Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Carillion goes bust and guess what, it is no one’s fault! In fact, we should all unite to support those that are left without a job!


‘Carillion PLC was a British multinational facilities management and construction services company headquartered in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. It was the second-biggest construction company in the UK.[4] Listed on the London Stock Exchange, the company experienced financial difficulties in 2017, and went into compulsory liquidation on 15 January 2018.’ (Wikipedia).

As someone that watched with interest how Leighton (a similar Australian ‘giant’) went down, or pretended not to, but still did, I experience a lot of feelings of a de ja vu in hearing the news regarding Carillion.
Having followed the machinations of Balfour Beatty and numerous other global counterparts over the years, I have formed my views on what is behind this ‘little stumble’ of Carillion.
(note, the UEA partnership is in no way effected – say the news, so Al Futtaim guys, rest easy).

Yet, and entirely predictably, the good Brits are all very sorry and compassionate with the ones left without a job due to the unfortunate turn of circumstances.
HR consultants are falling backwards to give these souls a leg up into another career somewhere just as lucrative and (hopefully) stress free as working for Carillion was.

After all, it was not their fault.
Or was it?
Was it management?
Or was it not?
Where had management came from? Who put them in their cushy chairs?
What about the clients?
Oh, no, it was the industry.  The crises.
We had a crisis recently, haven’t we? We must have had. The AEC is all about crises.
Unpredictable too. Crises and all. Did I say crises?

I am sorry, but this is all so ‘back to kindergarten’ behavior.
No one to blame. No one to fault. No responsibility. Hold hands tight. Sing loudly.
Or keep your mouth shut, make sure the circle survives intact.

Please, do me a favor. Let Carillion sink.
Let the good people employed by it join me and others looking for work and fight the fight for the right to work out on merits, capabilities, credits, experience.
Let the good ones thrive, let the bad ones drop.

Yeah, I know it will not happen. Not this time. Maybe not even next time.

But I keep trying.








Footnote: Large ‘national’ construction companies had never been too far in their attitude to life from banks and financial institutions. Too big to fail, too big to care. Ocean liners, built for fair weather sailing only, when it gets a bit rough, leave the passengers in the water as fish-food – the captains are the first to flee. Again, the industry is littered with them, they lose nothing, move to the next ocean liners to blob on until things get rough.

Footnote 2: Quoting Paul Gibson: ‘If it wasn't for the fact that genuine hardworking individuals weren't caught up in all this and decent well-run companies also then it would be bloody laughable.’ After 30 years in the industry, where I always considered myself to be a ‘genuine hardworking individual’ – (and show me one, that does not think that of themselves, my ex-Leighton mates Hamish and Jeremy come to mind, not to talk about a lot of top Brit executives too) – I do lean towards the idea that we all (within and outside the industry) have the industry we deserve. After all, the behavior that causes these ‘shocks and after shocks’ is in no way new or concentrated to any particular country or area – so why aren’t we doing anything about it?



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