Revenge Sacking Doesn’t Get Parcels Delivered

Friday’s Fiasco

Delivery firm DPD reported pre-tax profits of nearly £200m last year. The highest-earning director received £1.5m including bonuses.

But DPD is heading into peak season after terminating eight contractor "ringleaders" who organised a three-day work stoppage against pay cuts. The company cut driver pay by 65p per delivery, up to £8,000 annually per worker, and scrapped the £500 Christmas bonus. When 1,500 drivers responded by refusing to work, DPD fired the ringleaders for breaching gagging clauses and threatened to withhold £16,000 in deposits to cover "costs of finding [their] replacements."

The mission-critical problem? You can't deliver parcels without drivers. And you can't recruit drivers when "revenge sacking" becomes your brand. DPD is a classic case study in why short-termism never pays off.

If DPD asked for our straight-talking advice we’d suggest that they start with their stated values:

• you can't deliver parcels without drivers. You've terminated experienced fleet operators weeks before Christmas peak. Every remaining driver now knows what happens when they speak up. TikTok alone is making it impossible to recruit replacements. Revenge sacking doesn't align with "best service" it guarantees service failure.

• no AI replaces human trust. You implemented pay cuts, drivers organised in response, and you fired the organisers. Barrister John Hendy KC was clear: "It's their action which has damaged their reputation, not the action of those who've reported it." Technology won't deliver your Christmas parcels for you if your workforce doesn't trust you.

• you can’t retain, recruit or develop caring and customer-centric people if you muzzle them. The cost of replacing multiple fleet operators exceeds the cost of negotiating with your workforce. Legal fees, tribunal claims, recruitment costs, training time, and productivity loss during peak season all exceed an apology and commitment to repair. Reinstate terminated contractors with full deposits, defer the pay cut, pay lost earnings, and establish consultation that doesn't punish dissent. Then explain to remaining drivers why they should trust you through Christmas. 

Black Friday may be upon us but revenge sacking doesn't get parcels delivered. Unfortunately for the leadership team, humility may be their only path to overcome humiliation.

Why not book Leah to speak at your next event about missed warning signs, how to repair and lead differently so you don’t become the one calling for help.

Fodder from the floor

It would be remiss of us to miss this opportunity to share the heart of our work at The WayFinders Group. Hosted by Lord Ian Strathcarron and Gavin Robinson MP, on Tuesday we presented our white paper findings on repairing institutional damage at a roundtable in the House of Lords. The white paper, developed in partnership, acknowledges a truism most evident in the public sector but equally destructive in private organisations: damage is easy to cause and hard to repair. 

When formal processes close cases but don't repair relationships, the case closes but the damage lingers. The private sector operates the same way. In a crisis, most leaders choose efficiency over dialogue, and control over repair.

We know unrepaired relationships create operational costs (repeat cases, productivity loss, attrition, HR firefighting). We also know operational firefighting prevents cultural change (groupthink, fear-based leadership, institutional protection over truth). But the white paper presents our blueprint for repair, moving organisations from harm to healing. 

Do contact us for more information if this has piqued your interest.

Dear Leah,

I'm managing partner at a crisis PR firm and we're struggling with a client situation that keeps escalating. Three months ago, our client (a well-known consumer brand) faced allegations of discriminatory hiring practices. We managed the immediate media response brilliantly—issued apologies, announced policy reviews, commissioned an independent investigation. The news cycle moved on within a week. But on social media, the story won't die. 

Employees keep leaking internal documents that contradict our client's public statements. Customers are organising boycotts. The CEO did media training and still comes across as defensive. We've delivered everything in our crisis comms playbook, but the anger is intensifying, not subsiding. Our client is frustrated that our strategy "isn't working" and threatening to move to a competitor. How do we explain that you can't PR your way out of a culture problem?

— Crisis comms without the crisis resolution

Dear in need of crisis resolution,

You've discovered the limits of external reputation management when internal culture is the actual crisis. Your brilliant media strategy is being undermined by an organisation that hasn't addressed the root cause of the scandal.

Face the facts

We're organisational repair specialists at The WayFinders Group. We repair the human system after crises and disputes, resolving relational damage so performance returns and results stick.

When formal processes close cases but don't repair relationships, we deliver 90-day restorative interventions that address both the cultural damage (groupthink, fear-based leadership, institutional protection over truth) and the operational damage (repeat cases, productivity loss, attrition, HR capacity drain).

Experience shows these two types are inseparable. Sadly, the leaders who need repair rarely see it coming.

Your reputation takes years to build and one crisis to destroy. We resolve the damage before it becomes your legacy.