‘Performance Management, Lean and Sickness Absence Management – Workers Paying for the Crisis’

1. ‘Performance Management, Lean and Sickness Absence Management – Workers Paying for the Crisis’ Professor Phil Taylor University of Strathclyde 8 September 2001 Communication Workers Union Public Meeting Dragon Hotel, Swansea

2. Motion Passed at STUC • Workers subject to new forms of Performance Management - causing mental-ill health? • Research originally to be desk-based but little on effects of PM on workers • Review of academic literature on PM, prescriptive HRM and limited amount of critical work • Diverse studies and reports • 25 interviews of union FTOs and reps + 2 others • 25 union conferences, seminars and briefings • Report supported by CWU and Unite the Union launched by STUC at Scottish Parliament

3. Crisis and Recession • Two elephants in the room:- 1) Recession 2) ConDems • Catastrophic failure of the de-regulated neo-liberal • economic hegemony that dominated for decades • Pain inflicted from years of corporate greed and hubris • The ‘credit crunch’ trivialised the crisis • Spread beyond immediate origins in financial services but FS crisis goes on – catastrophic job losses • Great Recession to Great Stabilisation but to where? –debt overhang, new recession, US stats show jobless recovery, UK ‘recovery’ fitful if not pitiful - OECD • 2) The illegitimate ConDem government – 36% voted for • the Tories on a 65% turnout • Only 1 in 4 of eligible votes

7. 64% of the electorate did NOT vote for…. • ...billions of cuts...NHS privatisation...attacks on the poorest • …on H&S regulation…punitive sickness absence…the destruction of the public university…the bonfire of so-called red tape…social deprivation that causes alienation • New politics are the old politics of class rule and privilege • Making workers pay for a crisis not of their own making • Nationalisation was no return to Keynesianism, to ‘statised’ controls, but of last resort – until ‘normal service’ resumed • Hester - £2.04m bonus for 2010 – more for 2011 • RBS’ job loss unjustifiable when bank 84% state owned • £50bn in bank bonuses – service as normal • Cuts in public spending will deepen the recession • 26 March and June 30 show depth of discontent – Oct 2nd

9. Employers’ Cost Reduction StrategiesSTAR

10. Lean, PM, SAP - Work Intensification • Most important from the perspective of unions, their members - the ‘survivors’ of the job cull • An integrated and conscious managerial offensive that is squeezing every drop of effort out of workers • Workers paying for the crisis is translating into an unprecedented intensification of work • Restructuring, re-engineering ,‘lean’, creative synergies • Equivalent or larger volumes of work being done with the same or more likely smaller workforces • Sheer intensity of labour during the working shift

11. What is ‘lean’? • A raft of management practices from the motor industry • Core thesis – orgs. which strip out wasteful (or non-value added) gain significant quality and efficiency advantages • Toyota Lean Production Model • Team became lean’s organisational form – so-called multi-skilling, task enlargement, worker participation in kaizen • Lean - counterposedto Taylorism- would remove mind-numbing stress with ‘creative stress’, participation etc. • Hence ‘work smarter, not harder’ mantra • Yet workers’ experiences in autos and HMRC • - tighter supervisory surveillance and control - narrow tasking • - greater job strain and stress - managerial bullying - lack of voice • - delayering and ‘management by stress’ • Consultants and academics now applying efficiency savings to public sector, financial services, NHS etc.

12. A brutalised form of Taylorism in HMRC • After Lean95% say work ‘very’/‘quite’ pressurised • Volume, pace, intensity of work – hugely increased • ‘After 27 years in the Inland Revenue following the introduction of lean, I am now deskilled, de-motivated [and] stressed-out most days, afraid to be sick, feel unappreciated, provide a poor service for customers, am not allowed to voice my opinion, looking forward to the day I can leave for good’. (HMRC Worker, Cardiff) • Motion at CWU correctly brings together PM, AM and SAP • Statistical relationship between work intensity, time at work station, coming to work ill and frequency of symptoms

13. Frequency of Symptoms/Complaints Pre- and Post-Lean/PM

14. What is Performance Management? • Measurement of performance central to management • Aligning individual with organisational objectives • HRM literature – gives a positively Orwellian account • ‘Agreed’, ‘shared’, ‘mutual expectations’, ‘dialogue’, ‘support’, ‘guidance’ • Performance Appraisal previously an ‘annual ritual’ • Questionable link between effort and reward • PAs annual, 6-monthly – always subjectivity problem • PM not periodic and retrospective but continuous forward looking and shifts to disciplinary purpose • Performance Improvement, PIPs, Managing Performance, PIMs, IIPs – the real bite in PM • Pre-dated the crisis but then accelerated by it

15. Micro-measurement and micro-management of individual performance – facilitated by technologies • Quantitative outputs and targets • KPIs, SLAs – determined at the top, ‘cascade down’ through tiers of managers, to TLs and then workers • Remove the discretion of the FLM – tight links in the chain of command – ‘nothing to do with me’ • Managers given targets for the numbers of ‘managed exits’, underperformers, SAP actions etc. • Even the so-called measurablesare ‘pseudo-science’ - parameters and definitions set by management • Subjectivity of so-called objective criteria

22. Qualitativebehaviours and attitudes • NAG e.g. 13 different behaviours ‘delight the customer’, ‘speaks up’, ‘shares ideas’ • ‘Do what is right for the customer, community and organisation, putting aside own agenda’ • ‘Act like the owners of the business…’ Mmmmm • The ‘new model worker’, subservient, smiling, superhuman, selfless, Stakhanovite and stressed • Can’t just come to work and do your job well and be supported • The company wants your labour, the value you create and your very being and soul

23. The Performance Management Bell Curve Meets expectations Below expectations Above expectations Excellent performance Serious under performance 10% 15% 50% 15% 10%

24. Companies reluctant to admit they use Bell curve or say it is only for indicative purposes • ‘It was being used absolutely and to the letter’ (Bank C) • Changed criteria -1s and 2s both underperformers • ‘Round table process’ or ‘Grandparenting’ – to prevent FLMs from inflating scores – fixed pot of money • Bank branch of five – 1 placed in each category • Speed of managing people out - 12 weeks, 6 weeks • Scale of intimidation – in one bank 10% on actions • Excellent in all categories but one and then PIP’ed • Sinister practices such as the ‘car park conversation’ • Compromise agreements – most common reason ‘to remove an employee…without the risk of legal challenge’

25. Sickness Absence Management • Worsened by Sickness Absence Management • ‘SicknoteBritain’ and duvet days - a myth • New procedures and harsh implementation of existing policies - all absence illegitimate • Presenteeismrather absenteeism is the problem • People attend work unwell or return prematurely • Sackings on grounds of ‘capability’ and breach of triggers – Bradford factor • Appalling instances of brutal managerialism • Welfarism a distant memory • New Welfare Reform Bill – Cameron’s crusade

26. Sickness and Ill-health • Appalling insecurity, vulnerability and indignity • Bullying is systemic not the individual manager • ‘The organisation always seems to know who are the most fragile people to be picked on’ • Protections being systematically stripped away • 2009: MSD– 538,000 cases SDA– 415,000 cases • ‘We had an incident in one of our centres last year where a woman locked herself in a room and said she was going to commit suicide. She was under a PM procedure and she had not told her husband. The company was clearly trying to exit her. It was a really, really sad case’. (Unite National Officer) • Manager hanged himself in a telephone exchange • Prospect and other unions have Samaritans on webpage

27. The Vicious Circle

28. What Can Be Done? • Unions indispensable for protecting health of members • Evidence of successful defence of individuals e.g. DDA • Unions conducting H&S and stress audits at work • Employees should not be punished for a crisis they did not cause but encouraged to perform effectively • Employer strategies using punitive PM and SAPs are short-termist and counter-productive • Enormous commitment of managerial time and resource • The Bell curve should be rejected as inapplicable to employee performance – in principle and practice • Public exposure of the worst cases of ‘new tyranny in the contemporary workplace’ • Opportunities to organise, recruit, represent and resist • From individual representation to collective organisation