From an earlier thread:
"The LOM job has lots and lots of different responsibilities. They can look after a big area, one location or just one part of a big location
You primarily provide line management for operational staff (signallers, shift signalling managers, mobile operations managers and mobile incident officers), typically around 30 to 40 posts. You are responsible for making sure they are all competent and medically fit for work. You deal with recruitment, training and discipline. Basically all aspects of people management. Every staff member has to be visited by the LOM every 8 weeks and there are lots of competence assessments and monitoring to do. This is the heaviest part of the workload and you are regularly audited on it.
You also have operational responsibilities. The LOM usually looks after the safety and security of operational buildings (signalboxes), including first aid arrangements and fire safety, in their area. You would do out-of-hours 2nd line on call duties every few weeks which means being available to give advice on operational problems and attend if necessary. For that you will need operational competencies to be able to work a signalbox or go on the track to manually operate points, level crossings etc... and you will need to go to signalling school. You may need to act as Rail Incident Officer (RIO) at incidents/accidents including when a person is struck by a train. Usually when a LOM is appointed to be RIO it is at a reasonably big or high profile incident. You will also get involved with investigations into irregularities - railwayspeak for cock ups - and accidents. You will end up writing investigation reports.
The LOM is responsible for the budget of the area and also the train performance, i.e. delays. In my area we order the signalbox stores, uniforms and PPE because we do not have any admin support, though I think other areas do have some support. You also end up getting involved in lots of other weird and wonderful things such as delivering newspapers to the Royal Train!
The interview will be competency based with lots of questions like when have you have to make a decision under pressure, had to deal with a difficult person etc... The is always a question about the company safety vision. You might also need to take the signaller psychometric tests if the job requires you to work signalboxes (not all LOM posts do). You will need to pass a railway medical and need to be able to work unaccompanied so need good colour vision and hearing.
It can be a rewarding job, especially if you enjoy people and have a good bunch working for you. But it can also be very stressful and the workload is immense at times. You get as much out of it as you put into it.
It is not a 9-5 office job. There is an on call allowance but no overtime, you are paid 35 hours a week but I am usually pushing closer to 60. There is a project ongoing at the moment to change the job description and take away some of the competence management and admin burden to leave us time to do the rest but whether that will work remains to be seen."
