[Ignition]

Agree with some, disagree with other parts. Reduction in staff numbers, and a massive reduction at that has been absolutely necessary and a natural part of consolidating so many companies into one. I will say however that some of that reduction has come in the wrong places.

Centralisation is a vital part of getting more economies of scale out of the company, there's no point in having callcentres all over the UK, it's simply a waste of money and uneconomical from the point of view that one region can be absolutely caned with calls another idle. Cable companies of comparative sizes elsewhere have 12,000 or less staff - ntl at one time was massively massively overweight .com boom and all that and is still a little heavy. Financial security is an essential thing to look after, while ntl still suffers under a fairly large debt burden you have to expect financial restraint to be an issue.

I think Escapee the people you talk to must be the ones who are having the real issues and are actually undermanned / having bad times of it, because they've never ever had anything positive to say, which makes one wonder why they are doing a job they hate so much when you yourself I believe left it and immediately got a better paid one elsewhere?

People who are already 'urinated' off are rarely unbiased judges of anything new. At the same time no doubt in their opinion there's nothing to be happy about. Some no doubt remember the good old days with the original cable company that built the network.... and would probably now be very very much bust if it hadn't been acquired.