Sports Direct - Mike Ashley

[Rob1742]

Got some sympathy really. Not easy managing people, however you treat them a good percentage take the pxxx.

 

With the number of employees he has, I believe that you should have a clocking in system and if you are a minute late, you get docked 15 minutes. 

 

I mean, what do you do instead? Tell everybody they can be ten minutes late without implications? If you do, you could put money on it that everyone would turn up ten minutes late. 

 

Not being mean, I have worked in a factory and seen what goes on, people trying to getaway with what they can. Also as an employee now, I have seen what people try and get away with.

 

Not a likeable person, but I sympathise with him having to try and manage such a huge workforce, with many of them trying to get away with what they can. 

[Webbo]

As a general rule I agree, but I don't know enough about this specific situation to say.

[Samilktray]

Weird thread 

[KjetilOsvold]

17 minutes ago, Rob1742 said:

With the number of employees he has, I believe that you should have a clocking in system and if you are a minute late, you get docked 15 minutes. 

How about a system where if you are 1 minute late, you get docked 1 minute? 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, KjetilOsvold said:

How about a system where if you are 1 minute late, you get docked 1 minute? 

 

That's not a deterrent is it?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, KjetilOsvold said:

How about a system where if you are 1 minute late, you get docked 1 minute? 

What about a system where if you're late 3 times in a year, you're fired without notice.

 

Or a minute late then you're docked half a day's pay.

 

People should be at work ready to work at the time they are paid from.

[Jay]

You don't have to treat people like crap just because you employ them, John Lewis seem to do ok with employing more people and treating them with respect.

 

What he is very good at is exploiting every possible thing to maximise profit be it by paying less than minimum wage, docking them money, zero hour contracts to buying licensing rights to brand names from the past Dunlop, Slazenger etc and sticking them on cheap Chinese manufactured products.

 

 

 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Jay said:

You don't have to treat people like crap just because you employ them, John Lewis seem to do ok with employing more people and treating them with respect.

 

What he is very good at is exploiting every possible thing to maximise profit be it by paying less than minimum wage, docking them money, zero hour contracts to buying licensing rights to brand names from the past Dunlop, Slazenger etc and sticking them on cheap Chinese manufactured products.

 

 

 

 

I don't like him or his brand but I don't like employees abusing their position and not getting to work on time or putting in a full shift.

[RowlattsFox]

Do you get paid 15 minutes more if you clock in early? Or clock out late? 

[ozleicester]

Bollocks, if im a minute late, dock me a minute, if i keep doing it find someone more reliable. By the same token if you expect me to work longer, through lunch, on weekends or after hours, then you pay me for it.

 

 

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, RowlattsFox said:

Do you get paid 15 minutes more if you clock in early? Or clock out late? 

 

Is it optional?

 

If you are being asked to work overtime then you should be paid.

[Trav Le Bleu]

A happy workforce is a productive workforce. Making your employees resentful just means they will feel entitled to take liberties elsewhere, that they wouldn't even dream of if they were well treated.

[Webbo]

4 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

A happy workforce is a productive workforce. Making your employees resentful just means they will feel entitled to take liberties elsewhere, that they wouldn't even dream of if they were well treated.

I think you're being a bit optimistic there.

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 minute ago, Webbo said:

I think you're being a bit optimistic there.

I think I've worked at lots of places in 30 years and seen all sorts.  It also depends on the kind of people you employ.

 

Royal Mail used to be such a place. Staff were happy to do the odd little bit here and there for nothing and morale was good, but since we've been privatised and they force you to work longer for no extra pay, no one is willing to do the little extras for nothing and morale is low.

[Captain...]

If you're a minute late, you make it up at the end of your shift, shit happens (traffic, train delays, life) and Sports Direct is not going to cease trading for that minute. You get paid to work an 8 hour shift you get there late you make it up at the end. Unless being on time is critical to the business and affects others, but they are generally punishing the lowest paid. There needs to be some method to punish the lazy and feckless, but there also needs to be some common sense.

[Webbo]

I think the 15 minute stoppage is pretty common practice. It's a shame that honest, genuine hard working people are punished the same as piss takers but rules should always be applied equally. Real resentment happens when the rules are only applied to some.

[Trav Le Bleu]

3 minutes ago, Captain... said:

If you're a minute late, you make it up at the end of your shift, shit happens (traffic, train delays, life) and Sports Direct is not going to cease trading for that minute. You get paid to work an 8 hour shift you get there late you make it up at the end. Unless being on time is critical to the business and affects others, but they are generally punishing the lowest paid. There needs to be some method to punish the lazy and feckless, but there also needs to be some common sense.

Don't employ them?

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Webbo said:

I think the 15 minute stoppage is pretty common practice. It's a shame that honest, genuine hard working people are punished the same as piss takers but rules should always be applied equally. Real resentment happens when the rules are only applied to some.

 

I'm only a teacher but I get to work at least 30 minutes before I start, often an hour. I stay around after classes in case students want talk to me and I'm always available via email. I'd never dream of turning up to a class late or leaving early.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Don't employ them?

 

You don't know before they work for you. So I guess it needs to be easier to lay them off.

[Strokes]

12 minutes ago, FIF said:

 

You don't know before they work for you. So I guess it needs to be easier to lay them off.

Spoken like a true Tory

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Strokes said:

Spoken like a true Tory

 

 

I believe wholeheartedly in a safety net for the population and I believe in a fair wage for fair work. 

 

I believe in a progressive tax and a 90% tax band for those earning above a certain limit - whether that is 200k or 250K - that's for better informed than me to decide.

 

However I believe benefits should be a short term help for those between jobs and that benefits should be aimed at getting people into work. No-one should be having a better life on benefits than those at work. Everyone able to work should be in work as often as possible. I would go as far as giving coupons for food and clothes - yes it's demeaning, that's not great but neither is the use of benefits for drink, cigarettes, IPhones etc... Buy those when you're working. Without the deprivation too many people are happy not to work.

 

I know that my socialist colleagues may be disappointed in me but that doesn't make me a tory 

 

I only took unemployment benefit for a few months when I first left school and I took a job as an office boy (yes me the man with the brain the size of planet) as my first job - I ran the company within 4 years before leaving and going to university. Since university I've never taken any benefit and I pay my taxes every year. A safety net only works if people don't abuse it.

[katieakita]

3 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I think I've worked at lots of places in 30 years and seen all sorts.  It also depends on the kind of people you employ.

 

Royal Mail used to be such a place. Staff were happy to do the odd little bit here and there for nothing and morale was good, but since we've been privatised and they force you to work longer for no extra pay, no one is willing to do the little extras for nothing and morale is low.

Many issues at Sports Direct and for all the problems it is a bit rich coming from the government and their failure to deal with the numerous goings on at the Post Office. Have not read anywhere of Sports Direct facing a class action law suit which will cost the taxpayers many, many millions.

[m4DD0gg]

3 hours ago, FIF said:

 

 

I believe in a progressive tax and a 90% tax band for those earning above a certain limit - whether that is 200k or 250K - that's for better informed than me to decide.

 

 

assume this is a joke?

 

why the feck would someone who earns that sort of money have to pay such a high rate of tax?!

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Webbo said:

I think you're being a bit optimistic there.

The factory I work in doesn't have a clock in/out. You sign in and out on a paper log sheet for the hours you work and nobody really looks at it until they do payroll. You come and go from breaks and lunch without validating it with anyone else. There are some who take longer breaks or come in a few minutes late, but I'd say there's just as many who come back from break early. 

 

For myself, there's times where I'll be late coming back from break or lunch a few minutes for whatever reason, but since nobody has ever hassled me over it, I'm more than happy to take shorter breaks, later breaks or work right through them if we're really busy or a machine needs sorting out.

 

For a while they tried enforcing time tracking, and had temp employees clock in/out. The temps who cheated the system still found a way to cheat it, and the time tracking just upset everyone else and made them defensive about failing to reach 'ideal' targets when things out of their control interrupted them. It caused more problems than it solved and was scrapped not much later.

[Parafox]

How hard can it be to turn up on time for work and then spend all day looking at trainers and chavvy leisure wear?

 

Mike Ashley is a very unlikeable employer and exploits every employment loophole he can to make more money, getting to the very edge of employment law. I wouldn't want to work for him, but I suspect he isn't the only one, he is just a high profile one.