Originally Posted by
ShyTorque
When the RAF brought in something called “NMS” (New Management Strategy), in the mid 1980s, finite financial resources were given to local commanders, rather than being held centrally. Essentially this meant that stations had to manage their own budget. Squadron commanders likewise. Responsibility obviously flows downhill (putting it politely).
Because no extra staff were given to manage budgets (and as far as I recall, no financial training was given to existing personnel) this resulted in a great deal of stress and a large extra workload for local units.
Our Squadron boss was seldom seen again - he seemed to spend most of his time in his office, rather than leading from the front.
I remember having a number of consecutive leave application passes rejected, meaning that I had been allowed only a small fraction of my leave allocation in one year. After an AOC’s visit two of us were called into the Boss’s office to explain why we had not taken leave; questions had obviously been asked by his staff. I reminded the Boss that it was because he had personally turned down my leave applications, or at least his signature was on them. He seemed rather embarrassed but nothing more was said.
I later discovered from a flight lieutenant navigator, who had been given responsibility for vetting certain parts of the unit budget, that leave passes had been turned down because money allocated for leave travel had been overspent! So staff leave was being sacrificed to avoid risking embarrassment over further overspend.
It was that same Boss who announced that the unit would henceforth work an early shift and a late shift, to gain maximum usage of the reducing number of aircraft available. After a couple of weeks we all found ourselves working both shifts.
More reasons why I took my option to leave. But at least it worked out well for said Boss, he later made Air Rank.
ah yes…”NMS” ….another wonderful idea (along with MDGs, out sourcing, relentless contractorisation, CoCo etc etc). I’m sure several promotions were reward for that initiative.
As an aside….
I recall being sent from t’HQ to a DA/EA meeting along with my boss. It was in Munich on a Wednesday and was to discuss (for 15 min tops) a seat mod proposal. The most efficient way was LHR to EDDM early morning, with the plan being to get to meeting at around 1100. Our Item was early on the agenda. We would discuss it, put the EA view then, leave and return by air to LHR in the early evening. A day out of the office. Lovely.
However comma - Air travel was rejected by senior management …”no money left in the budget”.
The meeting, however , was still deemed essential - so as not to hand over MoD decision making to our allies and fellow participants in this multi national project.
So, me and my boss, booked out a car (nice big estate) on the Monday morning. Day 1. Drove to Dover, ferry to Calais then night stop to the south east somewhere. Day 2 Drive on to Munich (finding accommodation was a real problem as there was a major ‘Messe’ in town - but we managed just in time to sample the Hoffbrauhaus and have a halbe haxe) Day 3 drive to the meeting to deliver the 15 min input, then leave after lunch. Drive North a bit. Night stop. Day 4. Drive on to Calais and night stop. Day 5, drive to Carefor Hypermarche, in Calais load them big estate with copious quantities of duty free, get on ferry, then drive back to the office. Day 6 (following Monday) submit genuine ‘rate’ claims for two.
I have no idea what the total cost was, but it didn’t come out of the air travel budget so NMS was appeased.
lovely grub!