British Army will slash hundreds of jobs despite Boris Johnson's pledge to pump an extra £16.5bn into the UK's defences, leaked documents reveal

British Army will slash hundreds of jobs, leaked documents reveal

Leaked documents reveal plans to dramatically reduce the number of British soldiers in backroom roles who provide critical support for combat troops.

www.dailymail.co.uk

"But documents seen by The Mail on Sunday show a major job-cutting review is under way in the Adjutant General's Corps, although Army sources said any job losses will be through natural wastage rather than redundancies."

They’re doing the same to our HR, it’s all going centralised and they’re reducing the trade down too. It's a shame though, but they only have themselves to blame, places were closed more than they were open - "Training days".

Mate at another Unit was telling me that during the last few months that you have to email in that you want to speak to HR and they will get back to you with an appointment time - wtf?!

 

[busby1971]

God no! Clerks who made FS were not known for their flexibility or Customer-Service focus.

Every FJ Sqn HR Section that I worked in or managed operated a split shift system from 1994 through to 2010. One would start at 0730 and finish at 1530, one would start at 10 and finish at 6 and if there were any more, they'd fill in the gaps. The agreement was that lunches were as quick as possible, unless you were sporting. Would it surprise you if I said that none of those offices ever had a backlog and none of them were ever criticised by the Sqn's Engineers, pilots, ops staff etc (our customers), but every one of them was criticised by PSF management, some of whom accused me of "arse wiping".

If its your job to arse wipe then arse wiping is what you do, any PSF that had the ivory tower mentality would not command the respect of the wider workforce, they didn't help themselves by sometimes thinking they and PMA had the best TG17 staff.

The other week I had a chat about a role for an organisation that had a great deal of highly paid high knowledge workers and it was clear that there was no expectation that these individuals would be doing any self/man management type activities, but then again they paid (well) for this to be done for them and had team to do it.

On a professional basis in Civi street it is the PSF/PMA type roles that have mostly been outsourced/mechanised whilst the deployed business support is where most of the action is and value added.

 

[Rugby-Jock-Lad]

God no! Clerks who made FS were not known for their flexibility or Customer-Service focus.

Every FJ Sqn HR Section that I worked in or managed operated a split shift system from 1994 through to 2010. One would start at 0730 and finish at 1530, one would start at 10 and finish at 6 and if there were any more, they'd fill in the gaps. The agreement was that lunches were as quick as possible, unless you were sporting. Would it surprise you if I said that none of those offices ever had a backlog and none of them were ever criticised by the Sqn's Engineers, pilots, ops staff etc (our customers), but every one of them was criticised by PSF management, some of whom accused me of "arse wiping".

Kudos to you MWD, kudos!!!

Unfortunately you have followed a well-known path to "oblivion" in your career as I did!!

Spoke the truth and used initiative that made REAL improvements!!!! You didn't spend all day blaming others and B5ing to the useless powers that be that YOU were brilliant and you will put the staff in their place (who were to be blamed when the LM is poor) but got on with the job in a professional manner while delegating authority to your subordinates!!!!

And todays MOD and RAF doesn't want that!!!

 

[StickyFingers]

On 2 separate units, one overseas, I found myself with time on my hands, as StationCashier. I opened my cage earlier and closed it later than advertised. OK , until O C Admin picked up on it, gave me a rollicking and told me, in no uncertain terms not to open outside the posted times. As a young LAC on an operational unit, with huge numbers of shift workers, I asked if we could provide an out-of-hours service,after 1700. The clerk doing this task would be stood down earlier in the day to take into account this task. My FS looked at me as if I was an idiot and told me never to broach the subject again.

That what Blue Sky and ASTRA (Is that what the new one is called?) are for now?

Bypasses all the stuck in the old ways, this is how it's always been done dinosaurs and gets good ideas like that off the ground and moving.

 

[Rugby-Jock-Lad]

That what Blue Sky and ASTRA (Is that what the new one is called?) are for now?

Bypasses all the stuck in the old ways, this is how it's always been done dinosaurs and gets good ideas like that off the ground and moving.

Sticky...completely agree and they are good initiatives.

But that's all they are IMHO.

Did a Red Tape Challenge a few years ago to limit a Remote site I was working at (10 people) having to do full CCS. Proposed one instructor coming to site and not doing rifle parts but we could do everything else including dry drills. The idea being to limit travel costs, people removed from site for extensive amounts of time and have everyone trained bar rifle stuff and get a tick in the box.

Idea went to home of the RAF Reg and lo-and-behold, chucked out after 50 mins deliberations apparently as IAW blah blah blah..policy and regs!!

CASWO arrived on station and asked in a forum if people were aware of the challenge and to put stuff in as the current AOC was battling to get rid of regulatory red-tape. Told him what I had done with regards to the challenge and how it had been thrown out! He wasn't impressed as in his view that's the type of out-of-date thinking the initiative was designed to weed out which benefits the service, indivduals and saves money!! Unfortunately the dinosaurs were the ones still holding the power and are no doubt still refusing to let go. Needless to say I didn't bother doing another one after that.

 

[4mastacker]

You only have to read Arrse to see that there still appears to be the "it's regimental tradition" mentality existing in many areas and loyalty is to a cap badge rather than the service as a whole. That said, there are some who recognise the Army has to change its ways - and quickly. There's even recognition that the RAF and the Navy are ahead of the Army when it comes to putting a case foward for funding and showing it can use it's funding effectively. There's even been faint praise for the way the RAF and Navy manage their HR/Logs branches.

Mind you, the Army still has hang-ups about the operational usefulness and cost of the Red Arrows and the BBMF.... and that from a service that still has 500+ horses which never leave Central London.

 

[Rugby-Jock-Lad]

You only have to read Arrse to see that there still appears to be the "it's regimental tradition" mentality existing in many areas and loyalty is to a cap badge rather than the service as a whole. That said, there are some who recognise the Army has to change its ways - and quickly. There's even recognition that the RAF and the Navy are ahead of the Army when it comes to putting a case foward for funding and showing it can use it's funding effectively. There's even been faint praise for the way the RAF and Navy manage their HR/Logs branches.

Mind you, the Army still has hang-ups about the operational usefulness and cost of the Red Arrows and the BBMF.... and that from a service that still has 500+ horses which never leave Central London.

Typical BArmy...one rule for thee and another for me :-D!!!!

 

[muttywhitedog]

Sticky...completely agree and they are good initiatives.

But that's all they are IMHO.

Did a Red Tape Challenge a few years ago to limit a Remote site I was working at (10 people) having to do full CCS. Proposed one instructor coming to site and not doing rifle parts but we could do everything else including dry drills. The idea being to limit travel costs, people removed from site for extensive amounts of time and have everyone trained bar rifle stuff and get a tick in the box.

Idea went to home of the RAF Reg and lo-and-behold, chucked out after 50 mins deliberations apparently as IAW blah blah blah..policy and regs!!

CASWO arrived on station and asked in a forum if people were aware of the challenge and to put stuff in as the current AOC was battling to get rid of regulatory red-tape. Told him what I had done with regards to the challenge and how it had been thrown out! he wasn't impressed as in his view that's the type of out-of-date thinking the initiative was designed to weed out which benefits the service, indivduals and saves money!! Unfortunately the dinosaurs were the ones still holding the power and are no doubt still refusing to let go. Needless to say I didn't bother doing another one after that.

I did a similar thing in that I proposed an OOA preparation process in which the individual didnt go wandering round the base collecting signatures from Med Centre, Dental Centre, Regt, Supply, MT etc. The proposed replacement was a spreadsheet generated by my HR section on a shared document where those sections could look at it at their convenience over the week and annotate whether individuals were good to go, and also flag up if someone wasnt. It appeared a win-win CI Initiative...

All the sections loved it - except for the Regt, who dug their heels in and expected folk to report to their section with a piece of paper to be signed. In reality, the individual had to go two or three times because there'd usually be nobody in the admin office and the Sgt/FS found signing a chit beneath them.

 

[Rugby-Jock-Lad]

I did a similar thing in that I proposed an OOA preparation process in which the individual didnt go wandering round the base collecting signatures from Med Centre, Dental Centre, Regt, Supply, MT etc. The proposed replacement was a spreadsheet generated by my HR section on a shared document where those sections could look at it at their convenience over the week and annotate whether individuals were good to go.

All the sections loved it - except for the Regt, who dug their heels in and expected folk to report to their section with a piece of paper to be signed. In reality, the individual had to go two or three times because there'd usually be nobody in the admin office and the Sgt/FS found signing a chit beneath them.

Now that would be far toooooooo easy and helpful MWD. Good idea, efficient and helpful....NEVER going to happen :-D!!!

 

[Stevienics]

Hi Busby.

Can I ask what FTE is?

About 1.7 real people. What it takes to generate the workload of one person, 100% of the time

 

[muttywhitedog]

Now that would be far toooooooo easy and helpful MWD. Good idea, efficient and helpful....NEVER going to happen :-D!!!

Sadly, the public sector is rife with these empire builders, procrastinators, and masters of red tape. I have walked off and closed down a CI project in my current role because I got fed up waiting for a group of middle managers to decide something that was well within their powers to decide.

 

[Rugby-Jock-Lad]

Where does the 1.7 come from????????????? :-D

 

[muttywhitedog]

I do this every week in my world where 1FTE = 1 person continuously employed on activities for 37 hours a week. The reality is that once you deduct time from that FTE for diversions, then you need 1.7 FTE to achieve 37 hours continuous output. Examples of diversions that I have to include in my calculations are:

Leave (annual or sick)
Statutory Breaks that are part of the contract
Toilet Breaks
Reading time (policy updates)
PDR activity (compilation and monthly meetings)
Mandatory e-learning
Daily Team briefs

Once all this is chipped away at the original FTE, there is about 60% output capacity per FTE. 0.6 x 1.7 is 1.02, so its pretty close.

 

[busby1971]

To be honest if you want 37 hours in the civil service you probably need at least 2 bodies.