Williams F1 team factory suffering work to rule & lack of morale

[John S]

Now where have we heard of these sort of internal disruptions before...….oh wait a minute McLaren last year.
Are Paddy's days numbered???    Claire too for that matter.
Guess the car performance at first few races will determine all.

TJ13 exclusive: A source from Grove has approached us: why are Williams F1 so bad?
Late on Monday, TJ13 received an anonymous email from an internal source within Grove. To quote:
“At the end of last year, all the managers in all manufacturing departments got sacked after an internal survey.
“They all obviously appealed, and have now all been paid off with no employment restrictions.
“Upper management are now trying to implement new working hours and staff are refusing to work more than the standard shift hours in protest of any change. So not a surprise the car is late and is not at the test”
Williams has managed to get their car to Barcelona this morning, but say that they’ll not be running until the afternoon at the earliest. The car arrived at 4am and Williams has been working since then to get it ready.

Courtesy thejudge13.com, 20th Febuary.

 

[Dare]

 I think if I was Williams I'd get some outside help determine why they aren't succeeding. They sure can't find out themselves.

[Alianora La Canta]

That makes no sense whatsoever. Even if Williams decided they had a problem with every single one of their manufacturing managers (itself quite unlikely...)

1) Why did they not have deputies who could step up in the emergency?

2) Why would they all be released simultaneously? It would take an incredible coincidence or conspiracy on the employees' part to all have firing cause simultaneously, even if a review was involved, and mere bad performance would result in retraining or warnings, not sackings (unless every single one of Williams' manufacturing team leaders is new, which is unlikely). And if a conspiracy was evident... ...What. Were. You. Doing. Team. Leaders?!?

3) Why did the bosses think they could maintain work restrictions on sacked personnel? While it can happen in the UK, a sacking makes it less likely, since it would be more difficult to prove the company was harmed by the staff working for rivals if that company decided they were harming the company's interests by continuing employment with them. (If The Judge misunderstood and this was actually voluntary encouragement that happened to be wildly successful due to team poaching/low morale/great offer (in the latter, expect them to show up at Racing Point and/or Renault because they've been hiring for those positions recently!) rather than legal termination of position, this can be skipped).

4) Who tries giving new contracts out - especially with employee-disfavourable terms - when two other teams are on a recruitment march and there's known to be unusual amounts of disruption in their own team? The carrot is better than the stick in this situation. I'm not sure who is the direct line manager of these manufacturing heads, or who wrote the new contracts, but they should probably be sent for retraining or warned...

5) I've been in a work-to-rule environment recently, and it is not fun. Even (or perhaps especially) if you're one of the people who thinks the cause of the protest is silly and refused to have no part in it. It's not just the lost hours that will have cost Williams, it's the drag of being around moany people who can't be trusted to pull their sleeves up and don't dare display enthusiasm at anything, all in fear of being called a "scab", "loser" or a "teacher's pet" if they look like they care about work. This does not appear to have anything to do with a union's opinion of such conduct; the union recognised by my company was cautiously disapproving of the latest work-to-rule system, has warmly approved some in the past, and it was the same bad atmosphere either way.

So, I feel sorry for the people who just want to put in a good day's work and give Williams a decent racing car. Depending on the exact situation, I feel sorry for those who felt wronged, too.

[guest3164]

As far as I'm aware from what I have read elsewhere, the Judge13 has a chequered history in terms of reliability so I take all the news on that site with a large pinch of salt. 

One thing about F1 is I cannot imagine anyone goes into it expecting an easy ride or rigid hours.  I feel the problem with the FW42 construction is just leading to happy hour when it comes to writing rubbish about the team. 

[Alianora La Canta]

True - but sufficiently low morale (regardless of cause) will cause work-to-rule. F1 teams likely have a higher threshold, but it exists.

[guest3164]

Oh, I do agree with that Ali without doubt.  My comment was more specifically about doubting the integrity of the source as opposed to the fact this happens every day in life.

[John S]

Well at least there's no 'Freddo' like incident being mentioned at the moment. 

Although there does seem room for a 'Finger of Fudge' in all this.