Post Office’s military culture and the “infallible computers illusion” destroyed lives

Military culture

When I joined the Post Office in 1974 the road to preferment was via the Freemasons and the Territorial Army, (there was a Post Office TA unit at Mill Hill, London) — membership of both by invitation.

The Post Office fostered a military culture. They liked uniforms and ex-soldiers for postmen. It was a peculiar place to work.

The Official Secrets Act stifled debate and made for an insular culture. If you saw something bad you kept quiet.

One Director was known to fake back-dated memos when in a jam. Nothing was done. They successfully covered up the loss of hundreds of millions of pounds on abortive computer projects such as the Thames Valley Pilot. The write-offs showed up in the Post Office Report & Accounts, but went largely unremarked.

I recall my time at the Post Office particularly in the 1980s and 1990s as being characterised by fear, loathing and paranoia. As a manager one of my tasks in Birmingham (1983-1986) was credit control.
There had been an incident at Northampton where a customer had gone bust owing the Post Office some £250,000. I feared for my job, chasing debts.

I had a habit of visiting local post offices. I recall one unannounced visit where the lady branch manager was trembling. She rushed out of the office to meet me. Plainly she had not seen anyone from Birmingham Head Office in years. A visit from the boss could only mean one thing. She was convinced it must be the sack. When I said it was a social call she was astounded.

As the 1990s rolled on the Post Office was busy shutting directly-managed Branch Offices and outsourcing the business to sub-offices, franchises etc. So an increasing proportion of the turnover was passing out of direct control. The knowledge within the business of how to run an office was being diluted and few managers in London had operational experience in the field.

Huge sums of money were being handled by agents, who were lightly supervised at best. A hands-off approach. Sub-offices only received occasional visits, mainly from local managers and auditors, mostly when there was trouble (This was tightened up over time. Retail Network Managers were introduced but with much territory to cover.)

There was a triangle of the Sub-office, the local Remittance Unit and the Finance Department in Chesterfield at the top. The local managers were semi-detached. They were responsible but not really in control. They had rudimentary computer knowledge, if at all.