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Chinese Coronavirus threatens Dundee Utd game


capitanus

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Same. Until now I haven't been that bothered and inasmuch as it reflected badly on anyone, it would primarily be the club, as they chose to furlough someone then approach a volunteer. But this is really without class.

 

On the official Facebook page he's also posted a photo taken by Jonathan Mitchell - a guy who I've worked with before professionally, and was never anything short of diligent and scrupulous - without any kind of credit or bothering to ask permission. This would be bad enough even if Jonathan hadn't worked for Morton in the past. The fact that he did makes things worse.

 

The club needs to get a grip of this situation.

The post effectively encouraging everyone else to go and steal photos to post for him to use?

 

Apart from the fact he forgot to allow photos to be added meaning nobody could and the whole episode was even more pointless than it seemed from the off.

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Legally he can’t. The furlough means you cannot do any form of work for your employer.

 

Didn't realise that

The point being that Ewan is essentially on temporary redundancy due to the position not being required. Having a volunteer carry out the role is an abuse of the furlough system completely.

 

If they want content, they should be paying Ewan to do it and if he’s furloughed, the only thing that should be going out are official updates from McKinnon.

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Nobody should be surprised at what's happening at Cappielow right now.

McKinnon was brought in to save money.  It's all about sustainability for McKinnon. If that means breaking a few eggs it doesn't matter. Andy Bryant was an easy target, money saved. Alyson Fielding another easy target, money saved. Ewan Boyle could be another easy target when there is someone willing to do the job for free, money saved. How long before we have a plastic pitch and no requirement for Parklea and another long serving employee gone, money saved.

 

The only employees that will be left at the club are those that bring in more money than they are costing unless that is you can get a volunteer to do it for free.

 

Make no mistake McKinnon's raison d'être is sustainability. He's been put in place to stop this club losing money and Crawford has given him a free hand to do whatever it takes for that to happen.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
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Nobody should be surprised at what's happening at Cappielow right now.

McKinnon was brought in to save money.  It's all about sustainability for McKinnon. If that means breaking a few eggs it doesn't matter. Andy Bryant was an easy target, money saved. Alyson Fielding another easy target, money saved. Ewan Boyle could be another easy target when there is someone willing to do the job for free, money saved. How long before we have a plastic pitch and no requirement for Parklea and another long serving employee gone, money saved.

 

The only employees that will be left at the club are those that bring in more money than they are costing unless that is you can get a volunteer to do it for free.

 

Make no mistake McKinnon's raison d'être is sustainability. He's been put in place to stop this club losing money and Crawford has given him a free hand to do whatever it takes for that to happen.

 

Who are you?

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A coward who's prepared to put the boot in whenever the opportunity arises but won't take responsibility for my comments.

 

Thanks for clearing that up, I don't disagree with any of your initial points incidentally.

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I do: the idea that we should suddenly be holding Parklea up as a La Masia level beacon of the club’s future is laughable nonsense.

 

As for the only employees staying being those who bring more net money than their cost - that is supposed to be the backroom culture at GMFC: it’s a business and not a social club. Nobody should be getting a job for life based on past history or, in the case of the disgraced skidmark wiper, a ludicrous claim to the Morton Hall of Fame.

The site is supposed to be a place for the extended 'family' of Morton supporters - having an affinity with people that you don't know, because you share a love of your local football club. It's not supposed to be about point scoring and showing how 'clever' or 'funny' you are, or just being downright rude and offensive to people you don't know, because you can get away with it. Unfortunately, it seems the classic case of people who have little standing/presence in real life, use this forum as a way of making themselves feel as if they are something. It's sad, and I've said that before..

 

So, having been on Morton forums for about 15 years I guess, I've had enough... well done t*ssers, another Morton supporter driven away. You can all feel happy at how 'clever' you are

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I do: the idea that we should suddenly be holding Parklea up as a La Masia level beacon of the club’s future is laughable nonsense.

 

As for the only employees staying being those who bring more net money than their cost - that is supposed to be the backroom culture at GMFC: it’s a business and not a social club. Nobody should be getting a job for life based on past history or, in the case of the disgraced skidmark wiper, a ludicrous claim to the Morton Hall of Fame.

 

 

His/her point is though about what MacKinnon has been brought in to do. We can all have our opinions about what's right or wrong, but it's essentially a pretty accurate assessment of his job description. I don't have a problem with that, in spite of some question marks over the methods employed to find staff guilty of gross misconduct. Discipline is one thing though, cost cutting something else. I'd have thought that a kitman's job could possibly be done on the cheap by part time or existing staff, but can the same be said for a physiotherapist?

 

 

If Morton feel the need to make redundancies then so be it. It's not nice, but can't really be helped in some cases. There is however a massive difference between enforced redundancies and opportunistic disposal of staff because someone comes along offering to do the job for less money or for free. That's utterly immoral and would show both Morton and the volunteer in a horrendous light.

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It’s a total kick in the baws for our usual media guy to basically get told to do one, then have an outside source come in and do his job voluntarily. Then, to really rub salt in the wounds, the outside source has went and updated his LinkedIn or whatever social media platform it was, stating he is now our media officer. Canny imagine our current media rep to be best pleased about that snake move.

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It’s a total kick in the baws for our usual media guy to basically get told to do one, then have an outside source come in and do his job voluntarily. Then, to really rub salt in the wounds, the outside source has went and updated his LinkedIn or whatever social media platform it was, stating he is now our media officer. Canny imagine our current media rep to be best pleased about that snake move.

I wouldn't have an issue if it was just someone keeping things ticking over but it's not. It's doing things a different way and then giving yourself a job title.

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That's utterly immoral and would show both Morton and the volunteer in a horrendous light.

Agree that would be immoral. But there’s no suggestion yet that it’s on the cards. The fact he was furloughed rather than let go might suggest the intention long term is to bring him back (I think some academy staff were let go, weren’t they?). The criticism still feels a couple steps ahead of the facts I think. If what you fear comes to pass then yeah, that would be terrible.

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The point being that Ewan is essentially on temporary redundancy due to the position not being required. Having a volunteer carry out the role is an abuse of the furlough system completely.

 

If they want content, they should be paying Ewan to do it and if he’s furloughed, the only thing that should be going out are official updates from McKinnon.

I'm not sure it is an abuse of the system (or unlawful, as some have also suggested). The scheme doesn't require a role to become (temporarily) redundant - it is much more focused on the emplyer's ability to maintain its workforce through the pandemic (and with no meaningful income that is clearly an issue for Morton and other football clubs). It doesn't seem to require that employers prove they can't cover those wages. The scheme expressly allows for core business activities to be re-allocated - but seems to allow the employer to decide which activities are essential (there's room to argue either way whether social media/comms is essential, or what bits of that are essential - but I don't see the government getting in to that level of detail).

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I'm not sure it is an abuse of the system (or unlawful, as some have also suggested). The scheme doesn't require a role to become (temporarily) redundant - it is much more focused on the emplyer's ability to maintain its workforce through the pandemic (and with no meaningful income that is clearly an issue for Morton and other football clubs). It doesn't seem to require that employers prove they can't cover those wages. The scheme expressly allows for core business activities to be re-allocated - but seems to allow the employer to decide which activities are essential (there's room to argue either way whether social media/comms is essential, or what bits of that are essential - but I don't see the government getting in to that level of detail).

It allows 'critical business tasks' to be allocated to other members of staff that are not furloughed. It does not say that you can hire a volunteer to cover the work of a paid employee. Considering that the furloughed employee is not allowed to do volunteer work for the organisation, I think it's, at the very least, against the spirit of the scheme to hire someone else to volunteer for their role.

 

I don't think there's room to argue that this role is what they're referring to as a critical business task. Any necessary communications can be made by a non furloughed member of staff or a director.

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I'm not sure it is an abuse of the system (or unlawful, as some have also suggested). The scheme doesn't require a role to become (temporarily) redundant - it is much more focused on the emplyer's ability to maintain its workforce through the pandemic (and with no meaningful income that is clearly an issue for Morton and other football clubs). It doesn't seem to require that employers prove they can't cover those wages. The scheme expressly allows for core business activities to be re-allocated - but seems to allow the employer to decide which activities are essential (there's room to argue either way whether social media/comms is essential, or what bits of that are essential - but I don't see the government getting in to that level of detail).

 

I had meant to reply to your post the other day, but decided on getting drunk instead and didn't have the strength to get into any great debate about it yesterday.

 

You might be correct about the club's role in this- I'm not sure that what they've done is unlawful, although I'd argue that finding out Aidan Nesbitt and Cameron Blues' favourite tunes certainly isn't essential. It's not something that'll be looked into though, as you say. I'd say it's against the spirit of the scheme.

 

I'll caveat my point the other day by saying that I did include the word "would" into my point about shameful behaviour. The club could still get the benefit of the doubt for their conduct here- that same courtesy however shouldn't be extended to their volunteer "Social Media Coordinator", whose list of misdemeanours is growing by the day.

;

  • Taking the role in the first place, when a member of staff was already in the role and has been furloughed.
  • Facing criticism, he releases a statement on his website biting back at those who have been vociferous in condemnation of his behaviour- without having the courtesy, contrition, or self awareness to even consider the feelings of the victim in all this debacle. Nothing. And to my knowledge, he still hasn't acknowledged this.
  • The volunteer brings up Caroline Flack, Boris Johnson and the NHS in said statement. None of whom are relevant to the allegations that he has been opportunistic in taking someone else's role. Merely designed to shame folk into withdrawing their criticisms of him, regardless of how fair and relevant they are.
  • The club's Twitter profile becomes an ambulance chasing farce. Something that has never ever been the case under any previous stewardship of the social media channels. nothing better than some crocodile tears when you're under a bit of pressure.
  • In the midst of this, we have NO information from any official sources as to Morton's voting intentions in this week's SPFL vote. Only a tweet from Christopher Dodds from the Tele, and by working out through process of elimination have we managed to establish Morton's stance. Carrying out essential social media work? Good one.
  • Lifting work from Jonathan Mitchell and George Munro for the club's Facebook/Twitter updates. After being pulled up for it, he's not even acknowledged their complaints, nor their photographs.
  • Having taken over, and been made well aware of the reaction from some quarters to his conduct, he goes on to update his LinkedIn profile to advertise his new position at Morton- in spite of someone else actually being in that role.
  • Announces himself as "Social Media Coordinator"- a bit of a step up from "Media Assistant", which is what Morton have titled Ewan Boyle's position as (source- the club directory from the last home match programme v Arbroath). Who, in this time that everyone is on furlough decided to award our volunteer with what appears a more senior position than the guy he's covering for?
  • Last night's Twitter fiasco. Dreadful behaviour from Gerry Irvine to pounce on him in the midst of Gerry McHugh's sad passing, but the volunteer saw an opportunity and took it. His own Twitter feed taking screenshots of Gerry's previous tweets and reminding people to behave with class and decorum. Hypocrisy at it's finest. Dean and I confronted him on this today and were met with a bizarre reply relating to sexuality. Were I to label him a "poof", I'd expect Morton themselves to be in contact regarding such an assault on their staff. Perhaps it's worth the club investigating their volunteers' attitudes towards their customers in reply to firm but relevant criticism. That his tweet was a bit more subtle doesn't detract from the message that it was conveying and it's purpose.

 

You may be correct about being a few steps ahead in judging the club's guilt here, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed with the volunteer. At every juncture, his conduct has been abhorrent.

 

Edited to skip the swear filter.

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Just caught up with this shambles. Gerry Irvine was bang out, absolutely zero need for that. As for the whole situation itself, I’m giving the club the benefit of the doubt here and assuming they still wanted to put out content and engage with the fanbase and saw the boy Callum as an opportunity to do that. Bending the furlough rules a bit? Probably, but I don’t think there was much wrong with their intent (that of course hinges on the original guy actually getting his job back at the end of it though)

 

The problem is the stand-in hasn’t exactly endeared himself to a lot of our fanbase in the past and his “soft spot for the local team” shite is beyond nauseating. Less than a full day into the role he puts out that statement, and does the Linkedin thing as well. Wether he realises it or not, he’s been a complete fanny here and needs to take some responsibility for it.

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