Institutionalised

[BigSacks]

There has never been and never will be again, I’m certain, a company where the vast majority of staff felt deep within themselves such an enormous duty, care and passion for their customers and the service provided to them.
For a “manual labour”, relatively low paid job it’s quite remarkable when you think about it.

It has been eroded with constant cost-cutting but what you feel is what we all feel.
That we want to keep trying but it’s getting steadily harder.

[Jb1969]

There has never been and never will be again, I’m certain, a company where the vast majority of staff felt deep within themselves such an enormous duty, care and passion for their customers and the service provided to them.
For a “manual labour”, relatively low paid job it’s quite remarkable when you think about it.

It has been eroded with constant cost-cutting but what you feel is what we all feel.
That we want to keep trying but it’s getting steadily harder.

Nope, gave up 12 months ago.
Pride gone, enjoyment gone, the willing to go above & behold to deliver the mail gone.
Most of the time no Trucks to do the job so your waiting around for someone to bring one back which almost always has a million+km on it.
I know I don’t have it as bad as most in delivery land & I sure as hell would have gone by now if I did.

[HTPostman]

Being treated differently to the person next to you.

Your aisle having completely different rules including when you can take your breaks, to the next aisle.

The two tier workforce is really the worst thing (well it's three tier, lets be honest)

Sharing an identical working day with someone who is being paid more, with better benefits and goes home before you.
It's absolutely appalling.

Just to clarify I’m on one of the older/‘better’ contracts. My gripe is the next aisle are allowed to take their 40 mins at the end (which I gather shouldn’t be permitted). The aisle on the other side are allowed to start early and finish early (again, with SISO shouldn’t be allowed but it is). On our aisle, 20 mins before you go out, 20 mins on delivery or at the end, no starting/finishing early. We all work in the same building!

I should add, all the best for the future. Not long for me to go.

[eviljack]

Being treated differently to the person next to you.

Your aisle having completely different rules including when you can take your breaks, to the next aisle.

The two tier workforce is really the worst thing (well it's three tier, lets be honest)

Sharing an identical working day with someone who is being paid more, with better benefits and goes home before you.
It's absolutely appalling.

Just to clarify I’m on one of the older/‘better’ contracts. My gripe is the next aisle are allowed to take their 40 mins at the end (which I gather shouldn’t be permitted). The aisle on the other side are allowed to start early and finish early (again, with SISO shouldn’t be allowed but it is). On our aisle, 20 mins before you go out, 20 mins on delivery or at the end, no starting/finishing early. We all work in the same building!

I should add, all the best for the future. Not long for me to go.

Ok,
Well that’s crap as well. As you say, everyone works in the same building.
I often take my break at the end because I’m with a full timer who finishes earlier than me and is in a hurry to get back to the DO. I don’t care if it’s permitted or not. The whole system is unworkable IMO.

[rambo1]

Get out and don’t look back

+1 . Did 22 yrs , left just over a year ago. Yeah, I miss the customers on my round , well most of them. Still keep in touch with a few plus my workmates I was friendly with but as far as missing the crap vans, crap managers continuous change in the job/hours......nope don't miss it at all. There really is much more to life than Royal (why do they still call it that) Mail. As a new starter now it must be horrible, it was bad enough when you'd been there , put the time in and could 'handle' the bullying managers. Get out , don't look back and enjoy the rest of your life, there's a big world out there.

[Mr Rush]

There has never been and never will be again, I’m certain, a company where the vast majority of staff felt deep within themselves such an enormous duty, care and passion for their customers and the service provided to them.

The old saying goes: they knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. Rather, the value(s) were what gave it a price worth selling off. And what has befell us is merely a microcosm of the world at large. While the sociopaths at the top will sleaze their way to comfort somewhere else, I wonder if the Arendt-esque enablers realise we are trailblazing their own fate.

Like the Japanese boom in the 80s seen from the perspective of thirty years on, it's hard not to point at the progress made in the late 20th century as being the abberation and not the norm. This century will recapitulate the 19th in retrograde if we tolerate it.

[nuklearpuppy]

And we come full circle with the RM apologists, who seem to be so vocal on this very forum, shouting into the void about how great a job it is being a postie now.

I’m pretty confident they are managers at the wind up.

[Mike G]

There has never been and never will be again, I’m certain, a company where the vast majority of staff felt deep within themselves such an enormous duty, care and passion for their customers and the service provided to them.

I've never felt like that, even 25 years ago when I first started and I was far less cynical and world weary than I am now and when the job actually was a public service.

Anybody who does feel like that is quite frankly a bit sad... do you really think those customers who you feel such a deep sense of duty of care for give a s**t about you or the "service" you're so passionate about providing them with?

In the words of the youth... you really need to "get a life".

[BigSacks]

There has never been and never will be again, I’m certain, a company where the vast majority of staff felt deep within themselves such an enormous duty, care and passion for their customers and the service provided to them.

I've never felt like that, even 25 years ago when I first started and I was far less cynical and world weary than I am now and when the job actually was a public service.

Anybody who does feel like that is quite frankly a bit sad... do you really think those customers who you feel such a deep sense of duty of care for give a s**t about you or the "service" you're so passionate about providing them with?

In the words of the youth... you really need to "get a life".

Perhaps.

But then, I’m not posting messages on a forum about a job I don’t do anymore and to paraphrase, “never cared about in the first place”

So, who knows?

[Wullie10]

You're doing the right thing, as stated above in "qw" comments.

As soon as minimum wage catches up with the hourly rate RM offer then there will be a mass exodus. It will be great to see this happen to this privatised disaster of a company.

Not so sure when I work with people who are collecting both RM pensions and state pension and all overtime going. Paying tax at a 40 % rate so what is that hourly rate ? Some people live for work I bet they'd keep working for nothing.

[postmanpatscat2]

There has never been and never will be again, I’m certain, a company where the vast majority of staff felt deep within themselves such an enormous duty, care and passion for their customers and the service provided to them.

I've never felt like that, even 25 years ago when I first started and I was far less cynical and world weary than I am now and when the job actually was a public service.

Anybody who does feel like that is quite frankly a bit sad... do you really think those customers who you feel such a deep sense of duty of care for give a s**t about you or the "service" you're so passionate about providing them with?

In the words of the youth... you really need to "get a life".

I agree. What I have just read, I would bet my bottom dollar that it has come from a jobs worth, who would be one of those having a go at someone cutting off (because they have a life outside work) and ringing the manager during pandemic to report someone they have seen being 2 in a van when wasn't aloud.