Mike Astley stated today at the shareholders meeting that he didn’t know he was running his crap company like a Victorian workhouse, I find that hard to swallow as nearly everyone else did …
He might not of done. Someone that high up has information given to them by a series of managers and senior staff so at any point along that line they could be telling him porkies. Its a hard life for him though, watching his team get knocked out of the Premiership 
To be fair to Ashley, he’ll probably only ever see numbers on a spreadsheet. How they got there isn’t going to be his concern. IMO it should be though.
Why is it that Business Bosses only ever seem to see the “payroll bottom line” as the place to cut to the bone, and make some money out of? 
Imagine the reputation a company could get - if it paid “top dollar” wages, trained up all it’s staff exactly the way they wanted, and gave you a contract with a huge buy-out clause, should your place of work ever close down…
I dunno why it is that people with such insecure incomes are able to get such easy credit - honestly!
Do these firms ask the job centre to send it all those people who “have to take this job - or get benefit sanctioned”? 
Winseer:
Why is it that Business Bosses only ever seem to see the “payroll bottom line” as the place to cut to the bone, and make some money out of?
Because it is the one cost they have direct control over. Energy companies dictate the price, banks dictate the interest on loans, councils dictate business rates, suppliers dictate price of stock.
Ashley is a PR man’s disaster…
There he is in the middle of a NMW/poor mans wages scandal and he goes and dumps wads of £50 notes at the security check. What a pillock!
Perhaps he has a future in comedy?
Conor:
Winseer:
Why is it that Business Bosses only ever seem to see the “payroll bottom line” as the place to cut to the bone, and make some money out of?Because it is the one cost they have direct control over. Energy companies dictate the price, banks dictate the interest on loans, councils dictate business rates, suppliers dictate price of stock.
I reckon some supermarket suppliers might be amused/shocked/offended ny that observation.
SD get all past season goods, with the exception to football kits and some of the higher end trainers. No supplier is dictating price to them. Ashley buys what nobody else wants. If he didn’t, they just wouldn’t sell. Plus he owns the smaller brands so he’s got no suppliers costs there. It’s a gold mine business. He’s an entrepreneur. He saw a market to exploit foreign labour, treating them like crap, in a fashion no Brit would have put up with. He’s just a Tory poster boy, jack the lad made good, and being the one in a million exception to the rule, allowing them to shaft the most under privileged and not lose sleep over it
Conor:
Winseer:
Why is it that Business Bosses only ever seem to see the “payroll bottom line” as the place to cut to the bone, and make some money out of?Because it is the one cost they have direct control over. Energy companies dictate the price, banks dictate the interest on loans, councils dictate business rates, suppliers dictate price of stock.
I disagree. If you don’t like being charged one rate by an electric firm - you can switch to a rival. Running a “Cartel” remains illegal, so they can’t openly do this.
Banks don’t dictate interest, since it’s a charge “by consent”. The moment a customer decides not to pay interest any more - they stop, and the bank is looking at a defaulted loan IF they refuse to re-negotiate the debt.
Such a relationship exists between changing governments and the international banking system all over the world. Interest can only be charged at a rate the borrower can afford to pay - otherwise they stop borrowing, and the bank gets paid NO interest at all. Why do you think interest rates have been so low for so long? - Because if they were raised, there would be such huge systemic defaulting going on, that the majority of banks would suddenly find that they have insufficient actual hard cash to honour deposits, what with the fractional banking system being what it is…
If you can only charge 1% - then "I know - let’s lend the same “exists only on paper credit” out twenty times - thus improving our overall return on the same actual hard cash from 1% to 20%!"
You only need 4 of those 20 loans to get defaulted though - and the profit is wiped out.
Councils are setting business rates at levels that are NOT in the public NOR Business community interest. This suggest they either don’t understand what harm they do - OR - They are being unduly influenced by rival parties that want those firms in the same line of business as them - but on borrowed cash rather than hard cash - OUT.
Governments don’t even get to set the tax rate - since those most able to pay it are the very ones most likely to get out of paying ALL of it!
The world is broken - full stop. Either there is a mass cull of mankind via a cosmic disaster, World War, or a breakdown in law and order in the western world - OR the public need to come up with a new system pronto.
My suggestion is that we should have wealth according to our skill set and hours worked - NOT “you get wealthy because you started that way” or “you came from the right family/connections” or “sucked the right dicks at college”. Meritocracy anyone? 
raymundo:
Mike Astley stated today at the shareholders meeting that he didn’t know he was running his crap company like a Victorian workhouse, I find that hard to swallow as nearly everyone else did …
Even Monica Lewinsky would find that hard to swallow.
mushroomman:
raymundo:
Mike Astley stated today at the shareholders meeting that he didn’t know he was running his crap company like a Victorian workhouse, I find that hard to swallow as nearly everyone else did …Even Monica Lewinsky would find that hard to swallow.
raymundo:
Mike Astley stated today at the shareholders meeting that he didn’t know he was running his crap company like a Victorian workhouse, I find that hard to swallow as nearly everyone else did …
- If he didn`t know then he is a bad manager for not knowing.
- If he wasn
t told then hes a bad manager for employing those who wont/didnt tell him. (see 1) - If he knew what was happening and didn
t care about his company paying less than the minimum wage, then hes a bad manager. Look where his company, and it`s reputation is now. - If he knew what was happening and thought he
d get away with it, well he didnt, so hes a bad manager. Other options are probably available, but I dont know what they are.
Winseer:
Councils are setting business rates at levels that are NOT in the public NOR Business community interest.
One of the problems with Sports Direct is they not only pay the staff an awful wage, but they don’t pay much if anything in business rates. To bring SD main site to Shirebrook, the council offers him a very low business rate for I think 5 years, but then wanted to increase it to standard. The lovely Mike told them if you do that I’ll shut the factory and move it elsewhere and that as far as I’m aware is where it’s stayed.
Council should have told him where to go but doubt they got the balls since almost everyone working there isn’t exactly UK origin and many will be getting paid so little they’ll actually be costing the council in rent / council tax help. Just glad I don’t actually live there!