Eskom has severe employee problems

[SubtleBeast]

Interesting.

Theory without practical on the job training is useless in an environment like ESKOM.

 

[Neptuner]

I’m sure there is, theoretical knowledge does not equal experience in the real world though. It takes years of mentorship and experience to grow someone with a strong foundation into a battle-hardened senior engineer (roughly 10 years), especially in a company as complex as Eskom.

Taking away the senior mentors these people need, has set them up for failure.


The ideal management strategy for engineers is to hire and keep the best people you can, then get the hell out of their way so they can do their job and do your best to predict and remove things that will stall progress.

However, now that Eskom is in a position where they have no idea who is competent and who is not, and there are little to no actual seniors who can advise them, it makes this strategy very hard to employ. The only way forward I can see is if they hire back old staff, or hire international seniors, however international seniors will lack Eskom internal knowledge which will take many months to acquire.

IMO supplementing with external individuals who are more disciplined in planning and execution within the Eskom employee ranks won't do much, so it will only frustrate those individuals. The only real option to garner some form of functionality that may yield operating these power plants operating at higher EAF's close to that of Nuclear and Peaking is to outsource the maintenance of these power plants to service providers from top to bottom. The private sector is doing this in SA, i.e. Engie outsources Peakers to run their operations, though I believe they are a subsidiary. However, this separation has severed them well thus far.

 

[Blackhand]

IMO supplementing with external individuals who are more disciplined in planning and execution within the Eskom employee ranks won't do much, so it will only frustrate those individuals. The only real option to garner some form of functionality that may yield operating these power plants operating at higher EAF's close to that of Nuclear and Peaking is to outsource the maintenance of these power plants to service providers from top to bottom. The private sector is doing this in SA, i.e. Engie outsources Peakers to run their operations, though I believe they are a subsidiary. However, this separation has severed them well thus far.

You are right, that is another option. Gradually retrench almost their entire plant workforce and outsource the management and maintenance.

Normally the downside of this is poor cost efficiency, but Eskom has had disastrous cost efficiency for over decade.

There will be short term riots and sabotage, but the thugs will eventually move on.

 

[Solarion]

I think we see this lack of drive and motivation pretty much everywhere. Leave a guy to do strip a motor for the day, tell him you'll be gone for most of the day. Come back an hour later and he is inside the car sleeping and snoring away.

At checkers, our cold meat section never has staff at their posts. You have to send someone back there to fetch them. Customers are waiting. They both come out looking like they have been sleeping, hair a mess and yawning. Go to the bread section or even the butchery section, exact same problem.

Durban CBD. Cars driving through robots. Traffic chaos. Where is Metro? Oh right there. About 3 dozen fat Metro officers standing around, leaning up against poles, playing on phone.

South Africa has a severe employee problem, not just Eskom. This nation is gripped by apathy and lethargy. Doesn't many how much motivation or incentives you throw at them, they simply do not want to work.

 

[hj007]

I think we see this lack of drive and motivation pretty much everywhere. Leave a guy to do strip a motor for the day, tell him you'll be gone for most of the day. Come back an hour later and he is inside the car sleeping and snoring away.

At checkers, our cold meat section never has staff at their posts. You have to send someone back there to fetch them. Customers are waiting. They both come out looking like they have been sleeping, hair a mess and yawning. Go to the bread section or even the butchery section, exact same problem.

Durban CBD. Cars driving through robots. Traffic chaos. Where is Metro? Oh right there. About 3 dozen fat Metro officers standing around, leaning up against poles, playing on phone.

South Africa has a severe employee problem, not just Eskom. This nation is gripped by apathy and lethargy. Doesn't many how much motivation or incentives you throw at them, they simply do not want to work.

I suspect the apathy is a combination of no risk, no accountability and no growth.

Why work when there are no consequences for lazy work.

Why work, when you think the future has no prospects.

We need a rejuvenation of a promising future, at the moment everyone looks like they're wasting away.