“I reckon A Nonymous has it spot on. I've seen this all too often before "Systematic bullying of middle managers to produce results against ridiculously unachievable targets caused morale to plummet to all time lows. Reporting this bullying made the bullying worse. This resulted in a high turnover of management and a gradually worsening performance"

The problem lies in upper management not getting it's act together or stuffed full of over-promoted graduates who have a full blown ego but no experience of life, all they want is to bully people into submission. This sort of Victorian Management Culture should have no place in the 21st Century. Unfortunately it is endemic. Middle management always get the blame, they are the "meat" in the organisational sandwich, they get it from above and below, normally those above are clueless or sitting pretty on fat pensions in a cosy office with no idea about leadership and those below are a bunch of slippery customers who'll do owt to get more money.”

“Paul S

You have it completely wrong. Stefan Barden (CEO Northern Foods) and Morrisons are not to blame for this. Cavaghan and Gray have been losing upwards of £50,000 PER WEEK for at least 2 years. Total lack of control over waste and material costs combined with a sky high labour cost meant that C & G could never produce the products Morrisons required for the cost required to make a profit and keep the site going. Systematic bullying of middle managers to produce results against ridiculously unachievable targets caused morale to plummet to all time lows. Reporting this bullying made the bullying worse. This resulted in a high turnover of management and a gradually worsening performance. Struggling companies should think again before allowing dictators like the late Mr Howson the scope to torture results out of a depleted and demoralised work force.

Hull City Council, Morrisons and the government of this fine country are not to blame for the loss of 350 jobs. No one but Northern Foods are to blame for allowing this to carry on and doing nothing to stop the systematic bullying by Mr Howson which caused a cancer to grow unhindered across the site. The site was doomed as soon as his appointment was confirmed.”

“Northern Foods - born in Hull which sheds its loyal work force without a second thought. Morrisons, a Yorkshire company, which cancels orders in this region first. It's enough to make local people deny their birth-right.

With shares trading in pennies instead of pounds shouldn't it be the chief executive that gets the chop rather than the work force?

I will not be buying Northern Foods products or shopping at Morrisons for some time.”

“Well well. Seems like the culture has not changed since I was there and that was a few years ago.

It used to be like this: - when there was an audit they had people running round scrubbing everywhere. "Quality Control" was really like the fire alarm - smash the glass and have dozens of QC inspectors checking everything. As soon as the auditors had gone QC were as usual told to shut up and not rock the boat by telling production stuff was not to specification. It was all a façade.

On balance it sounds self inflicted then judging from what A Nonymous and others have said.”

“Well having spoke to my brother in law who worked there some of you deserve all you get! the top managers was a little silly but the floor workers was ten too the penny & never worked a decent shift! thats why they went through so many floor workers they took liberties!
typical hessle roaders not a days graft in em! bransholme lives on!!”

“more devastating news for the local economy,we must be the hardest hit area in the country,what are the 3 local labour m.p,s doing about,this area needs serious investment from central government,instead of spending everything in london and west yorks,major companys need to be encouraged to the area,our road and rail infastructure needs improving now,the humber bridge tolls needs abolishing,anything that will help this forgotten area of the country.”

“Paul. Completely secure...and you?”

“Well well well. As if this wasn't expected. Bill Howson, Richard Bidder, Helen Allison: Are you happy now? Much misery will be caused by you three. And I am sure that Richard and Helen will not lose their livelihoods like so many others. Always the same, the ones to blame escape untouched. Enjoying your gardening bully Bill?”

“Having worked at this site for several years it has come as no surprise at all. The inefficiency of the management combined with a general lack of care has caused this. Do not blame Morrisons. The poor hygiene and crumbling infrastructure puts off auditors from these supermarkets let alone a total shambles in the BRC (British retail consortium) audit. The blame lies firmly at the door of current and ex top level management at the site. I will not shed any tears for the workers there. They knew it was coming and had the chance to jump ship like I did.”

“Totally agree with PJM. It's high time people national and local government stopped talking the "bleeding obvious" when peoploe lose their jobs, stop quoting weasel words out of some management textbook, repeating well known examples which achieve nothing at all, (get retrained for instance) these people should get off their backsides and physically DO something (not talk about doing) to help people who have been made redundant. All the management and administrative class seem to do is milk the system for whatever they can get out of it (MP's expenses ring a bell??) while quoting lofty phrases from the sociology modules of their Mickey Mouse degrees.”