For the first time in my career I've been graced with having a manager (operations manager) who is actually not an egotistical *****, he actually does a pretty good job to boot..... BUT, one of his subordinate managers is trying to replace him, he just doesn't realise it yet. My manager is over everything, directly runs the dept I work in, the other manager runs another small dept for him. Other manager on the surface seems like a nice chap, really friendly with everyone, very loud and chatty, always walking around making it look as though he's well liked, but he's also making silly/petty complaints about my colleagues, my manager has to act or it'll look like he's not doing his job, which results in my manager looking like the bad guy, many of us know where these complaints really come from, but because this other manager seems so popular, nobody ever speaks out. The owner of the company sees the department as being out of control, because the mud might have no substance, but throw enough of it and it sticks, the owner doesn't trust any of us because of all the complaints, and so we wouldn't be believed if we did say anything. I don't know if there's anything I can do, it's driving me nuts seeing this guy swanning about pretending to be this great guy, whilst stabbing us all in the back to make our manager look bad. He really is toxic and calculating, for someone so chatty, nobody knows anything about him, he's got zero social media presence, not even Linkedin, nobody even knows what town he lives in, where he went to school, where he used to work, he hides everything, he's the most closed open book you'll ever meet. I know it's beyond my control, i'm just curious as to where this normally ends up.........

Thanks all, car is now sorn, cannot tax for 5 working days, got an official email from the insurer today confirming the claim status, so I can get insurance sorted now with something official as backup, the broker needs to amend their records or ill be going elsewhere.

I know this TBH, but I also know what the DVLA are like once they issue a fine, completely automated system, refuse to drop it, ends up in court with them losing. I know 3 people who've been issued fines when SORN, with the vehicle on a private driveway parked facing the road, the ANPR pings it and a fine is issued automatically, the person driving doesn't actually do anything bar drive the van........ Or at least it was like this maybe 5-10 years ago.

Do they still send these vans out to look for newly SORNed vehicles? Due to an insurance mess up, i've got to take my car off the road, I have a driveway, but i've heard of people getting DVLA fines due to the reg being picked up on the ANPR vans, vehicle on my own property is there anything wrong with sticking gaffa tape over half the plate to stop the ANPR pinging it? I'm assuming not as it's fully on private property........

Ok, it's all gone tits up....... From tomorrow I have no insurance, car is being taken off the road, been told it'll take 5 days to update the claims record. SO now I have to SORN my car, totally screwed up situation.

My experience is that the claims team are really quite helpful, but the sales/renewals people are reluctant to budge, so I wonder if it's a case of they only give a damn about meeting some sort of sales targets. They probably think they have me by the balls, think I can't go anywhere else, but if they blank me i'll cancel the insurance, take the car off the road and then threaten to charge them for transport costs, as well as contacting the ombudsman if they don't fix the issue. I wonder how I go about getting my record changed to reflect the truth of the claim........ Because that's the real issue stopping me shopping around.

Ok, I contacted them (which was difficult in itself), they confirm it's a no fault claim, BUT it seems to be on the national database as being my fault, which means wherever I go i'm going to either get screwed OR declined........ I'm not sure what I can do, i've got a few days only, probably going to have to take my car off the road until it can be resolved.

Bottom line up front Have gone to renew insurance and told i have a fault claim on my policy from last year, I had an accident last year, the other driver was at fault, I had dashcam footage, there were multiple witnesses, he was prosecuted by the Police, but somehow the insurance company have decided it was my fault and now my premium is more than double at £700, for a car I barely use now having moved house. The other driver tried to claim injuries from my insurance, solicitors got involved, I had interviews with them and then once the Police made their decision I was told it was basically all over. My renewal is due in a few days, I think they'll drag their heels and try to bully me, I won't be bullied, I may end up cancelling the insurance altogether and walking/cycling instead. What options do I have with this situation? I'm really angry as this is their f**kup and I have to pay for it.

Actually your wrong, we're people, not machines, to err is human and any business that does not account for possible mistakes, nay actually encourages mistakes, is utterly foolish. And sexist what? Are you feeling ok? would you like a safe space?

It was more of an open ended post, to get responses on the general situation. There are personal mitigating factors (at that time), such as recent involvement in a serious car accident and lack of sleep due to a newborn baby (2 weeks old at the time), which they know about and makes what they're doing even more of a [removed] shot below the belt. The system failures which I raised, those that preceded the mistake, are issues that (it turns out) many people knew about but have been too worried to mentioned for sake of retribution. I believe that a robust "system" should easily mitigate against people being sick (especially considering their draconian sick pay policy), people being tired and momentary lapses of concentration. I don't think that this is merely about a mistake, I think it's more of a "shut up and stop rocking the boat", because of the issues I raised.

And what if your IT systems go down, or the internet connection, or the mail server? I'd be very surprised if this request was as urgent as you've been told, there has to be some leeway. Doesn't mean you won't get into trouble, it depends on whether your company is retarded enough to think that making examples of people helps to motivate staff.

Sorry, that's not a fix, it's a sticking plaster. I'm not kidding myself, I understand it's hard for most people to see this when they haven't work my sort of background, but systems should be robust enough to mitigate against mistakes happening, to the point where the only way to screw up is deliberately. When the same problem occurs again and again (even going back before I joined), you have to wonder why there is a reluctance to even consider fixing it. In both the automotive manufacturing sector and the defence sector, if you went back to a customer with "oh we found the person and punished them", they'd tear you a new ********, starting with "ok, how do you plan on making sure nobody does this again?" and your response is "post-it notes", you'd lose a million £ contract.

Here's the deal... I made a mistake, not denying it at all. First actual mistake i've made at this employer. It turns out this same mistake has been happening for years, I believe the root cause is their database/system, which takes no action to mitigate against such mistakes and actually in this particular case encourages mistakes. The root cause is defined as the non-human element that would have absolutely prevented the error if removed from the equation. So for example, if you were told to cross a narrow foot bridge and fell off because there was no hand rail, where does the fault lie?? hmmm? What's annoying is that there is no willingness to fix the problem, what's more annoying is that it's happened so many times with different people that you have to wonder why the bloody the problem (which it turns out has been complained about multiple times) has never been identified. As a former quality engineer I find this extremely frustrating....... The company has a pretty toxic blame culture, it's always "who" not "how" or "why", people try to cover up mistakes and push responsibility down onto someone else, every now and again someone gets sacrificed to the blame gods so that a certain person can appear as though they are doing their job. Some people even go so far as to establish an email chain before doing anything they're asked to do by this person, in the misguided belief that this protects them from blame, when in fact they're not the only people with access to said emails. My mistake was basically in forgetting a screw up had occurred when I got back into work on Monday, having had barely any sleep due to a constantly screaming 3 week old baby which has had to be put onto medication for severe reflux (i hate mentioning that, but it's relevant to explaining my tiredness). Should well designed, robust systems and processes fall over as soon as someone comes into work sick or tired? I think not. So here we are, facing a disciplinary for a minor mistake (which is being trumped up into something bigger), knowing full well that had they investigated previous mistakes properly and implemented corrective actions, it wouldn't have happened at all. The primary "complaint" is not the cost of the mistake, but the "personal embarrassment" caused, which i'm finding it very hard to not say "well suck it up snowflake, fix your sh*t and stop blaming people who fall into the cracks".

Why does every debate on nuclear "issues" always bring weapons and power generation into the same room? They're two entirely different things!!!!!! My option on power generation? Chernobyl is the worst nuclear disaster in human history, but the remaining 3 reactors were kept running for decades after the incident and the whole place is now a tourist destination. Guess what my opinion is.....

I don't work for them, they screwed me over last year, but i've moved on. This is a reference for his employment tribunal though, not a standard employment reference.