Royal Mail: Less Than Third Of Staff Back Management And Feel Valued

How Many Royal Mail Staff Are Angry About Their Bosses?
An embroidered logo sits on the shirt pocket of a Royal Mail Group Ltd. postman as he delivers mail in Hornchurch, U.K., on Wednesday, July 10, 2013. The U.K. government will sell a majority stake in Royal Mail Group Ltd., the 360-year-old state postal service, through an initial public offering before the end of March, Business Secretary Vince Cable said. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
An embroidered logo sits on the shirt pocket of a Royal Mail Group Ltd. postman as he delivers mail in Hornchurch, U.K., on Wednesday, July 10, 2013. The U.K. government will sell a majority stake in Royal Mail Group Ltd., the 360-year-old state postal service, through an initial public offering before the end of March, Business Secretary Vince Cable said. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Royal Mail workers have revealed their poor levels of confidence in senior management and their concerns of being bullied in the workplace in the organisation's internal employee feedback survey.

Just 28% of the 110,000 staff asked feel confident in the decisions taken by senior management, with 34% saying their managment "communicates a clear vision".

Meanwhile just a third feel "valued and recognised. Around one in seven (14%) of staff say they have been bullied or harassed in the workplace.

The findings provoked fierce reaction from the postal unions.

The Communication Workers Union said: "Postal workers clearly don't have confidence in many business decisions being taken, which they see putting pressure on their everyday working lives without improving services for customers.

"Bullying is an issue we have raised with Royal Mail at the highest level. We have serious concerns that bullying has increased as managers seek savings in preparation for privatisation."

The staff are not asked about the subject of Royal Mail's controversial part-privatisation in the survey. However, the revelations would add to the difficulties facing Royal Mail management as it navigates the process of attracting private capital and threats of industrial action.

The results revealing the extent of employee discontent were released after a Freedom of Information Request from the Daily Telegraph.

In response, Royal Mail said: "Royal Mail is undertaking one of the largest transformation programmes in history. We recognise these are times of significant change and we are asking a lot of our people."

"We are redoubling our efforts to communicate with our people about the challenges we face and our strategy to address them.

"Our strategy is delivering. We have reported a strong financial performance. We are creating a commercial, customer-focused company.

"Our people are key to our transformation. With continued support and engagement of our people, we can deliver our objectives to help ensure that we are financially successful and able to access the capital needed to deliver the ongoing transformation of the business."

A spokesperson highlighted that nearly two-thirds of staff say they feel proud to work for Royal Mail and 72% want to work for the organisation.

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