Originally Posted By: Geoff Hannis

Originally Posted By: Marky
T'was like a Big Brother state though and did nothing for staff morale.

Indeed. And what use was made of such information, one wonders?

Or can we assume that is was simply used as a stick with which to beat the happy workers? frown

It's a well known "management" technique, that of setting everyone in competition with everyone else. It can even work well (in the sense of delivering the results required by the Organisation) ... in the army, for example!

In my experience, given time, the happy worker sees through all that c**p, and (assuming of course that s/he is even interested in so-called "career development" at all) ends up simply "playing the game" (that is, "giving them what they want" ... but little, if anything, else). Oh yes, it's a great tool (but just one of the many) for stifling initiative or any semblance of creativity, and producing a team of, er ... drones!


Therein lies the problem. We were always assured the information was used for improving machine reliability but it seemed to be accessed most at redundancy time! Friction was created between some of the lazy types ("get paid no matter how much I do") and those with a genuine work ethic as the information was accessable to everyone. Then there were those in the middle ground who just did enough to get by and as you say "play the game".
There is no doubt though that it can be an effective tool if utilised properly. There are several areas which can be picked up on, for instance, one tech does all the work on one type of equipment - is that due to him being happy toddling along doing that or is it due to lack of trained techs?
If used the right way it could seriously improve the way things are done but as with many of these systems it is open to misuse or abuse.