What is "Shape Up"

[kathleen1]

Someone from our office went but the BM won't give him anytime to feed back to us.

Thats a good start spend two days listening and communicating and when you come back the B.M won't let you cascade what
you have learnt to your colleagues...............yeah sounds about right to me.I didn't even know anything about "shape up" thats how well informed i am in my branch.

[billyhayes]

I'm guessing this whole charade has come to nothing then?

No sleeper agents in branches, no WTLs telling us 'the new way'.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that only 7% of members voted not to strike?
I suggest that the 7% didn't go to Birmingham.

Seems POL underestimated the feeling across the network... again.

I congratulate each and every Ambassador. They ate the food provided by POL, stayed in hotels paid for by POL.

And when the time came to deliver their end, they haven't.

And to top it off, it was money that was probably from our payrise that they were not going to give us that paid for it all...

[The BFO]

no WTLs telling us 'the new way'

You have reminded me. A couple of weeks ago in the Work Time Whatever It Is, our Branch Manager made reference in mid sentence to a ‘new direction’. Irritating individual that I am I decided to quiz her upon this. Waste of time. Could give me no indication of what this ‘new direction’ is, or would, be. I pointed out that if we knew what direction we were taking perhaps we could help by starting towards it now.
At this point her eyes appeared glazed, and she seemed to become dizzy…

[PostalOfficer]

Seems like the New Direction is so secret that nobody knows what it is As you may construe from my initial post, I suspect even those organising it don't know! ...unless they are a clever bunch of individuals who have sold a package of the 'emporer's new clothes' to senior management, got funding etc. just to avoid redundancy or another posting they didn't fancy?

Or perhaps it was a devious ploy by senior management to blow some money so they could honestly say that there was no money for our pay rise?

[gusco]

My boss went to the said event. He said it was great - he got 2 days in a plush hotel and a hire car for three days.

I've tried to get info out of him, but he says it was only a big presentation really about how the Post Office is going to change the way it implements new ways or working. Instead of big wigs looking at what they think we should change, very soon there will be several focus groups set up in each section, stock-supply chain-branches-outlets and cash centres.Each group will look at better working processes, which to implement and which to streamline and which to get rid off altogether.

With the changes coming from the grass roots and the people actually doing the work the changes will be more targeted and accurate, thus making bigger savings.

Personally I think it is frontline staff doing the work of senior managers -cause they have run out of ideas of where to get rid of staff and have no idea how to really save money.


Anyone any ideas how we could save big money in a short space of time?

[Mr Love Pants]

Anyone any ideas how we could save big money in a short space of time?[/quote]


How about getting rid of some of the lazy useless managers

[clashcityrocker]

Isn't it a low fat yoghurt?

[The BFO]

I've tried to get info out of him, but he says it was only a big presentation really about how the Post Office is going to change the way it implements new ways or working. Instead of big wigs looking at what they think we should change, very soon there will be several focus groups set up in each section, stock-supply chain-branches-outlets and cash centres.Each group will look at better working processes, which to implement and which to streamline and which to get rid off altogether.

With the changes coming from the grass roots and the people actually doing the work the changes will be more targeted and accurate, thus making bigger savings.

We did all this in the early 1990’s - it was called Total Quality Management, or ‘Putting the Customer First’. It included such gems as sending 32 District Managers to the USA, ‘Quality Improvement Projects’, and Business Reviews of each Region as they were then constituted. Regions that were disbanded a couple of years later. As I recall we had approximately 60 Quality Improvement Managers across the country, who were held in about the same esteem as today’s Sales Capability Managers.
And were about as useful…

[gusco]

Anyone any ideas how we could save big money in a short space of time?

How about getting rid of some of the lazy useless managers[/quote]

Which equates to most of 'em

[billyhayes]

Anyone any ideas how we could save big money in a short space of time?

Here's one... when we all go back on Tuesday, don't pay out card accounts.

Any ideas a good one.

[PostalOfficer]

Looks like they are having another big 'do' next Wednesday. I can confirm that the latest Big Idea does NOT involve joined-up thinking. Next Wednesday is also the first of 4 national HomePhone sales days.

I don't know about big money savers, but there are a lot of really annoying things they could sort out.

Is anybody else frustrated by the laborious Horizon system for ordering stamps. And you order '1' pack of stamp books, but book it in as '50' books when it arrives. Heck, let's go back to ordering by value like we always used to. Everybody used to know precisely the quantity being refered to and you could cross-balance the whole thing at every stage.

Now stores ordering. Same c**p Horizon system. Stop mucking about with the numbers of everything. If it was a PVC21, it should still be. I shouldn't have to hunt around to find it's a SAN21PVC or whatever. And what are those silly numbers with quantities attached? I know the thing is a P9999, but don't know if it's a P9999, P999/25, P9999/100 without looking it up.

And wouldn't it be nice for cash ordering to say "Yes" when you place an order instead of being like the Spanish Inquisition. Maybe somebody could recognise that I have been doing this for a while now and treat me like an intelligent adult?

Finally, could I have a skip to dump the Post&Go machine and the photo booth in.

At this rate I may have more time to serve the customers

[kathleen1]

I have just had an idea!!! lets have a full week of SERVING THE QUEUE, wouldn't that be great without the sales module.I bet you we would make alot of income more than having stupid sales conversations when you can see the customers shaking their heads and leaving the office because the queue is out the door and a member of staff in the back getting coaching during one of the busiest times of the year. God bless wills & katie another day off yipee, happy days.

[Super]

Kathleen1 stop being so logical! Anywaythe customers would wonder what was wrong if you didnt try and flog them life insurance, homephone, car insurance or whatever for the umpteenth week in a row....

[cdpete2004]

Thank God, Postal Officer, I thought it was just me hated the Horizon ordering system. This is another example of unpaid work being dumped on the offices, getting us to look up everything every time we have to order, thereby giving stores staff nothing to do, and eventually getting rid of stores staff. Same as mail segregation, for which we aren't paid, doing a percentage of sorting office work, which will no doubt increase, as more sorting office jobs disappear. I'm REALLY surprised that the CWU hasn't brought this up before now, I keep emntioning it to our collection guys, they don't seem to care any more though. And the NFSP says about this.....