Virgin Media to cut 600 top and middle management posts

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Sirius

I was waiting for Richard to turn up

Why were you waiting for me to contribute to this particular thread and why do you find it amusing?

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Why were you waiting for me to contribute to this particular thread and why do you find it amusing?

Because generally when you are involved in threads that included VM staff its normally you saying you are going to or have had someone punished

[Qtx]

They could cut a few more staff if they got rid of the rude ones that think they are above everyone else.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Sirius

Because generally when you are involved in threads that included VM staff its normally you saying you are going to or have had someone punished

Absolute preposterous nonsense.

Originally Posted by Qtx

They could cut a few more staff if they got rid of the rude ones that think they are above everyone else.

Well, as I said in another thread, Liberty Global are nobodys fool. They are aiming to improve the company by making it leaner through a combination of efficiency savings and the weeding out of dead wood (which I assume will include anybody with a problematic attitude).

LG are not happy with inefficient working practices, incidents of inappropriate behaviour and the duplication of roles caused by the takeover.

I am sorry if you have been subject to rudeness by VM staff, all I can say is that, overall, professionalism improved immensely under Virgin Media.

That is not to say that this work to drive up standards will in any way be compromised by the takeover by Liberty Global. I am confident that work to put people in more suitable positions and circumstances will continue robustly in order to help the company go from strength to strength for the benefit of all

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Well, as I said in another thread, Liberty Global are nobodys fool. They are aiming to improve the company by making it leaner through a combination of efficiency savings and the weeding out of dead wood (which I assume will include anybody with a problematic attitude).

LG are not happy with inefficient working practices, incidents of inappropriate behaviour and the duplication of roles caused by the takeover.

I didn't know you had a communication line into LG senior management?

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Absolute preposterous nonsense.



Well, as I said in another thread, Liberty Global are nobodys fool. They are aiming to improve the company by making it leaner through a combination of efficiency savings and the weeding out of dead wood (which I assume will include anybody with a problematic attitude).

LG are not happy with inefficient working practices, incidents of inappropriate behaviour and the duplication of roles caused by the takeover.

I am sorry if you have been subject to rudeness by VM staff, all I can say is that, overall, professionalism improved immensely under Virgin Media.

That is not to say that this work to drive up standards will in any way be compromised by the takeover by Liberty Global. I am confident that work to put people in more suitable positions and circumstances will continue robustly in order to help the company go from strength to strength for the benefit of all

Thats incorrect Richard - Mike Fries makes a number of public appearnces where he states how happy he is with the the people within VM and the step change the business has made over the last 6 years.

Here are the facts around the 600 reduction. Link to full article further down

quote -

As many as a third of Virgin Media’s 120 executive directors and directors could lose their jobs as the UK cable group eliminates areas of duplication with Liberty in divisions such as finance, HR and legal.

The company’s front-line staff, which includes engineers and call-centre workers and who account for the bulk of its 15,000 employees, are understood to be unaffected by the job losses.

Here is the full article


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2ce8fa86-2...#axzz2hgbEhiFc

[Qtx]

Originally Posted by Top banana

Thats incorrect Richard - Mike Fries makes a number of public appearnces where he states how happy he is with the the people within VM and the step change the business has made over the last 6 years.

No one goes in to a company and tells the staff how crap he thinks they all are. Having staff that resent you is counter productive. It's the kind of thing directors say to keep investors from worrying too, all PR borrocks.

So anything like that said in public should be taken with a grain of salt.

Originally Posted by Qtx

No one goes in to a company and tells the staff how crap he thinks they all are. Having staff that resent you is counter productive. It's the kind of thing directors say to keep investors from worrying too, all PR borrocks.

So anything like that said in public should be taken with a grain of salt.

Tend to agree - did you read this bit though - its a clear message to the front line that there is no issue there.

As many as a third of Virgin Media’s 120 executive directors and directors could lose their jobs as the UK cable group eliminates areas of duplication with Liberty in divisions such as finance, HR and legal.

The company’s front-line staff, which includes engineers and call-centre workers and who account for the bulk of its 15,000 employees, are understood to be unaffected by the job losses.

[Qtx]

Originally Posted by Top banana

Tend to agree - did you read this bit though - its a clear message to the front line that there is no issue there.

I read that bit but I don't see how you interpreted that as him saying there is no issue with front line staff? All it is saying is they are not getting rid of front line staff at present.

They are getting rid of the dead weight in management, not saying they are really happy with front line staff.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Qtx

No one goes in to a company and tells the staff how crap he thinks they all are. Having staff that resent you is counter productive. It's the kind of thing directors say to keep investors from worrying too, all PR borrocks.

So anything like that said in public should be taken with a grain of salt.

Not necessarily - I agree that it makes no sense for him to say he's unhappy with staff but instead he could have mentioned nothing at all about them. This indicates to me he's at least satisfied with them.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Qtx

I read that bit but I don't see how you interpreted that as him saying there is no issue with front line staff? All it is saying is they are not getting rid of front line staff at present.

They are getting rid of the dead weight in management, not saying they are really happy with front line staff.

It's quite simple, during the past 18 months VM hired around 1000 people, and the company didn't grow as expected.

Therefore, they are readjusting head count to meet expectations, they have already been paying off many people close to retirement age or long term absentees in recent weeks prior to the redundancy announcement.

There were always going to be some duplication in financial roles and roles no longer required as VM is no longer a stand alone business, so they are taking the opportunity to cut some dead wood from senior positions.

However, those involved with delivery of service are not at risk.

Everybody at risk will have been informed by Wednesday.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Pierre

It's quite simple, during the past 18 months VM hired around 1000 people, and the company didn't grow as expected.

Therefore, they are readjusting head count to meet expectations, they have already been paying off many people close to retirement age or long term absentees in recent weeks prior to the redundancy announcement.

There were always going to be some duplication in financial roles and roles no longer required as VM is no longer a stand alone business, so they are taking the opportunity to cut some dead wood from senior positions.

However, those involved with delivery of service are not at risk.

Everybody at risk will have been informed by Wednesday.

Had my brief today and my job and those of the other people in our office are safe.

[sollp]

Originally Posted by Qtx

I read that bit but I don't see how you interpreted that as him saying there is no issue with front line staff? All it is saying is they are not getting rid of front line staff at present.

They are getting rid of the dead weight in management, not saying they are really happy with front line staff.

There will be more positions made available after this announcement today, they won't know the performance of individuals but the job losses will be based where they want the certain departments to go to make them more efficient. Might mean that some won't be able to commute or be prepared to these new places so not based on individual performance entirely

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Pierre

I didn't know you had a communication line into LG senior management?

There's a lot that you don't know.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

There's a lot that you don't know.

When it comes down to you and your contacts in VM or LG, I doubt it.