Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

You seem to have an unhealthy attraction towards we VM employees, May i ask why you only ask us questions about our employment, our employer and our work conditions and not those of other members of this forum ?????.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

Arthur, you don't know the last thing about Virgin Media.

All VM employees receive £25 per head to go towards a Christmas party.

There are that many employees in so many different teams and locations that company organised parties are just not feasible.

Therefore it is left to the individual teams to arrange their own parties.

Some teams also get costs of their parties supplemented/sponsored by suppliers that they deal with.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

Liverpool had a company organised party at a local hotel they do no t do individual team parties.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

Well that's what your team/division decided to do. That's not representative of the rest of the company.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

I don't believe it was up to RB..It was VM who are independent of RB's handling who gave the book as a gift..

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

Nothing to do with team or division rather what Adecco decided was best, if we were offered money then I expect the would have been many different parties.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

I'm talking about directly employed VM personnel , not outsourced or 3rd party associates

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

I knew what you meant but your original post may have given the impression that we may have got that as well considering the post you replied to and general content on this thread, thank you for clarifying that for everyone.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

Last place i worked at the worker bee got sod all as Xmas bonus but the managers got close to 15% what does that tell you about that company but then at a different company i got a 10% and the company made their own monopoly set (any monopoly lovers amongst us that fancy a very limited edition drop me a pm )

---------- Post added at 22:15 ---------- Previous post was at 22:13 ----------

Oh another company i worked as a temp for in Holland gave its staff a Xmas hamper including temps which was a nice unexpected shock.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

So, did the Albert Dock staff receive £25 towards a Christmas party as well as the book?

I still think that it's rather ungracious to refuse a gift that has been offered, a bit like handing someone a Christmas present straight back and saying that you don't want/like it! I suppose we all have different values and, it's a possibility, that the book was sent to Albert Dock to encourage people to start their own business after redundancy.

Of those that took offence to the book, what would you say was the main reason?

From the information I have gathered, the gift seems to be viewed as either:

- Insensitive and/or inappropriate. A bit like the bank repossessing ones house and then sending a Christmas card to say "all the best for 2012"!

OR

- An ego trip by Sir Branston, ie the assumption that staff want to read all about him.

From what I know about him, I doubt the second reason was anything intentional and he probably knows nothing about this.

Have I summed up the reasons accurately?

Are there any other issues regarding this that offended people that I have overlooked?

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

If someone has just been made redundant, one can understand peope not wanting a free book about the public face of the company that has just made you redundant.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

No we did not get £25 each from the company only actual Virgin Media staff received that as per Pierre's post.

If you are being made redundant the last thing you want is a book from Richard Branson stating how good he is and its pretty obvious why most books where left in their boxes or put in the recycling bins and the word "Insensitive" springs to mind and that is the least offensive word that could be posted about that little ego trip.

His name is Branson as he does not also have a sauce named after him.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

Ungracious? Had it been myself I most probably would have taken my copy in to a toilet cubicle, used it instead of the Andrex and handed it straight back.

I bet a fair few people have neither the time, money or inclination to start a business and to suggest his book be the catalyst for soon-to-be-former VM people to go it alone is pure fantasy.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

Well spotted :D

Welcome back Russ, I was getting a bit worried as I hadn't seen you post on the forum for a while :)

A more mature and constructive thing to do would be to take the book home and read it, Who knows, it might have been a source of inspiration to some staff to go it alone.

Most large businesses started small with little money eg Marks & Spencers started trading from a barrow!

If people have become unemployed, they would have the time, but I do accept that money may be a problem with some people and self employment is not right for everybody.

Re: Gift to VM employees/agency workers.
 

Not really especially as only 10 weeks earlier we had been told that we were to lose our jobs and considering the amount of publicity he does for the company it was a step to far and it felt like you were getting your nose rubbed in it.

Someone somewhere thought that this was a bright idea and never stopped to think that maybe it is not a great idea to actually send these books to Liverpool.

I would have preferred a doughnut or a packet of crisps in preference to this book and I expect the majority would have thought likewise.