HR boss at RMJM quits
Stephanie Thomas goes after five years at business
RMJM’s head of human resources Stephanie Thomas is the latest high profile name to leave the firm.
Thomas, who is based in Dubai, goes tomorrow (Wednesday) after spending five years at the business. In April, another group board member, finance director John Douglas, also quit after 16 months at the firm.
Thomas joined as a regional HR manager in Dubai back in 2007 before being promoted to group HR director four years later.
It was an email she sent in April about seven staff in Dubai that prompted chief executive Peter Morrison to reply that he wanted them “systematically removed” from the business after he was forced to pay their missing wages.
The Frenchwoman, who holds a masters degree in psychology, was in charge of the firm’s HR in the UK, US, Asia as well as the Middle East.
RMJM, which is believed to be looking at a replacement for Thomas, declined to comment.
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Readers' comments (12)
Finally, a clear out of the negative elements in the company.
Lets hope some decent management takes over.
Some comments that you read on this forum can be very infuriating. I've
watched the RMJM situation unfurl for the last four years. I'm an ex member of staff who was forced to leave RMJM because I could no longer cope with the way the company was managed. I could not afford to stay there because of non and late payment of my salary and I was forced to look for alternative employment even although I loved the Studio I worked in and the people I worked with.
I'm wondering if Tavistock Edwards is simply an onlooker or perhaps part of the management himself but no one reading the BD coverage of RMJM's demise has a clue what they are talking about unless they've been employed by RMJM and suffered the same horrendous treatment as their staff are facing.
I understand that UK staff were again let down this month on their actual salary date (9th) with no notice until it was too late for them to do
anything about their direct debits/mortgage payments, etc. The
intermittent way in which I was paid for the last year of my employment with RMJM left me with a bad credit rating and I was refused funding by my bank.
RMJM staff need strong people in HR and Finance to assist them now more
than ever. People who may try and try to get the message through to
Senior Management that they can't treat people the way they are. I'm not
going to accept the argument that "at least they have a job" . People
are bullied into staying because when they leave they aren't paid the money they are due and often have to cite legal action to try and retrieve legitimate funds due to them. There are no other jobs out there and RMJM play on that fact and know that they often have staff exactly where they want them.
Perhaps Tavistock Edwards has been lucky enough to be in a company where he was given the opportunity to progress his career; a company which motivated him rather than demoralised him; the drive to get up and go to work 12/15 hours a day like some RMJM architects do.
RMJM is lucky to have such committed architects and support staff who want to meet the terms of their contracts even when they've been breached by the
Company. Architects and support staff who care about their clients and
projects to the detriment of their own financial stability. Architects and support staff who arrive at work every day wondering if the door to the Studio will be locked and they are out of a job.
"....a clear out of negative elements"....might be better described as a mass exodus of depressed and disenchanted individuals who were naive enough to think that joining RMJM was a positive career move.
A little more support from the architectural community wouldn't go amiss because there are hundreds of architects whose hearts dip a little further, everytime another member of staff leaves.
RMJM is hanging on by a thread, and an HR Manager leaving (or was she "systematically removed"?) isn't going to suddenly help the negative feelings of the staff who are left manning the lifeboats.
And Tavistock - If you are a member of the senior Management - shame on you!"
Good on you Eileen.
Peter Morrison and Declan Thompson are two of the most despicable individuals on the planet.
Even the formerly loyal and highest earners have all joined the exodus…the biggest thing they need to realise is the majority of employees are PROFESSIONALS and won’t be compromised. Nor are they stupid enough to listen to or assist them in their lies.
You would think it would be lonely at the top these days but those two probably genuinely believe they can continue to run the practice alone whilst bullying remaining staff who are either too trapped or too gullible to leave.
The number of ex staff now pursuing legal/ tribunal action will eventually see them exposed…the ideal press conference.
Editor's comments
This comment was edited for legal reasons.
Wow.
loose cannon on a rolling deck
Such a non story - some leaves a company - big wow BD, scraping the barrell now to relate stories to RMJM.
@BD
I thought you did not allow unstabstantiated attacks on individuals but this thread is full of them. Can we all attack past principals with no sanction, in which case....
Editor's comments
Some of the comments referenced have now been removed or edited. We ask users to attempt to avoid making personal attacks or using offensive language in any future comments they post on Bdonline.
Anna Winston,
Online editor
can I just say that my comment was tongue in cheek and not meant to cause offence. It's certainly not as offensive as some of the comments on here.
Whilst I'm sure Tavistock Edwards can defend himself it is abundantly clear that his reference to 'negative elements' is not about the architects.
If in any doubt his other posts on RMJM stories are even clearer, e.g. "Why would anyone with talent want to join a firm that has this type of idiotic management?"
Perhaps "a little more support from the architectural community" might start with apologising to Tavistock Edwards.
Those at RMJM, current and formerly, who appears to have been shafted by their employer, have my sympathies.
I have to ask though, how much more widespread is the problem of staff not being paid for work done or being paid very late, in effect providing their employers with a free overdraft facility?