For what its worth here's my message to TAG;
As many have said before, PLEASE stop listening to management and start listening to all of us at ground zero (that includes controllers, assistants engineers etc). You may not like what you hear, but at least you will get the full truth and not some pc-management speak. We all want to do our jobs in the SAFEST way, it may not be the easiest or cheapest way, but safety must NEVER come at any price and only those who do the job NOW (not managers who used to do it 10 or 15 years ago) know how this is best achieved.
By listening and accepting what we say, you will not only get the best advice possible, but you will be amazed at the improvement in staff relations - something that has been utterly destroyed by the previous management.
The other thing I would like to see changed is the "Cutting costs for the sake of it" syndrome that pervades the management of Nats. A shift rarely passes without hearing of some new idea to eliminate this or that based solely on its cost. For example, one of the latest wheeze's is to do away with everyones personal Mats 1 and only have a few available on unit, now before we get into the merits, or not, of such an idea, the most worrying thing is that it has been presented to the staff almost as a fait accompli. We are told that this "will happen" and we are then left to argue the point. Surely, when SAFETY is our priority, then some sort of safety case/analysis etc should be carried out before any decision is made - especially one where we, the staff, are involved, not just the budget worriers.
My point is this, although any wheeze may delight the bean counters (bean counters = unit managers), surely as it will affect the staff, we should be consulted before hand and work with management and not have to fight all the time, which only serves to increase bad feeling and lower morale.
Well rant over, will we see any changes? not untill we get some honest, straight-forward people in senior positions.
