Scottish Coastguard team resign!!!!!

[starboard]

Hope the powers to be soon see sense and find a way of settling this dispute before any lives are lost!!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6927424.stm


Paul.

 

[dom]

There are probably two sides to this but allowing this kind of mess to happen seems to me to be pretty bad management.

 

[peterb26]

Unfortunately the situation in Scotland is not unique in my experience as a Coastguard. We have come perilously close to that situation in England as well.

And in the ones I have seen it has always been dreadful management and inter-personal skills on the behalf of the manager.

However - to put it in context, the MCGA will NEVER recruit good managers when a Sector Managers salary is presently below £20k per year.

It is the Sector Manager that this volunteer Station Officer has fallen out with. And the volunteer team have all stood behind the volunteer Station Officer. I think that tells you where the problem is!!

But very sad. These guys that volunteer are the salt of the earth. Sadly with the Sector Managers, in some cases - if you pay peanuts..........

 

[nick1568]

Couldn't agree more with the above post. Says it all really.
As with all coastguard positions sector managers are seriously underpaid. MCA management seems to be blind to the state of affairs we find ourselves in at the moment. Across the country volunteers are taken for granted and their good nature is abused. Sooner or later people have enough of this and vote with their feet.
In the part of the world where I work 4 teams are considering resigning due to a whole range of issues, not least of which is mismanagement by the powers that be.

All I can say is watch this space. This issue will rear its ugly head again before the year is out. Its such a shame because these guys and girls really are the most dedicated and hard working you could ever wish to meet. How many of us would drop everything and run off to help others, often many times a week in peak season, all for nothing more than a pat on the back.

 

[peterb26]

[ QUOTE ]
Couldn't agree more with the above post. Says it all really.
As with all coastguard positions sector managers are seriously underpaid. MCA management seems to be blind to the state of affairs we find ourselves in at the moment. Across the country volunteers are taken for granted and their good nature is abused. Sooner or later people have enough of this and vote with their feet.
In the part of the world where I work 4 teams are considering resigning due to a whole range of issues, not least of which is mismanagement by the powers that be.

All I can say is watch this space. This issue will rear its ugly head again before the year is out. Its such a shame because these guys and girls really are the most dedicated and hard working you could ever wish to meet. How many of us would drop everything and run off to help others, often many times a week in peak season, all for nothing more than a pat on the back.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that said it better than I did.

And to be completely open, I resigned entirely because of the local Sector Manager.

I think I was the sixth volunteer resignation from the team in a very short space of time, but (if I can borrow a phrase) "MCA Management was blind" to all of these, despite knowing exactly what went on.

 

[JonA]

This is nothing new I'm afraid. I resigned many years ago as what was then called auxillary-in-charge over a poor management issue.

Jonathan

 

[dom]

I can understand your point. Once I see "disciplinary action", "our rules and regulations" together with "health and safety" in the same breath as passionate volunteer staff I have an automatic negative reaction. The truth is these twits are just as ineffectual and can create just as much damage in the commercial world.

Now the question that comes to my mind is exactly what qualifications this "management" has to manage the volunteer staff. Because if they cannot command respect in their own right then all is lost. That simple!

I bet you these numnuts would have found a way to stop aid being taken to the elderly and infirm during the recent floods. Probably suspended the staff!

 

[DeeGee]

Clearly needs someone in charge at the top with proper management skills.... let's see, Sir Ian Blair might be available soon... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[starboard]

As the old saying goes if you pay them peanuts you only get monkeys!!!!

Paul.

 

[peterb26]

More information here.

 

[Sgeir]

'The MCA spokesman said: "Murdo Morrison for us is now history"'.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation, surely only the poorest of managements would make a public statement about an individual, even one that has been dismissed, in such a cold manner?

 

[peterb26]

Well you did say "The poorest of managements".

 

[ccscott49]

Lets face it!
The Goverment and through them the MCA doesnt give a stuff! They can't/wont pay their permanent staff a decent wage, as far as I can see the government would just like the MCA to go away. They dont care, fairly obvious really. They would like a totally volunteer/charitable organisation like the RNLI, paid for by the public, so they dont have to pay for it.
Management? What management, they wouldnt last ten minutes in the real world.

 

[Pete7]

"Mr Morrison was sacked on June 5 in a phone call at 1am from Stornoway Coastguard chief Karl Taylor after he returned home exhausted after co-ordinating a lengthy search for missing canoeist,"

By phone call at 1am in the morning, well that was well handled then /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Pete

 

[alldownwind]

A tad unfair to tar all sector managers with the same brush. I've known some brilliant ones who just loved the job, never mind the crap pay. But I have also known some complete twats who should never have been even short-listed for the job, let alone got the job.
The actions of others in calling the sacked SO 'history' in a quote to a journalist, and also in reportedly sacking the guy over the phone at 0100, are appalling and must be brought to the attention of the new CEO of the MCA. Someone reading this must have his email address?

 

[peterb26]

ADW - I think thats a very good point. There are both awesomely good Sector Managers and, unfortunately, the other sort as well.

What I was trying to get across is that if you wanted to recruit a manager for perhaps 40 people, you would expect to be able to offer more than 19k for the guys remuneration.