Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart William Peach, GBE, KCB, ADC, DL said ......
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Crab@, about contractor maintenance, while the contractor has his margins squeezed it also falls the the contract monitor to hold him to account. I had it easy on a small unit; I knew the contract and I knew the maintenance needs.
On a large unit you probably need a contract maintenance committee to keep the contractor to the mark.
I have just come off a cruise ship that hut the spot. They give passengers a phone number to report problems they may have missed. Loose floor tile, rang hotline, next day fixed.
How many people just live with problems and then moan? Eventually your 'to do' jobs becomes huge, prioritized, and jobs shelved.
On a large unit you probably need a contract maintenance committee to keep the contractor to the mark.
I have just come off a cruise ship that hut the spot. They give passengers a phone number to report problems they may have missed. Loose floor tile, rang hotline, next day fixed.
How many people just live with problems and then moan? Eventually your 'to do' jobs becomes huge, prioritized, and jobs shelved.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Melchett, re pay-pension, I remember one Jock McColl back in about 1968 working that one when redundancy was also offered. It didn't take him long to realise pension plus wheelbarrow of cash equalled more golf.
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Incidentally, many look at pay in another way if they hit a pension point. Given that from that point on they could leave drawing a pension and start a second career, they are in fact effectively working for a rate of pay equivalent to salary - pension. When people work that one out for the first time you certainly see the cogs turning!
Incidentally, many look at pay in another way if they hit a pension point. Given that from that point on they could leave drawing a pension and start a second career, they are in fact effectively working for a rate of pay equivalent to salary - pension. When people work that one out for the first time you certainly see the cogs turning!
One large spreadsheet later, a couple of salient points emerged:
- Deducting potential pension from current pay meant I was flogging myself at MoD for a pittance (I think it worked out at about £18k pa.)
- My pension income would drop me out of the higher-rate tax bracket, with consequential benefit to tax on the interest earned on substantial savings.
Unsurprisingly, I grabbed the Redundancy money and ran away to the hills, hotly pursued a year or so later by my redundancy-successful wife
The quota is to re-recruit 500 recent leavers of all flavours per year.
Perhaps the chap at the desk downstairs should first establish why those 'recent leavers'....left?
PN -
true but when you constantly report those problems and receive no action, you eventually give up and 'live' with them or sort them yourself.
I don't know what the contract monitors actually do but it certainly isn't holding the contractor's feet to the fire.
How many people just live with problems and then moan? Eventually your 'to do' jobs becomes huge, prioritized, and jobs shelved.
I don't know what the contract monitors actually do but it certainly isn't holding the contractor's feet to the fire.
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Speaking as someone who hasn't yet retired I do wonder what planet Stu Peach is on. The yearly reduction in pay, and it is a reduction (my take home dropped by £370 as a result of this year's pay round) and the continual 'management of decline' do not make the Armed Forces an enjoyable place to be anymore. Despite the 'red tape challenge' I have yet to see ANY bureaucracy swept away particularly with the endless justification and authorisation to spend funds that have already been justified and authorised as part of the budgetary cycle! Counting down the days.....
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What has not been mentioned anywhere above is the dilemma the UK finds itself in and the impact on retention. Whilst the huge deficit is suppressing public sector pay, and thus that of the Forces, the economy is booming in the private sector with near record job lows. What does this mean? It means it is easy to leave and get a job.
When I was a lad in the RN conflict was not really an issue and life was all about Standing NATO Groups and cocktail parties around the N Atlantic and Med. The really lucky ones went on world deployments via HK and AUS. We all loved it but no medals.
But then we went to war in the 90s and it remained like that until today and people wanted to go to the war zones and get their medals. Retention was pretty high and the pay good. Now things are changing. The tempo is still high due to lack of kit but not many medals. Pay remains good but dropping off rapidly...retention bites.
Re leadership. I can’t talk about the RAF (comments above not good) but the RN seems pretty well led. 1SL, VCDS and Fleet Cdr are top blokes, with some good guys behind them to follow. I would put money on 1SL or VCDS to follow Peachy as CDS.
When I was a lad in the RN conflict was not really an issue and life was all about Standing NATO Groups and cocktail parties around the N Atlantic and Med. The really lucky ones went on world deployments via HK and AUS. We all loved it but no medals.
But then we went to war in the 90s and it remained like that until today and people wanted to go to the war zones and get their medals. Retention was pretty high and the pay good. Now things are changing. The tempo is still high due to lack of kit but not many medals. Pay remains good but dropping off rapidly...retention bites.
Re leadership. I can’t talk about the RAF (comments above not good) but the RN seems pretty well led. 1SL, VCDS and Fleet Cdr are top blokes, with some good guys behind them to follow. I would put money on 1SL or VCDS to follow Peachy as CDS.
Yet the RN still find themselves in a manning crisis - 2 new carriers and no sailors to sail them - great blokes they may be but perhaps the Sea Lords have got their priorities wrong.
And frankly, being CDS of a desperately underfunded military with a massively top-heavy structure and limited real capability doesn't sound like much of a career high point.
And frankly, being CDS of a desperately underfunded military with a massively top-heavy structure and limited real capability doesn't sound like much of a career high point.
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"from the shop floor"... 
Yeah, those who had the time to fill out the lengthy surveys, and usually those who are completely sold by the military.
This is the reason things don't get better, those upon high think everything is peachy! (double drum symbol smash).
With respect to messes, the real infestation is a little bug called ISS! They have destroyed them, this is a fact.
. Lets not get started on service accommodation, shear amount of hours spent at work, lack of allowances and lack of personnel.
I'm out of here.
Yeah, those who had the time to fill out the lengthy surveys, and usually those who are completely sold by the military.
This is the reason things don't get better, those upon high think everything is peachy! (double drum symbol smash).
With respect to messes, the real infestation is a little bug called ISS! They have destroyed them, this is a fact.
. Lets not get started on service accommodation, shear amount of hours spent at work, lack of allowances and lack of personnel. I'm out of here.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Crab, in essence knowing what the contract covers and the performance standard. That said, the last contract I was involved with, the contract starter, a B grade CS, cut out all the measurable criteria such as time scales
Made it meaningless.
Made it meaningless.
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Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, is held in high regard internationally by Britain’s allies. He will go now go on to become the first British chairman of the Nato Military Committee for more than two decades.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a8278246.html
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Personally, depending on the context of Sir Stuart’s comments, I think the remuneration package is actually fairly reasonable when you consider it to civvy street. I grant that the 1% and 0% rises since 2011 have meant that our pay has gone down by ~10% in real terms if you have run out of pay increments in your current rank. If you were lucky enough to be promoted or start your current rank then your income will have pretty much stagnated in real terms for the past 6 years. But, people are not leaving because of the pay - it’s the terms and conditions of service, the perilous state of quarters/messes and our working environments, the constant churn of the past 20 years’ Op tempo, the malaise that has generally set in amongst us all that fiscal decisions are running the military and the lack of charismatic but intelligent leadership at 3-star and above in all 3 Services (where it would seem the “old boys’ club” only promote the 2-stars in their own likeness). Worst of all, it is the loss of trust that drives so many away and the fact that from SAC to roughly 2-star just about all allowances, management decisions, travel and discipline decisions are mired in the most ridiculous scrutiny and process that many are getting fed up with it. Further, as we drive away that ability to make a decision as an NCO or Officer we bog ourselves down in ever more bureaucracy - more and more MAA regulation, pointless JPA-tracked courses stating the bleeding obvious using so-called “online learning” and “practice bleeding” down to the lowest common denominator because a very small number can’t behave or need looking after. NCOs and Officers are no longer allowed to be leaders and we indoctrinate them at Dartmouth/Sandhurst/Cranwell and thence on at Shrivenham in our weak processes and make them think alike. Only really on Ops can the NCO or Officer use their head, that is why many look forward to ops, but if they come around as often as they have been in recent years then the work-life balance with family life starts to become a significant stressor.
That is why we lose our people, it is not the pay, it’s the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ that does it. Funnily enough (not that funny really) the US military are having serious retention problems as well - we share many of the same issues.
Sunday rant, over...
Personally, depending on the context of Sir Stuart’s comments, I think the remuneration package is actually fairly reasonable when you consider it to civvy street. I grant that the 1% and 0% rises since 2011 have meant that our pay has gone down by ~10% in real terms if you have run out of pay increments in your current rank. If you were lucky enough to be promoted or start your current rank then your income will have pretty much stagnated in real terms for the past 6 years. But, people are not leaving because of the pay - it’s the terms and conditions of service, the perilous state of quarters/messes and our working environments, the constant churn of the past 20 years’ Op tempo, the malaise that has generally set in amongst us all that fiscal decisions are running the military and the lack of charismatic but intelligent leadership at 3-star and above in all 3 Services (where it would seem the “old boys’ club” only promote the 2-stars in their own likeness). Worst of all, it is the loss of trust that drives so many away and the fact that from SAC to roughly 2-star just about all allowances, management decisions, travel and discipline decisions are mired in the most ridiculous scrutiny and process that many are getting fed up with it. Further, as we drive away that ability to make a decision as an NCO or Officer we bog ourselves down in ever more bureaucracy - more and more MAA regulation, pointless JPA-tracked courses stating the bleeding obvious using so-called “online learning” and “practice bleeding” down to the lowest common denominator because a very small number can’t behave or need looking after. NCOs and Officers are no longer allowed to be leaders and we indoctrinate them at Dartmouth/Sandhurst/Cranwell and thence on at Shrivenham in our weak processes and make them think alike. Only really on Ops can the NCO or Officer use their head, that is why many look forward to ops, but if they come around as often as they have been in recent years then the work-life balance with family life starts to become a significant stressor.
That is why we lose our people, it is not the pay, it’s the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ that does it. Funnily enough (not that funny really) the US military are having serious retention problems as well - we share many of the same issues.
Sunday rant, over...
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Sorry but
He really believes this horsesh*t he is spouting, in that case perhaps he should consider reducing his pay grade to that of a Flight Lieutenant, if it's just the fun of the uniform life he prefers.
On several occasions Marr repeated the specific question, quoting servicemen being limited to 1% pay rise whilst other government employees enjoy 2-3%. In response Sir Stuart stated that members of the U.K. Military do not hold salary as their primary focus for work. They instead serve to enjoy serving in uniform. This he 'heard' from the shop floor. He also devolved responsibility solely to the AFPRB.
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