Running a business such as Royal Mail

[Londonsburning]

It has become apparent to myself and no doubt tens of thousands of fellow RM employees that this place would be better off run by a child at this point. How do we even begin to lift this job back up to the respectable career it once used to be? Fire/demote to delivery all shoddy managers equalise all walks put to a vote all union reps annually. Any other suggestions?

[Oscar_Grouch]

Some basic human intelligence is.what has been lacking for far too long.
Psychology is just as important as the accounts. But there isn't a clear simple measurable input/outcome that can be recorded in a spreadsheet when it comes to human behaviours so the bean counters allow it to be forgotten.

A chap called Rory Sutherland discusses the role of psychology in marketing, sales and the busines/customer. I can clearly see how implementation of many of his observations could change things in RM for the better. Not just to boost the business but the employer/employee relationship too.

[Londonsburning]

Some basic human intelligence is.what has been lacking for far too long.
Psychology is just as important as the accounts. But there isn't a clear simple measurable input/outcome that can be recorded in a spreadsheet when it comes to human behaviours so the bean counters allow it to be forgotten.

A chap called Rory Sutherland discusses the role of psychology in marketing, sales and the busines/customer. I can clearly see how implementation of many of his observations could change things in RM for the better. Not just to boost the business but the employer/employee relationship too.

So we are employees on 'a spreadsheet' basis then by your chaps role in psychology?

Well I quit unless you tell me I can sack people beneath me x

[kazardaimenu]

The managers seem to have zero clue about what the job involves. Fire the ones that haven’t recently done the job and promote from within whilst scrapping all the dodgy targets and schemes they get set. Have an admin guy on about £28k to sort out all the days off and input overtime and you’re half way there all whilst saving a shed load of cash.

[Jb1969]

If you’re a RM Manager you must be able to work off a spread sheet.
As for what RM used to be like, it’s gone forever in my opinion.
The old saying & attitude “the mail must get through” has been replaced with it might get through, but only on a Thursday!

[scotchy1962]

We are a rather large company and i think therein lies the problem, a smaller company means those higher up can see exactly what is going on beneath them. In RM nobody higher up can really know what's going on and must rely on a chain of command so long and corrupt that the useless managers all hide behind the other useless managers in the background, the only way they get found out is if they surface in the data and spreadsheets..... and that's why they all lie, bully and harass the workforce so the spotlight doesn't fall on them.
No idea how you solve it, maybe Dan the man will come in and sweep them all away when he takes over.

[TopperGas]

We are a rather large company and i think therein lies the problem, a smaller company means those higher up can see exactly what is going on beneath them. In RM nobody higher up can really know what's going on and must rely on a chain of command so long and corrupt that the useless managers all hide behind the other useless managers in the background, the only way they get found out is if they surface in the data and spreadsheets..... and that's why they all lie, bully and harass the workforce so the spotlight doesn't fall on them.
No idea how you solve it, maybe Dan the man will come in and sweep them all away when he takes over.

And we'd all probably do the same if meant the difference between keeping our manager's job or having to look for a new job? Probably most posties who step up to being a manager have good intentions at the outset.

[BELIAL]

Then what happened?

[Mr Rush]

Have an admin guy on about £28k to sort out all the days off and input overtime and you’re half way there all whilst saving a shed load of cash.

That sounds like something a PHG would do. Naturally that was scrapped way back in 1999. The ability to progress in this job used to be something they advertised.

Someone starting as a telegram boy after the war could do the time and demonstrate their competence to move up through the pay grades and see out the century as a DOM. Now we've got people in business casual after a year on delivery and running offices in three.

[scotchy1962]

We are a rather large company and i think therein lies the problem, a smaller company means those higher up can see exactly what is going on beneath them. In RM nobody higher up can really know what's going on and must rely on a chain of command so long and corrupt that the useless managers all hide behind the other useless managers in the background, the only way they get found out is if they surface in the data and spreadsheets..... and that's why they all lie, bully and harass the workforce so the spotlight doesn't fall on them.
No idea how you solve it, maybe Dan the man will come in and sweep them all away when he takes over.

And we'd all probably do the same if meant the difference between keeping our manager's job or having to look for a new job? Probably most posties who step up to being a manager have good intentions at the outset.

Topper all i am doing is highlighting where the problem lies, if i was in the same position i would like to think i would react differently, but then again who knows, maybe i would end up like the current crop and do what it takes to stay in my cushy number.

[Oscar_Grouch]

Some basic human intelligence is.what has been lacking for far too long.
Psychology is just as important as the accounts. But there isn't a clear simple measurable input/outcome that can be recorded in a spreadsheet when it comes to human behaviours so the bean counters allow it to be forgotten.

A chap called Rory Sutherland discusses the role of psychology in marketing, sales and the busines/customer. I can clearly see how implementation of many of his observations could change things in RM for the better. Not just to boost the business but the employer/employee relationship too.

So we are employees on 'a spreadsheet' basis then by your chaps role in psychology?

Well I quit unless you tell me I can sack people beneath me x

I don't quite understand your response.
My point is that success in business is often down to far more than simple numbers that can be put in to a spreadsheet.

Genuine employee appreciation can't be measured or counted out. But the cost of not having it can be felt.

Let's throw in the recent example of long service recognition.
The cost of the pins and the dinners and the vouchers, well that is an easily counted cost.
A cost that must be cut to save however much money.
Because the accounts can't see a direct measurable benefit from these things.
So now we get nothing but a tacky card.

Staff feel even less valued, are less motivated, put less effort in, company makes less money.

The staff are then chastised as being lazy and useless.

Are then even less motivated...and the cycle goes on.

If leaders demonstrated reasonable understanding in human behaviour. Offered meaningful incentives and truly valued the human beings doing the work, the return generally outweighs the investment.


Another example.

You have a manager that respects you as a human. You need a day off for a hospital appointment, a funeral, kids sports day or whatever and your manager makes it happen without throwing a tantrum or making you feel like you've committed some horrendous crime.

In the future when push comes to shove, you are more likely to agree to some early OT on the IPS or stay out when you can on the run up to Christmas.


The costs and resulting benefits aren't direct or simple enough for an accountant to measure or understand it so they will cut the costs willy nilly.

But they are just as valuable to the business as installing a machine at X cost to replace however many employees at Y cost resulting in Z Savings year on year

[Clappedoutpostie]

To start with employ managers that have emotional intelligence and you will get more out of your staff, secondly there is at least 2 levels of management that wouldn’t be missed. I would think the new guy taking over will move quickly on my 2nd point, be a big saving for the company. We put letters through doors and deliver parcels but it’s made complicated by having too many chiefs and not enough Indians

[TooManyLoops]

What baffles me is how scared they are to ask posties about routes, like they think we're going to pull their pants down

DOs up and down the country have hundreds and hundreds of years service and local knowledge, yet they refuse to tap into that

Walk planners are paid what, £40k or more to just f**k things up. Not bad gig I suppose

[scotchy1962]

What baffles me is how scared they are to ask posties about routes, like they think we're going to pull their pants down

DOs up and down the country have hundreds and hundreds of years service and local knowledge, yet they refuse to tap into that

Walk planners are paid what, £40k or more to just f**k things up. Not bad gig I suppose

Planners, never mind route planners, within RM must have cost the company millions maybe billions in costs over the years, all the daft ideas that have appeared and then just as quickly disappeared over my 18yrs would make you wonder about them, are they in darkened rooms playing video games and smoking pot, do they know anything about what it is RM do and how we do it?
I can't remember a single good idea to come from them, the sensible thing to do would be sack them all, consult your workforce and take ideas from the foot soldiers as they actually live in the real world and know what is going on.

[postslippete]

It has become apparent to myself and no doubt tens of thousands of fellow RM employees that this place would be better off run by a child at this point. How do we even begin to lift this job back up to the respectable career it once used to be? Fire/demote to delivery all shoddy managers equalise all walks put to a vote all union reps annually. Any other suggestions?

The two-tier workforce, the forced revisions and the continual watering down of delivering letters Monday to Saturday in spite of the USO led by the boardroom has all contributed to losing our overall creditability out on the streets in recent years.

Even though the minimum requirements on letters have not changed, our regulator has chosen to conclude their reviews sometime next year. The CWU will likely agree any reform of the universal service in return for upgrading the inferior workers pay and terms that the company itself created. Whether this will happen with a new owner on board is anyone's guess but it would make sense if staff are leaving and are not adequately being replaced.

The question then becomes how are we all going to manage with the increased workloads of delivering surplus mail as well the explosion of parcels. It would be more efficient going back to permanent dedicated large van drivers to deliver all the medium/larger parcels and posties to deliver the letters and smaller parcels as we used to but I doubt the big bosses see that way as being cost effective, and that is always the problem.