Some parts look robust and 'rough' but good quality (like the current outgoing Panda dash material), the blue bits in the pic above of the Grande Panda. Others, I agree, the rounded air vent part... plastic controls under, and the 12v socket area plastic surround trim even in that polished photo... looks very PSA and cheap / nasty quality. I could be wrong in person, but I think it will be a mismatch between quality and poor quality parts.
and rather more honest I feel. The centoventi was praised for the tough panels like teh the C3 cactus and all of this has been lost so its lost some of the appeal it could have had. Trouble with the Peugeot offerings for me is totally inadequate head room. So bad I didnt even look at the CitroensJust stick a "Panda" sticker on a C3/2008 and it'll be pretty much the same car
Yes indeed. I had a work colleague who was in a serious car accident. He spent years having the shattered palstic fragments taken out of his body from such a thing. Hopefully better plastics now. Im not averse to cheapness, if its cheaply priced as long as it carries out its function properly and for a respectable life span. Our SEat lower plastics were cheap, but still looked the same when it was recently scrapped as the day it was made. Cheap can be cheerfiul. There are some good things about this car and I like the interior simplicity, but its another thing getting needlessly bigger for no good reason. It has the aerodynamics of a breeze block. If I see any stuck in the snow, they will not be getting a tow! Might give a cheery peep on the horn as I go by.
I see they have their hands badly tied in the USA and keep having to buy workers out of their contracts in an attempt to cut costs
Much easier in the UK where you can just sack people without reason.
You can’t just ”sack” people in the Uk without reason, there have been pretty robust employment rights for years.
Im glad you have such a positive opinion of the UK situation. You want to see what Royal mail do to their staff, ditto all the refuse and FM companies I worked for who ride rough shod over the rules with impunity. I remember supporting one manager who went off on holiday to find someone else doing his job sitting on his office on his return. I did help him get proper compensation, but he nevr got his job back. . I made the direcotr aware that it wouldnt be a good idea. I was one of a very few who they didnt mess with in the main, but it was still apalling. UK law has been severely eroded under the last government and worker rights and redundancy rights removed to a great extent. SIck pay for the last 15 years of my working life was non existent as were inflationary pay rises. I even had to fight to get the statutory sick pay paid out. I had people ringing me when certificated off sick demanding I retiurn to work after surgery. Even pointing out that driving with your arm and wrist in plaster was ilegal did not have much impact. You should have heard what my surgeon said. Unprintable. I finished work with the minimum allowable holdays too, reduced without a bye your leave, in fact it was one of the key reasons to just walk out leaving me 8.5 years to live without any income. To be honest I was shocked how little difference it made when expenses - also often unpaid- were not incurred. Bloody good luck to the ones who had the silly conditions I say. The companies who were too bone idle to manage things effectively for many years and have now exactly what they deserve. I dont condone businesses carrying passeingers like this and had my share in management of dealing effectively with such situations, hopefully with a reasonable degree of fairness. Its bad in many ways, but I totally despise the UK emploment conditions that many have to suffer. Its as much as I can do to not act on behalf of family members who are being abused by their employers who think they can do whatever the hell they like with hours of work, contratc hours, withdrawl of signed contracts and pushing their staff onto supernumary status willy nilly and then pretending they didnt do so 18 months later. I utterly despise the DWP even more for the spineless manner in which they conduct themseleves and their non existent management of the laws we do have. Thank heavens the health service still have many hard won conditions still in place, even pensions, albeit at significant personal cost fro employees. Make sure you appreciate what you have and fight to keep it. I worked for local government and we failed to do so. Its only after its gone you realise the value of such things.
Luckily HR has line managers to work with, so bad HR people never really get exposed because the line are usually much worse.
No my experience is based on 20 years as the head of my direct contracts unit and includes managing staff levels down by well pver 50%, closing unproductive parts of the business, and dealing with disruptive trade union representatives, involving senior trades union officials prior to dismissing the disruptive element. In teh mean time ensuring the profit and loss account was maintained in a healthy state. Sickness management is not a nice part of the job, but its an easy part as someone is either sick or not. Incidentally I found that half the people who had disproportinate sickness were not sick, but did have other issues that needed management including svere illness in the family, intimidation, marital issues, parental issues amongst others, and all of these were dealt with within the broad framework of the rules for compassion and decency. The sickies were controlled or dismissed, all within the bounds or reasonable treatment too. I was also responsible for the full profit and loss accounts, and the general mangement of over 1000 people with specific responsibilty for their H&S in the only local authority works department holding a three year contract with British Safety Council and two internationally recognised safety awards won at the smae time. My experience is based on working fully within both the restrictions on local politically motivated control and the national law. I found that you can both do and say whatever you like to the work force individually and collectively and did so on the basis of acting in a manner that was entirely consistent with how I expect to be treated by a reasonable person. In the main I got it right with may be three exceptions where my decisions were based on evidence that was in retrospet unsound. I never once had to back track, I had stikes action to deal with in one instance but this fizzled out because my chosen course of action was ethically and morally right and in that instance all but one of the employees was back in work on day two and supported me. I eventually left after exposing what I regarded as poor if not corrupt behaviour of others. I later found out that all of the midle management and all of the union stewards had sent a letter of support in my favour. So when I say no tolerance of lazy management it deosnt come lightly, but with acute personal experience of being on the wrong side of poor treatment and the totally useless whistleblower protections. The last 20 years of my working life were spent working back up from the bottom again in H&S ending up as UK and Ireland H&S Manager in the industry which had possibly the worst industrial mortality rate of them all. Getting the changes required to get both accidents and insurance claims controlled to a less unacceptable level required the same application but in this case to force management and boards with share holders to deal with the carnage, in some cases spending 7 figure sums to reequip. If the Americans have failed to do the basics, and thats all it is, no sympathy. I dont believe that these things can be managed, I know it can. Ive had some pretty staggering support from teh other ordinary people I have worked with over my life time, including on einstance when following a pretty hideous meeting with the workforce where I actually feared for my safety, when the person who was making the most noise barged into my office after the meeting. Far from getting aggressiev, he said I just wanted to say repect fro what you just did and said, Ive been waiting for 20 years for a manager to stand up and say what you just did. Ive always expected to need to do a good days work for my money and havnt botherd because nobody cared about the people swinging the lead. I can say that I never found regualtions needed jumping through just interrpreting reasonably. Ive been to Indistrial Tribunals and even Crown Court following dismissals and disciplinary action following my instinct. It just amazes me that few managers do the same and orgnaisations end up in a colossal mess as a result. In my 43 years working I can count on my fingers and toes the number of people I have met who did similar. It probaly cost me well over £250K in lost income blowing the whistle but even that got the right result in the end and Im still here. So I stand by what I said.
You can be dismissed In the first two years of employment without a formal reason, this is so employers can get rid of people who turn out to be useless once they start the job, it’s not quite the same as any person being sacked at any time for no reason, which was what was being implied above.
Its maybe a little better than 25 years ago but British Management is not good, walls of bullying and intimidation is what I saw. HR practitioners seems to be subject to as much of this as anyone else. Its always down the the person at the top, if they set an example it does rub off. Even in my local authority time I was told sort this out today by mid day or dont come back this afternoon, and I remember coming in one after noon and saying wheres the transport manager, I have a meeting with him and hes not here. Resposne he qwas told to go hoem earlier, and not come back. It made you grow up fast, but Istill question if it was really the best way. Good managers are often very good indeed but there are at keats a hundred bad ones for each of them. Not sure how I got here from Pandas.... Im retired so what do I know.
It’s just the way conversation flows.
