSM at the grand old age of 23, and I would always go out to people who were genuinely stuck. .

your ****ing mental

i went for tsm and lost out to a 4 year sfl eng. i was mighty ****ed off until i saw the workload you guys were facing. i know its a great way of working up in the company but financially i cant see myself ever going that direction until the rewards are better. plus i really dont agree with having to make potential management disciplinary decisions whilst still in an engineers uniform. dont take me the wrongun though as i really respect my own tsm and see him fighting a losing battle every day.

currently im on c.a.r.e so just come into work when i can make it and am doing tsm visits to ease my own tsms load. some of the **** ive been called for is shocking. i had a guy who'd spent 2 hours at a house, changed the mid pos and room stat because the boiler wouldnt supply heat only after a new boiler in the summer. mutli meter was still in the van. .


no hw off on programmer. ever.

 

[mickyg]

well don't give me too much respect, I quit after only 9 months. I took the job when they first created the TSM role. So nobody was quite sure what it would consist of work wise. From my point of view I had already made the decision that I didn't want to spend my life as a BG engineer(no disrespect to those that do) so decided to give it a try and see what BG management has to offer. Its suffice to say that the job wasn't as advertised! Worst of all I was thrown on to a patch that was in a terrible mess. I was given every complaint to deal with on my area which took up at least 2-3days of every week on its own. Within my group of 18 engineers I had one with a recall rate of 40% average!!! and another at 35%. Combined with First fix around 65%. The patch average recall rate was at 20%. So as you can imagine I had my work cut out. The patch was also littered with new build, so we had millions of Gledhills(boilermates&gulfstreams), Ideals, Envoys and various other carp that some muppet specifier thought looked good in a brochure(sounds like someone we know?). As for SFL don't get me started. The source of some of the worst engineers in BG. I once said to my manager in regards to an engineer we had. "Who the hell put him through his interview??" to which he replied "I did".
Its almost criminal they can train someone in little other 6 months to work on gas, and then give them a further 6 weeks training to let them loose on breakdowns. What on earth did they expect would happen??
That one job you've pointed out is just the tip of the iceberg. I could reel of lists of unbelievable things people have missed, some potentially fatal.
I could easily write an essay on whats wrong with British Gas, but on a more positive side I still think its the best place to learn the trade and start a career. I just don't recommend staying there

 

[gas_man_gaz]

i don't think iam blinkered to the ability of the lads i work with but i do work in sheffield. i can honestly say there is only about 4 or 5 poor/lazy engineers (out of 30 - 40) which work my patch.

i've never worked another patch and like i've discussed with dangermouse a few times before the bg engineers down south are prob not as good

 

[mickyg]

i don't think iam blinkered to the ability of the lads i work with but i do work in sheffield. i can honestly say there is only about 4 or 5 poor/lazy engineers (out of 30 - 40) which work my patch. but i've never worked another patch and like i've discussed with dangermouse a few times before the bg engineers down south are prob not as good

no you are quite right, I was pointing to the regional differences which you mention. I honestly think it has alot to do with pay structure. Everyone in BG regardless of location(excluding london) gets the same pay. 30k for Joe northerner is a nice tidy wage, he can buy a house and provide for a family. 30k where I live is barely enough to get a mortgage on a 1 bed council flat. So I think that people here have much less job satisfaction and therefore have a much more careless attitude. Added to that anyone half decent leaves in search of bigger pay, which isn't far away if your willing to dip your toes inside the M25.

 

[Agile]

plus i really dont agree with having to make potential management disciplinary decisions whilst still in an engineers uniform. dont take me the wrongun though as i really respect my own tsm and see him fighting a losing battle every day.

:

I dont understand what you are thinking about there!

Perhaps there is something that I am missing about BG but when I worked for BBC Engineering everyone from the Director of Engineering down to the latest recruit was an engineer and disciplinary matters with an engineering aspect are difficult to envisage not being dealt with by an engineer.

Of course matters with no engineering content like too many sick days off were to an extent devolved to the HR staff but I felt that only an engineer could ever understand engineering aspects in a discliplinary situation!

I am struggling to remember any discliplinary matter apart from the very occasional fiddling of expenses but probably the BBC is rather different in view of the extreme enthusiasm of most of the staff towards the work we were doing.

Tony

 

[gasfaetheass]

any body any comments on the 600 quid powerflushes sold to customers who dont actually need them?not maintaing the boilers they have on contract properly and when they break down calling in the manufacturer to pull them out the dung.connecting condensate pipes into rain water down pipes and when it rains heavy it backs up and floods the boiler,then blame the customer and charge them extra for an air break in the pipe.
the list goes on and on and on

 

[gavinda]

agile- the point was that tsm's are still considered industrial staff and are still gmb members. however they may be the ones expected to conduct disciplinart reviews on engineers where union representation is reqd. they are also expected to cross gmb pickets during postal strikes to collect spares. the post office staff allow this but i still feel this is a conflict of interest. we need TECHNICAL SUPPORT managers not technically supporting MANAGERS. these guys arent even expected to be tech qualified, fortunately most are but its not a requirement.

 

[nickso]

Obviously the BG method of recording efficiency is based on the number of visits rather than the number of faults fixed so its better for the engineer to fix the second fault on another day. Thats not efficient for BG though.

obviously you are talking carp again. the number of visits made is only a portion of the measurement.

gavinda is correct, if you try your utmost to complete every job on the first visit then the law of averages will probably see you make gross performance. your FTCR should be through the roof and your recalls in theory very low. that should cover your lowish job count.

unfortunately it doesnt always work that way and due the high numbers of utter garbage systems on contract and with every boiler ever made to deal with, a second visit with parts is inevitable really. also, if you have a known number of customers queuing for an appointment and you then decide to rip apart a system/boiler that really could wait for another day it simply makes more sense to order parts or come back another day.

if you had ever worked for BG you would know some of these compromises have to be made. if done properly it doesnt necessarily make for poor service either.

 

[nickso]

also, regarding 35 visits.

i believe the very high brass get a copy of all visits above 7 in the country every day. if those 35 visits were genuine (no access etc dont count) then someone would have had their arse felt for that.

 

[gavinda]

probly more than just felt