More NTL redundancies

[BBKing]

Not a real problem, it's when they spend more time counting beans going out than beans going in that right-thinking men head for the hills.

Best of luck to anyone affected, of course.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Apparently, the cock up that was made in the Broadcast Division last year has played a part in this.

Due to a cock up with the met police contract £25m was wiped off ntls revenues last year. Evden though ntl have now sold Broadcast, £25m has still been wiped off ntls bottom line for 2004 and they have been under a lot of pressure from the institutions to recoup the loss as much as possible. (That's what I was told anyway)

The problem is, it is accountants calling the shots.

The problem with bean counters is.... They can only count beans.

I do really feel for the guys, the region that I commented on are loosing 3 of 16 guys. I can say that I personally know every single one of them, and the ones that were made redundant in the stealth redundancies over the last couple of years, including one that commited suicide shortly after loosing his job.

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by Escapee

I do really feel for the guys, the region that I commented on are loosing 3 of 16 guys. I can say that I personally know every single one of them, and the ones that were made redundant in the stealth redundancies over the last couple of years, including one that commited suicide shortly after loosing his job.

I don't think ntl can be held responsible for that...

There were redundancies in my dept at the end of last year, some VR, some not. It's a damn shame, but it's also business...

Originally Posted by orangebird

I don't think ntl can be held responsible for that...

There were redundancies in my dept at the end of last year, some VR, some not. It's a damn shame, but it's also business...

Yes but does business have to be so damned heartless?Especially as so much is owed to so many cock ups by others further up the food chain.

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Yes but does business have to be so damned heartless?Especially as so much is owed to so many cock ups by others further up the food chain.

Yes, it does if it want's to make a profit. People have hearts, but balance sheets don't. And businesses are all about balance sheets these days.

[Womble]

Originally Posted by orangebird

Yes, it does if it want's to make a profit. People have hearts, but balance sheets don't. And businesses are all about balance sheets these days.

So, using that theory, those that made the balance sheet unbalanced should get the chop!
The ones that lost 25mil should get the chop!
They say each net tech/eng costs the company 50grand p/a
It would have been better to chop out a layer of very high managment

Christ I am sick of this ****

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by orangebird

Yes, it does if it want's to make a profit. People have hearts, but balance sheets don't. And businesses are all about balance sheets these days.

What annoys me are some departments were doing "nothing" when I ot up and left in 2001. (including the department I was working for)
Some of these poeple are still doing nothing nearly 4 years on!

How can they be so blinkered by getting rid of the very people they need to operate the networks, these people affected in wales have seen their managers numbers increased by a multiple of at least three, and then reduced again after it was realised they were over-staffed.

Don't forget people were also made redundant last month in departments directly giving engineering support to the network people, but these went un-reported on this forum at the time. Just remember that this has only come to light here because it's a large number in one go, and not small pockets that have been going on at regular intervals for field and network support positions.

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by Escapee

What annoys me are some departments were doing "nothing" when I ot up and left in 2001. (including the department I was working for)
Some of these poeple are still doing nothing nearly 4 years on!

How can they be so blinkered by getting rid of the very people they need to operate the networks, these people affected in wales have seen their managers numbers increased by a multiple of at least three, and then reduced again after it was realised they were over-staffed.

Don't forget people were also made redundant last month in departments directly giving engineering support to the network people, but these went un-reported on this forum at the time. Just remember that this has only come to light here because it's a large number in one go, and not small pockets that have been going on at regular intervals for field and network support positions.

Escapee, there are plenty of people all over ntl that don't work for home or networks, getting made redundant. Their jobs are pretty important too.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by orangebird

Escapee, there are plenty of people all over ntl that don't work for home or networks, getting made redundant. Their jobs are pretty important too.

Where the hell will customers service be when the networks are not operating?

These guys are understaffed, out of sight and performing one of the most important tasks in the company.

You can have billing, callcentre, planning, and all these other jobs but none of them will work if the network affects the whole damn lot. I think the big issue is as Womble says people dont appreciate that the HFC network carrying TV, Broadband and proposed VOD, does not look after itself. It needs constant maintenance and they have already been neglecting it by taking network techs and putting them on service calls. the big bl**dy increase in service calls was probably down to lack of network maintenence and money to start with!

Service can only go down hill for the customer.

[Ignition]

Those who have access to the ntl intranet forums know my feelings on this matter.

Oh and here's a few words of wisdom from a friend of mine in Canada, an NMC technician for a cable company there:

Carl @ Work says:
excellent, we just fired 10 - 15% of our HFC network engineers
James says:
Uhmm....why?
Carl @ Work says:
ummm pass?
Carl @ Work says:
as far as why goes, I think it's insane
James says:
We did that 3 years ago...was a huge mistake.

My sympathies to those affected directly by this. My sympathies also to those in fault management and tech support who are going to be dealing with irate customers when service fails and there's no-one there to fix it.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Ignition

Those who have access to the ntl intranet forums know my feelings on this matter.

Oh and here's a few words of wisdom from a friend of mine in Canada, an NMC technician for a cable company there:

Carl @ Work says:
excellent, we just fired 10 - 15% of our HFC network engineers
James says:
Uhmm....why?
Carl @ Work says:
ummm pass?
Carl @ Work says:
as far as why goes, I think it's insane
James says:
We did that 3 years ago...was a huge mistake.

My sympathies to those affected directly by this. My sympathies also to those in fault management and tech support who are going to be dealing with irate customers when service fails and there's no-one there to fix it.

Amen to that...

I agree 100%, it's just a pity people who dont really understand the engineering requirements are in a position to make such a mess.

This decision will help the company increase churn, and make financial matters even worse as customers leave due to a further reduction in satisfaction to their service. I think it's about time the guys at the top realised someone sat in front of a PC in an office can only sort out problems with a customers set-up, and cannot actually fix a hardware fault!

[Womble]

Originally Posted by Ignition

My sympathies to those affected directly by this. My sympathies also to those in fault management and tech support who are going to be dealing with irate customers when service fails and there's no-one there to fix it.

I would also like to pass on my sympathies to ALL depts, It aint easy, whatever you do! It WILL only get worse!
The poor buggers left in the call centers will get the first load of flak as the network slowly degrades, followed by servce, and then finally Networks, who quite honestly are passed giving a ****.

The red indians have a saying; man walks thru life backwards, he exists in the present, but looks to the past, if he looked over his shoulder he would see the future.

NTL managment have not learned a damm thing!! maybe if they looked into the past the future might be a wee bit brighter!

Originally Posted by Womble

I would also like to pass on my sympathies to ALL depts, It aint easy, whatever you do! It WILL only get worse!
The poor buggers left in the call centers will get the first load of flak as the network slowly degrades, followed by servce, and then finally Networks, who quite honestly are passed giving a ****.

The red indians have a saying; man walks thru life backwards, he exists in the present, but looks to the past, if he looked over his shoulder he would see the future.

NTL managment have not learned a damm thing!! maybe if they looked into the past the future might be a wee bit brighter!

[HD462]

Sorry to hear of these redundacies, it's never a good time to lose colleagues. I'm only new here, but reading these posts gives me a feeling of deja vu !

I'm a maintenance engineer for a bus company. We used to be a lot of smaller local companies until de-regulation and the growth of the big companies. They bought up all the smaller ones (similar to how NTL and Telewest have grown). Then found their costs were too high, to started chopping away behind the scenes to get costs down.

They're reluctant to cut drivers as that's the public face of the company (a bit like your Call Centre staff), but have cut the maintenance side lots (we've come from 12 engineers and 4 apprentices, to five engineers and no apprentices over the years). A similar position to how your engineering dep't is going.

The management don't have the foresight to see if we aren't there maintaining their network of vehicles (same as you with ntl's network), the service just doesn't run. Buses can't be on the road with no support services, the same as TV phone, and Internet won't work without support either.

Our firm would now rather bring in an outside firm at £80 an hour, than have enough of it's own staff to deal with problems in house.

The similarities are uncanny.

Sorry for you all.

[Florence]

Originally Posted by Womble

I would also like to pass on my sympathies to ALL depts, It aint easy, whatever you do! It WILL only get worse!
The poor buggers left in the call centers will get the first load of flak as the network slowly degrades, followed by servce, and then finally Networks, who quite honestly are passed giving a ****.

The red indians have a saying; man walks thru life backwards, he exists in the present, but looks to the past, if he looked over his shoulder he would see the future.

NTL managment have not learned a damm thing!! maybe if they looked into the past the future might be a wee bit brighter!

Well said they do need to look to the future and before its to late.

My sympathies to all who have lost their jobs and I hope and pray that as this door closes another door opens giving these people a better future.

NTL is fast heading for a company with too many chiefs and not enough indians!