[The Only Way Is Up]

I'd hazard a theory that there are any number of professional football club chairmen (and women) who have full-time roles with their businesses and are only working as f.c. chairs on an as-and-when necessary basis.

There are obviously some roles at the club that are full time - Geraint's being one of those for example. A list of those roles would be good to see in order that we - as owners, remember! - can help judge whether or not the line manager should be full-time or part time.

The list of Harris's duties does seem excessive, but if he was only performing each one of them on an occasional basis, would they be excessive in reality? A silly example perhaps would be a man working alone in his business buying and selling on the internet. He would be the I.T. expert, the salesman, the HR expert, the office boy, the accounts clerk, and would even be the office cleaner. However, as he's the only person on the premises his office cleaning duties might only take a few minutes a week running around with a vacuum cleaner... see what I mean?

Not many of us on RP will know exactly what is involved in running the club from top to bottom, and can have no idea therefore about staffing levels needed or the hours required to fulfill the duties.

Another more relevant example might seem to be that of the coach. Does it seem reasonable for a coach to work only one day (for how many hours?) with a squad of 30 players who work for what seems to be only a few hours a day 5 days a week (if that!)

Large companies often involve their middle management in interminable meetings. I deal with one in particular employing over 1,000 staff where my contact there is very rarely available when required by customers. "Sorry - he's in a meeting" is the regular and tedious reply to calls. Do people who volunteer for smaller businesses from such organisations bring with them the constant need to be "in meetings" rather than getting to grips with actual problem solving? I do get the need for some meetings to discuss and analyse solutions with colleagues, but there's more to running a business than that.

The guy above who's always in a meeting when I need him loses many sales to his competition when he can't be contacted...but that's no reason to extend his working hours from 40 to 80 a week. Better to address the time-management structure of the business instead.