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Post by Pointless on Aug 19, 2015 8:24:05 GMT
Friend of mine who used to work in the IT dept told me to come here to vent my frustrations at the company. They told us that redundancies would be a last resort and through natural turnover only in exceptional circumstances there would be involuntary redundancies.
The management who form part of IS had been commissioned to bring in the likes of Tata and IBM to outsource services and strip business functions offshore.
Closing the Kingswood site is the direct result of probably a thousand people who have left due to this change of culture and what was once a great company to work I now cannot wait to get the hell out!
As of union, they make sounds but considering their track record with defending employees in the past this move is a given
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Post by Ht on Aug 19, 2015 13:20:24 GMT
ht
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Post by SupraMan on Aug 19, 2015 13:30:34 GMT
Am amazed that they had the balls to do it. Unite is a complete paper tiger when it comes to representing the staff at L&G. In saying that, the Kingswood staff have a real jumped up self opinion of themselves as 'untouchable' and the office was seen as a bit of a country club.
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Post by ExL&GITMonkai on Aug 19, 2015 13:33:27 GMT
Hahaaa. That is karma for you. Kingswood staff always thought the sun shone out of their arses! Especially the IT twunts that were left behind post outsourcing a few years back
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Post by fedup on Sept 9, 2015 16:54:33 GMT
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Post by Pointless on Sept 28, 2015 17:02:56 GMT
Update, frustration is growing. More and more people joining the union, not sure the business will roll over like the IT staff did.....
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Millionaire's Corner
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Post by Millionaire's Corner on Oct 21, 2015 15:38:55 GMT
Nothing wrong in a company want to move to a cheaper location. There is no such thing as a job for life which sounds like the current mentality of the staff employed. We live in a capitalist society. Nothing illegal regards to what L&G are doing. Deal with it. Life is tough...
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Major Dennis Bloodnok
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Post by Major Dennis Bloodnok on Oct 30, 2015 11:34:34 GMT
This isn't really capitalism I'm afraid. It is the will of one man driving a company to do something he has wanted to do since he took over.
If L&G were really trying to make a serious change to running costs Coleman street would be shut as well as the other sites. The bare bones staff of about 700 that L&G deems 'critical' to running the company would be working in Belfast or Newcastle where the salaries and running costs would be much less than in the current locations. Part of me wonders if it wouldn't be worth it to see a fair number of the self-important twonks at LGIM get told the ivory tower was shutting because it is the most expensive site per head in the company. The egos at Coleman Street could do with a bit of deflating given how they talk to other people around the company.
The only real problem I have is that companies like L&G want it both ways. They expect staff to behave like it is a job for life, working every hour available because they are told to feel part of the company and live the 'company values'. Yet when it comes to companies rewarding staff for their efforts with some loyalty and incentive then it is only ever grudgingly given. And values seem to only extend so far up the hierarchy and the most senior staff get exemption from such corporate charades. Capitalism has pros and cons but the biggest issue for me is the inability to be honest about what it is. For some reason - maybe cos it makes capitalists look like heartless, self-obsessed individuals - capitalism and its supporters have a hard time just coming out and saying the primary reason behind everything they do is to make more profit for themselves.
When Uncle Nigel decided he wouldn't pay the staff performance shares for the exceptional results their hard work provided, because the staff have never thanked him personally for being given shares, you see the game for what it is. Especially when Nigel gets a personal remuneration than is greater than the performance bonus the company would have paid out to the entire staff. Life isn't so tough if you are a senior exec it would seem.
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Post by forgetloyalty on Oct 30, 2015 18:07:40 GMT
The real measure of operating costs for any office should be how much it costs per desk at full building capacity. I haven't seen any figures along these lines to compare the operating costs of the various L&G locations. I suspect that the figures provided by L&G make Kingswood look expensive because it is 30% empty.
I think that about 70% of the current Kingswood employees won't move to a new location but plan to leave with a package. Maybe this is what L&G actually wants to happen, who knows. What I do know is that whilst L&G is not doing anything illegal the company is doing everything possible to disengage employees. No amount of company spin will change that. Not even the invitation to dress up for Halloween and have our face painted as we have been asked to do today. Wow what a treat.
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Post by New Tricks on Nov 4, 2015 22:10:31 GMT
I am not a union member, but I do like the stirrings that Unite members are discussing and part of me wants them to proceed with some kind of action that would reach the national press and put L&G in the spotlight, something they usually control in a positive light rather than negative. The rumour that Uncle Nige, the unthanked one, has only signed up until 2017 is interesting and with recent changes to the hierarchy, has a reolacement been nudged into position. What I am surprised with is that Uncle Nige is a one-man-band orator with his minion board members being very quiet and appearing to me, to be only allowed to speak to employees or on show when ordered to. What the board members really think of Uncle Nige, we'll never know. With one thorn no longer on the board who did pose a less than enthusiastic support of the board members to continue the good work already achieved in Digital and was in support of the dedicated and hardworking staff that got L&G where they are today, perhaps other board members are waiting to strike at Uncle Nige....that thorn I understand didn't go quietly.
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Post by How far is too far on Nov 4, 2015 22:21:16 GMT
IT in Kingswood is now so fractured with Contractors, managing Contractors, managing contractors....the leadership are no longer in command of the reason for outsourcing and its benefits. Short term contractors are there to do a job for the money they agreed and will, if offered a better position or pay scale, move and and take any knowledge of a project with them and potentially leaving a gap in the progress of a project and in turn costing more money. So many IT staff that were once L&G employees and are now contractors have followed the model and instruction they have been given and no longer have the urgency or loyalty they once had and only do enough to get paid....this is a shame because their skills are wide ranging and could offer help and expertise along the chain of an IT issue, but are instructed to offer 'their' bit and pass it onto the next in the chain, who also get paid for their bit.
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Kingswood is getting emptier
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Post by Kingswood is getting emptier on Dec 22, 2015 18:12:59 GMT
6 empty bays now, to be 'mothballed', representing 500 people that have been messed about and the company still says that no decision has been made regarding the Kingswood closure. What a joke. Those that have nothing to lose and can find another job are voting with their feet and are leaving. The rest are just waiting around and no longer care. Union is balloting for a strike but I can't see what that can achieve. Too little too late. Dreadful company to work for and this situation will drag on for another two and a half years. If someone decides to relocate to Cardiff their job is secure for 6 months and then another reorg can chop the job (and this has already happened). What a fab concession by the company. Merry Christmas everyone!
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Post by Ra Tata Tat Tat on Jan 23, 2016 11:14:32 GMT
According to the Daily Wail today L&G "will close its offices in Surrey by 2018 with 1,550 jobs lost". Has L&G told its staff yet?
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yes ...what a shock..
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Post by yes ...what a shock.. on Jan 23, 2016 13:38:02 GMT
Yes Kingswood staff have been told. Management said it would come as a 'shock to some'. haha, as we didn't all know that Kingswood is going to close. So the closure will drag on for 2.5 years and staff are already totally disengaged and those with nothing to lose are leaving. You can't run a business successfully like this.
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Post by Pointless on Apr 4, 2016 17:15:50 GMT
Fair few of us are working to rule, I must know about 15 people doing the bare minimum. Its really starting to affect our department, no one is working late or outside of normal hours! We have had an application down for over 2 days, call was with IBM, then Tata now back with IBM! No one takes ownership and knows anything about it! Its pure comedy
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