Anyone read the Sunday Times? Got part of an article on my news feed this morning - confessions of a royal mail postie, but can't read the rest because it's protected by a payment firewall ... First part reads like this,
Royal Mail postal workers say they are being told to leave letters behind at the sorting office and prioritise more profitable parcels. The Sunday Times spoke to several postal workers who said a shortage of staff meant they were being instructed by managers to deliver only special delivery and tracked items-only — the majority
This follows on a previous thread on here, Whistleblowers; someone had a friend in the media who said reporters were posing as agency staff to find out what was going on at RM ...
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Confessions of a royal mail postie
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noggin1969
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Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
It's probably by the same journalist that did reports on RM during Covid and the failure of walks then. He posted on here asking for posties to comment. I would suspect he kept those contacts and asks for stories as and when there is a new news interest.
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GoingRoundTheBend
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Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
For a minute I thought they'd released a modern version of the 80's 'Confessions of' film series 
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postieblueshirt
- Posts: 1241
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Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
confessions of a window cleaner was much more interesting
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gfte
- Posts: 100
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Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
Try this link:
https://archive.ph/WcI6Y
I'm struggling to copy/paste on my phone. Christ, when did I get old.
https://archive.ph/WcI6Y
I'm struggling to copy/paste on my phone. Christ, when did I get old.
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yellowbelly
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Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
She will visit 500 addresses in around two-and-a-half hours, about three doorsteps per minute.
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theargyspy
- Posts: 252
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- Location: UK
Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
Confessions of a Royal Mail postie
Helping the community, stopping fraud — but being tracked by bosses every step of the way
Louise Eccles
, Consumer Affairs Editor
Sunday November 13 2022, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
Royal Mail postal workers say they are being told to leave letters behind at the sorting office and prioritise more profitable parcels. The Sunday Times spoke to several postal workers who said a shortage of staff meant they were being instructed by managers to deliver only special delivery and tracked items-only — the majority of which are parcels — on some shifts, Royal Mail, plans to cut 10,000 jobs by next August denies this is its official policy, saying it has reminded staff that “letters and parcels should be treated with equal importance”.
Here, we follow postwoman Kate* on a typical Thursday morning shift and hear about the challenges and joys of the job.
Dressed in shorts on a rainy November day, Kate walks at a brisk pace as she delivers letters on the same pavements she has trodden for 20 years. She will visit 500 addresses in around two-and-a-half hours, about three doorsteps per minute.
As she does so, an apricot-coloured cockapoo puppy bounds up to her. “Oh, I know this dog. She belongs to number 20”, she says. “Come on girl. Let’s take you home.” It is the kind of everyday act of kindness that residents tell me is typical of their “postie”, whom many know by name.
Further down the road, an elderly woman living in assisted housing tells me Kate has twice rescued her after falling out of her wheelchair. “I don’t know what I would do without her,” she says as she accepts a small stack of letters.
Yet Kate says that this connection between postie and customers is under threat as staff are under growing time pressure and being told to prioritise more profitable parcels over letters.
Today, she will deliver no letters to two roads on her route. She has been told by her bosses to leave the letters at the sorting office and focus on the tracked parcels because there will not be enough time for every street on her route.
“Tracked parcels are the priority because they make the most money so they take precedence. Letter deliveries can go whistle. More and more often, I am having to return letters and parcels to the frame [at the depot] at the end of my shift. Back when I started you would have been in a lot of trouble for not delivering every single letter each day.”
Royal Mail denies it is ignoring letter deliveries and said “every item of mail is important to us” and that it has “reminded colleagues that letters and parcels should be treated with equal importance”.
Kate says she sympathises with her employer, which is dealing with declining letter volumes and losses, but believes it has lost sight of the significance of letters to the public.
“Each year the number of Christmas cards go down and the number of parcels go up but letters are still important to people, especially older generations. We deliver bills, passports, medical tests, hospital appointments, birthday cards, Mother’s and Father’s Day cards. These are still valued. We have a duty to deliver them.”
As she talks, a well-dressed man opens the front door of his three-storey Edwardian home to receive a parcel. Last year, Kate prevented him from falling victim to fraud when she refused to hand over a letter containing his new credit card to a man who had been lurking on his doorstep claiming to be the homeowner.
“I have been doing this round every day for years so I knew who lived at the address. A few months later, the same man tried to intercept a bank card at a different customer’s address. I just threw my hands in the air and said, ‘Really?’”
Another bone of contention is the use of technology to track workers — and how this data could be used in the future.
A small computer strapped to workers’ wrists already monitors how long it takes postmen and women to complete a shift, their GPS location, when they scan a parcel in and out and to take photographs of any successfully delivered parcels. The photos must show a parcel inside an open door unless a “safe place” has been specified on a parcel. In line with other couriers, it means no more informal agreements between residents and posties that they can leave it in the side alley, for example.
A small computer strapped to workers’ wrists monitors how long they take to complete a shift
The data is not yet used to set targets for how long it should take to deliver the mail or how long they can linger on each doorstep. However, a longstanding agreement that said information collected by the computers would not be used in disciplinary action was axed when postal workers went on strike over the summer. Royal Mail has now announced a review of how this data could be used in relation to “performance management”.
“They have been watching everything we have been doing for four or five years, but we are worried in the future they will use the data to get rid of older people on more expensive contracts if they are taking longer to walk or stop to help someone,” says Kate.
She recently drove a customer to a doctors’ surgery when she found her sitting, unwell, on her garden wall. Another time she and a colleague bashed down the front door of an elderly customer who was having a heart attack.
“Sometimes I am the only person that someone sees all day. This might be a wealthy area [in the southeast of England] but loneliness is a problem everywhere.”
The threat of data and photographs of delivered parcels being used against postal workers has already changed how Kate does her job. During her round in the rain last Thursday, a woman in gym gear jumped out of her car and greeted her postie. “[Kate] knows there is always some in at our house — one of the children — so she leaves parcels on the doorstep if we don’t answer the doorbell. We never have to go to the depot.”
“I won’t be able to do that anymore soon,” says Kate. “I could get in trouble.”
Royal Mail said it is facing financial challenges from declining letter volumes and its chairman, Keith Williams, has talked about possibly axing Saturday deliveries. It has blamed strike action by the Communication Workers Union for recent delays to post, saying eight 24-hour strikes between August and October over pay and conditions has placed pressure on the service. “Each strike day weakens our financial situation”, Royal Mail’s chief executive Simon Thompson said.
Four further strike days have been threatened for November 24, 25, 30 and December 1 in a long-running dispute over pay, job cuts and changes to working conditions.
Royal Mail’s contract with the government states it must deliver at least 93 per cent of first-class post the next working day. However, the latest quarterly data shows it only managed 85.1 per cent between April and June.
The company cited high absence rates during this period, mostly due to sickness, which “made delivering our usual standards of service challenging”. It apologised and said it was “focused on improving our performance”.
Workers are also at odds with their bosses over pay. Royal Mail has offered a salary rise of 5.5 per cent this year and 1.5 per cent in 2023, plus a one-off lump sum of 2 per cent of this year’s pay, if changes to working conditions are agreed. The CWU says it is “derisory” but Royal Mail said the offer was made despite “more than £1 million a day losses”.
Kate insists that, for herself at least, she is not striking over pay but about changing priorities at the 500-year-old institution.
“I have got qualifications in business,” she says, as she hauls another sack out of the red Royal Mail van. “I could be making a lot more money than this, but I love the job.”
She nods towards an elderly German shepherd being coaxed on a walk by its owner. “I have known that dog since it was a puppy. We are part of the community. I just hope it stays like that.”
Kate says an over-reliance on inexperienced agency staff, rather than hiring permanent workers and staff shortages, is causing a backlogs of letters some days.
“They are paid by the hour so they take as long as possible to make as much money as possible”, she says, as she lugs a full bag of parcels — containing Farrar & Tanner wine, John Lewis boxes, letters and junk mail — onto her shoulder.
*Names have been changed to protect her identity
Helping the community, stopping fraud — but being tracked by bosses every step of the way
Louise Eccles
, Consumer Affairs Editor
Sunday November 13 2022, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
Royal Mail postal workers say they are being told to leave letters behind at the sorting office and prioritise more profitable parcels. The Sunday Times spoke to several postal workers who said a shortage of staff meant they were being instructed by managers to deliver only special delivery and tracked items-only — the majority of which are parcels — on some shifts, Royal Mail, plans to cut 10,000 jobs by next August denies this is its official policy, saying it has reminded staff that “letters and parcels should be treated with equal importance”.
Here, we follow postwoman Kate* on a typical Thursday morning shift and hear about the challenges and joys of the job.
Dressed in shorts on a rainy November day, Kate walks at a brisk pace as she delivers letters on the same pavements she has trodden for 20 years. She will visit 500 addresses in around two-and-a-half hours, about three doorsteps per minute.
As she does so, an apricot-coloured cockapoo puppy bounds up to her. “Oh, I know this dog. She belongs to number 20”, she says. “Come on girl. Let’s take you home.” It is the kind of everyday act of kindness that residents tell me is typical of their “postie”, whom many know by name.
Further down the road, an elderly woman living in assisted housing tells me Kate has twice rescued her after falling out of her wheelchair. “I don’t know what I would do without her,” she says as she accepts a small stack of letters.
Yet Kate says that this connection between postie and customers is under threat as staff are under growing time pressure and being told to prioritise more profitable parcels over letters.
Today, she will deliver no letters to two roads on her route. She has been told by her bosses to leave the letters at the sorting office and focus on the tracked parcels because there will not be enough time for every street on her route.
“Tracked parcels are the priority because they make the most money so they take precedence. Letter deliveries can go whistle. More and more often, I am having to return letters and parcels to the frame [at the depot] at the end of my shift. Back when I started you would have been in a lot of trouble for not delivering every single letter each day.”
Royal Mail denies it is ignoring letter deliveries and said “every item of mail is important to us” and that it has “reminded colleagues that letters and parcels should be treated with equal importance”.
Kate says she sympathises with her employer, which is dealing with declining letter volumes and losses, but believes it has lost sight of the significance of letters to the public.
“Each year the number of Christmas cards go down and the number of parcels go up but letters are still important to people, especially older generations. We deliver bills, passports, medical tests, hospital appointments, birthday cards, Mother’s and Father’s Day cards. These are still valued. We have a duty to deliver them.”
As she talks, a well-dressed man opens the front door of his three-storey Edwardian home to receive a parcel. Last year, Kate prevented him from falling victim to fraud when she refused to hand over a letter containing his new credit card to a man who had been lurking on his doorstep claiming to be the homeowner.
“I have been doing this round every day for years so I knew who lived at the address. A few months later, the same man tried to intercept a bank card at a different customer’s address. I just threw my hands in the air and said, ‘Really?’”
Another bone of contention is the use of technology to track workers — and how this data could be used in the future.
A small computer strapped to workers’ wrists already monitors how long it takes postmen and women to complete a shift, their GPS location, when they scan a parcel in and out and to take photographs of any successfully delivered parcels. The photos must show a parcel inside an open door unless a “safe place” has been specified on a parcel. In line with other couriers, it means no more informal agreements between residents and posties that they can leave it in the side alley, for example.
A small computer strapped to workers’ wrists monitors how long they take to complete a shift
The data is not yet used to set targets for how long it should take to deliver the mail or how long they can linger on each doorstep. However, a longstanding agreement that said information collected by the computers would not be used in disciplinary action was axed when postal workers went on strike over the summer. Royal Mail has now announced a review of how this data could be used in relation to “performance management”.
“They have been watching everything we have been doing for four or five years, but we are worried in the future they will use the data to get rid of older people on more expensive contracts if they are taking longer to walk or stop to help someone,” says Kate.
She recently drove a customer to a doctors’ surgery when she found her sitting, unwell, on her garden wall. Another time she and a colleague bashed down the front door of an elderly customer who was having a heart attack.
“Sometimes I am the only person that someone sees all day. This might be a wealthy area [in the southeast of England] but loneliness is a problem everywhere.”
The threat of data and photographs of delivered parcels being used against postal workers has already changed how Kate does her job. During her round in the rain last Thursday, a woman in gym gear jumped out of her car and greeted her postie. “[Kate] knows there is always some in at our house — one of the children — so she leaves parcels on the doorstep if we don’t answer the doorbell. We never have to go to the depot.”
“I won’t be able to do that anymore soon,” says Kate. “I could get in trouble.”
Royal Mail said it is facing financial challenges from declining letter volumes and its chairman, Keith Williams, has talked about possibly axing Saturday deliveries. It has blamed strike action by the Communication Workers Union for recent delays to post, saying eight 24-hour strikes between August and October over pay and conditions has placed pressure on the service. “Each strike day weakens our financial situation”, Royal Mail’s chief executive Simon Thompson said.
Four further strike days have been threatened for November 24, 25, 30 and December 1 in a long-running dispute over pay, job cuts and changes to working conditions.
Royal Mail’s contract with the government states it must deliver at least 93 per cent of first-class post the next working day. However, the latest quarterly data shows it only managed 85.1 per cent between April and June.
The company cited high absence rates during this period, mostly due to sickness, which “made delivering our usual standards of service challenging”. It apologised and said it was “focused on improving our performance”.
Workers are also at odds with their bosses over pay. Royal Mail has offered a salary rise of 5.5 per cent this year and 1.5 per cent in 2023, plus a one-off lump sum of 2 per cent of this year’s pay, if changes to working conditions are agreed. The CWU says it is “derisory” but Royal Mail said the offer was made despite “more than £1 million a day losses”.
Kate insists that, for herself at least, she is not striking over pay but about changing priorities at the 500-year-old institution.
“I have got qualifications in business,” she says, as she hauls another sack out of the red Royal Mail van. “I could be making a lot more money than this, but I love the job.”
She nods towards an elderly German shepherd being coaxed on a walk by its owner. “I have known that dog since it was a puppy. We are part of the community. I just hope it stays like that.”
Kate says an over-reliance on inexperienced agency staff, rather than hiring permanent workers and staff shortages, is causing a backlogs of letters some days.
“They are paid by the hour so they take as long as possible to make as much money as possible”, she says, as she lugs a full bag of parcels — containing Farrar & Tanner wine, John Lewis boxes, letters and junk mail — onto her shoulder.
*Names have been changed to protect her identity
"Never have I known an employee so keen to employ you, then so eager to get rid of you!"
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BigSacks
- Posts: 202
- Joined: 25 Jul 2022, 15:16
- Gender: Male
Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
However, the latest quarterly data shows it only managed 85.1 per cent between April and June.
The company cited high absence rates during this period, mostly due to sickness, which “made delivering our usual standards of service challenging”. It apologised and said it was “focused on improving our performance”.
Lies, lies, lies.
The company cited high absence rates during this period, mostly due to sickness, which “made delivering our usual standards of service challenging”. It apologised and said it was “focused on improving our performance”.
Lies, lies, lies.
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bongo_fury
- Posts: 46
- Joined: 22 Nov 2013, 15:56
- Gender: Male
Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
Confessions of a postie? I can just imagine Robin Asquith doing the deliveries!
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mjd24
- Posts: 1406
- Joined: 11 May 2008, 18:48
Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
A 2.5 hour delivery???!!!!!???!!!!
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theargyspy
- Posts: 252
- Joined: 23 Apr 2007, 17:02
- Gender: Male
- Location: UK
Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
Your showing your age!!bongo_fury wrote: ↑14 Nov 2022, 18:15Confessions of a postie? I can just imagine Robin Asquith doing the deliveries!
"Never have I known an employee so keen to employ you, then so eager to get rid of you!"
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ted_e_bear
- Posts: 4085
- Joined: 03 Sep 2012, 19:37
- Gender: Male
Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
Yeah same here, can picture it now, turns up with a parcel, rings the bell, lonely housewife answers, innuendo goes "morning luv I've got a big one here for you" next scene his arse is a blur, PDA rammed between the cheeks cos his manager will drag him in next day demanding why did you stop movingbongo_fury wrote: ↑14 Nov 2022, 18:15Confessions of a postie? I can just imagine Robin Asquith doing the deliveries!
Last edited by ted_e_bear on 14 Nov 2022, 19:18, edited 1 time in total.
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jbo5066
- Posts: 356
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krussel
- Posts: 5300
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- Gender: Male
- Location: Out on the streets.
Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
A small computer strapped to workers’ wrists monitors how long they take to complete a shift
Really not seen one of those ?
Really not seen one of those ?
Rows of houses all bearing down on me........I can feel their blue hands touching me.......All these things in all positions.........All these things will one day take control..........
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wacko74
- EX ROYAL MAIL
- Posts: 1572
- Joined: 04 Apr 2009, 20:35
- Gender: Male
Re: Confessions of a royal mail postie
I'm a bit surprised at The Times producing a piece that goes with the narrative that RM should remain an anachronistic and ossified ''public service'' rife with outdated, inefficient working practices... that's more the kind of utopian and idealistic nonsense I'd expect to read in the Guardian or Morning Star