I EXPECT that many retired people like myself will have read your report on employers practices with sadness, though without displaying much by way of surprise ( "Thousands of Scots workers complain of unfair practices by their employers", The Herald, February 5).
The Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) revelation that we still have evidence indicating "some of the unfair employment practices we see put workers in difficult, complex and miserable situations" is perhaps a wake-up call to people in Scottish senior posts throughout the private and public sectors.
I believe the fact is that the last three decades of the 20th century saw a plethora of innovative management gurus publish new and exciting perspectives on the relationship and development of people as employees. It always appeared to me that many of our senior managers ignored such enlightened developments on cherishing staff or briefly dabbled, before reverting to type. The established safety of the attitude displayed by 19th century mill owners seemingly remained for many a refuge; but perhaps only those ones who considered Robert Owen in New Lanark was a big softy.
Managers in most sectors of employment - and of both sexes - have I feel, frequently retained the macho norms of Scotland, for example, in not talking proactively with staff but rather to them, as people they pay. To do otherwise would perhaps have made such types feel unguarded, vulnerable and too close for comfort. I have usually found that many of our people who hold top jobs are often those who appear to live with most fear and insecurity. As a consequence any suggestion of liberalisation and empowerment of employees is often treated defensively at best and as a personal threat at worst. Participative management is surely the easiest thing to fake for an authoritarian who wants their own way.
The issue is perhaps also more notable in Scotland because our interpersonal psyche evolved from a clan system with an embedded distrust of strangers who were not of the close family. Some of the very staff whom modern managers should be expected to embrace as growing assets simply become part of a dysfunctional family at work. While we have a high number of the most paper-qualified managers in Scotland, I suggest that many have skills restricted to the administrative process of management. For some there seems a lack of a genuine interest in nurturing people as aspiring individuals in their employment.
Bill Brown,
46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.
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