History is on repeat.

I recently got involved in a spat with my sons last employer Toolstation in Bridgwater.

In a nutshell, he was asked by his agency to take a new role at Toolstation. It paid more money, and the agency had to provide persons of a certain calibre. So my son was placed based on his ability and suitability, not his availability (he was employed already).

The job at Toolstation lasted one shift of eight hours. The reason, tribalism on the shop floor, a bullying culture operating on the basis of `shared information is a loss of power’. So common, so frequent and I suspect over time that it has sat at the core of a multitude of project failures in every sector in every industry.

I was livid, I don’t think I’ve been so poleaxed by rage in years. I wrote to the CEO of the Travis Perkins group and said the whole incident was unacceptable. I had a brief exchange with his executive assistant, who assured me that the matter would be investigated. A few hours later the head of HR at Toolstation Bridgwater assured me that there would be a full investigation.

Today that same head of HR has contacted me to say that the issues are being accounted for, but he can’t share details, for obvious reasons of employer/employee confidentiality. Fine and reasonable.

Below this, is the moderately edited text of my final email response.

It’s an employers market, as a population we saw exactly the same behaviours play out at the peak fallout from the financial crisis. Workers’ rights were overlooked on the premise that `there are plenty of other people out there looking for work’, minimum wage became the default position in out-of-town locations where low-quality warehousing and single operation manufacturing work forms a great deal of available employment. People lost their value, in exactly the same way as any commodity does when it becomes abundant.

Effectively at the bottom of the food-chain, those scratching around for scraps found they had to fight for them. An erosion of workers rights by default, and by dint of attrition, and with no real conscious input from management. It was and is a grassroots issue that is poorly observed at range. Coming out of the pandemic we are going see exactly the same behaviours again at the shop floor, as people vent their frustration and fear of uncertainty on their subordinates; to fortify their positions and to exert `some control’ over some aspect of their lives in an uncertain world.

It needs to be recognised and mitigated in advance `if you can be nothing else, be kind’, needs to be the maxim moving forward.