Bowdon ...... thanks for the feedback and please let me say the 'Angry man' icon at the end wasn't aimed at you whatsoever (as it does appear when I've read it back), it's to the poor management-base we have at OR that sees 'managers' using purely stat-based information over whether to discipline a guy or not.
To cap it all, most of these 'managers' were either sh1te at the job in the first place, or more commonly, have been promoted from other lines-of-business (eg: Sales) within BT, or from outside the company. Basically, individuals with not an ounce of nouse of how OR engineering works. Pure and simple madness IMHO.
It is this, and the god-awful 'Performance based statistics' that have seen the ultimate demise of a once great unit within BT. Sorry, also the poor training a technician gets when take on. It's a combination of all this that leads to pressure, stress, breakdowns .... and as I say on more than one occasion ..... suicide.
Sorry for the rant, as this is internal politics. I just have to make the point that every single action, or lack of, by the engineer ..... is scrutinised to the nth degree. I would humbly suggest that no other grade within BT is accountable more than the engineer is.