"The Grass is always greener on the other side" ... have you heard that one?
Firstly, this thread has wandered far from the topic of managers stepping in for operational staff, the safety issues thereof and union ballots to say "enough is enough". It has moved much more onto people's personal things away from their rail use, which isn't something that's encouraged - indeed it is discouraged save for the fact that if it's someone talking about their own situation then who are we, (the moderators) to discourage it. So we have been letting this thread run .... but keeping a watching eye.
Now is, I think, a time to say "enough is enough" and ask posters to to move back on topic, or let the thread quietly fade.
John and Shazz predict that Mookiemoo will get no sympathy on this forum. Ho, Hum, J and S - perhaps I'm going to surprise you. I can identify with much of what I have read on that "side" and in some aspects I have been there too.
But I've also been in roles where strong union support could potentially have helped to ensure that wrongs had not been committed, and from a purely practical viewpoint I think it is very important at larger employers for the employees to have a practical co-operation. In a one / two / three person company there may be little need for the coordination, but I can't imagine how each and every conductor could negotiate his own terms and conditions with First who (by virtue of being a profit generated company) are more or less bound to look to maximise income and minimise [staff] expenditure. It's much more efficient for them, too, to set things up with a single body such as a Union and I suspect they would confirm this if asked. And that single body really does need to be independent of the employer; otherwise conflicts of interest occur.OK - so how can I identify with the trials and travails of our first class traveller who's stated daily fees make some of the other contributors react jealously? Been there / am there! But I'm sure that may parts of my situation are different - so I'll open the door a little and give you some ideas with no direct comparison to a case I don't know and with a person I've never emailed or met.
For my work, I present training courses. The cost for a course that I present is very clear from
the web site about them and is far in excess of the pay rate of the majority of salaried 40 hour per week (or so) employees of companies. But that's only a tiny part of the story. I finished training last Thursday, and I don't have any more course bookings until 7th January, and there's no cushion of income for that time. When I need training in the specialist subjects that I'm concerned with, it's not simply a question of no income - it's negative income as I have to pay to travel to wherever it is, and pay what's probably an even higher rate to gain that knowledge that I need in turn.
But I've only just started to scratch the surface there. If I start a course on a Monday morning, having finished one the previous Friday evening, how on earth is everything ready and in place? It's because there's a whole team of staff behind the scenes. Our delegates typically arrive on Sunday evening (which is why I celebrate the return of an evening train from Swindon to Melksham on Sundays even though it hasn't actually run from Swindon once yet due to engineering!) and need to be checked in to
the hotel that forms part of our package. Breakfast needs to be prepared on Monday and subsequent mornings. You've got sales, marketing, invoicing, preparing manuals, booking systems, chambermaids, supplies specialists, food hygiene, adminstration, government rules and tax ... all on top of this.
There's a huge difference - and order of magnitude - between what's charged for my time of being in front of someone, and what I get out of it when all the extra costs which are "wholely, necessarily and exclusively" taken out of it are taken into account.In my own line I have - on a few rare occasions - travelled over and above standard class in order to ensure that I'm fresher and able to work at destination. And having paid what is usually a significant premium to ensure I can do a good job then, yes, I too am pretty unhappy if that extra investment is voided out. Take the other week - when a first class train ticket that should ensure me arriving fresh as a daisy in 15 minutes turned (last minute) into a ride in a replacement bus with people crammed in and standing, tiny seats, and a 50 minute journey with an uncomfortable knee full of luggage.
