Works Councils in action

Bit different, but having (in my current position) been "promoted" from shop floor to head office I have to agree.

We have our customers set ambitious sales targets, which we are expected to plan for, and when they miss their figures (which they invariably do) we have ask "why did you make us waste our time/money planning for unbelievable targets?".

I make a point of going back to the coal face (I spend more time physically, if not job wise, with my shop floor colleagues than my head office colleagues) precisely to keep myself grounded in what's ACTUALLY happening.

One of my biggest frustrations is head office staff with no clue about reality, who love creating perfect plans and - when it all goes pear-shaped as it inevitably does - guess who finds themself screaming frustration and saying to the planners "why couldn't you see disaster coming!?!?". Case in point - this last Tuesday blew up and I've been screaming "We need to fix today and tomorrow before it happens again". So the reply comes back "We can't - it would break our lovely plans" and they wonder why nothing works when reality breaks their plans ...

So yes. We have far too many stupid grads coming into the head office work space with plenty of ideas about how things SHOULD work. Great! Sometimes they're damn good ideas! But all too often they're based on a mole's-eye view of their cubicle, not an eagle's-eye view of the shop floor.

It's amazing the amount of experience there is on our shop floor - often people there are far better qualified than managers, with much more experience. If only we could persuade them to USE that experience, rather than throw it away for a quiet life.

Cheers,
Wol