SNCOs an WOs are the backbone of all services. To treat them is such a callous manner is indicative of the prevailing mindset in the MOD. My distaste at this treatment is tempered by my low expectations from these incompetents.
In the early 90s my SNCO got a signal sending me on a OOA without the [then] requisite amount of notice. I was called in for an office chat with her and my flight cdr and everyone was very helpful and supportive. I had a wife but no kids, and it wasn't even anywhere dangerous (well, Al Qaeda blew it up 6 months after I left). On reflection my bosses' response was a bit too much.
My point is stuff was done sensitively and with considerations for the individual wherever possible. There were also double the number of people then. That f**king people about has now become routine is no excuse for not still treating them like people, and stuff like redundancy nominees should be treated as
extremely (that's bold, size 5, underlined in italics) sensitive until the individual has received the courtesy of being told. Whoever ignored that courtesy through slapdash procedure needs a stiff bollocking.
In 2006 I wrote a very robustly worded letter to the RAF News about how 30 or so people on my current OOA det had about 2-3 weeks left of det but nobody had nominated replacements (so couldn't tell families a homecoming date / plan etc), while others were getting dates a week or so after their 'finishing post' date. As most of us know, stuff like coming home date really matters. The letter took me hours to get just right so I was a bit peeved it was never published. Wrote to the editor of RAF News who explained it had been sent to the right person for an official reply but nothing was heard back even after a reminder. Editor then reminded me he worked for
Pravda.
Defence cuts apart, the one free win (low hanging fruit if airships ever read this) that's within our grasp is to get better at managing people. 'Open door' is like IiP - meaningless unless something tangible results, so how about using JPA to show people where they are on various lists, not forgetting some stuff (eg. redundancy) still needs to be done by humans first!