The Future: Saturday 25th Nov 2023

[FilthyBloke]

Talked to my rep this morning. We all hate the deal. But their is no other deal coming.

Sorry I'm voting yes.

Voting no will not get a better deal, it'll be a worse deal plus strikes if any deal at all or the same deal slightly worse.

Instead I'm silently quiting. Walking slower. Pretending to be dumb. Uninterested. It's just clock in clock out now.

sorry if you are voting yes then you are NOT pretending to be dumb , you ARE dumb !

Please can I see your plan of action rather than just ranting and raving at anybody who disagrees with you? What would be your tactics, would you announce more strikes, would you be prepared to lead the union? Put up or shut up.

This is the issue. Ranting and raving will do nothing now. Just vote YES or NO and deal with it.

[rambo1]

Sounds like the rain is your biggest gripe there!
I've been finishing like many of my colleagues who go over in the run up to Christmas, at 5.30-6pm for a few yrs now. Helps if you're on a familiar round granted. Just need a good rechargeable head torch ( which you can use in your daily life too) and it's like daylight delivering.
Are you going to write a summer time scenario too where you finish earlier than normal and less time in the sun? Just to balance it out.
Just saying.

Guess the difference is you chose to work till 5.30-6pm in the run up to Christmas, this is not going to be a choice, in the future this will become the norm, something that you are happy to do but many are not. The huge differences we all face out on delivery means some of us could be walking round nice 'safe' areas, others in 70's built blocks of flats where the council have housed all the problem tenants, every large town/city have places like that...discarded, used needles, used condoms, drug dealers dealing from street corners, hanging around on bikes, in cars, the dingy flats where you breathe a sigh of relief when you finish them. These areas are not fun to deliver to in daylight, never mind in the dark, you may counter this with " well we used to deliver in the dark back in the day!" yes we did and I still remember some scary encounters with drunks laid out on the stairs in blocks of flats. People shooting up in alleyways, But the difference was that that sort of people, the ones that are going to cause us grief, the drunks, the drug dealers, the people taking drugs, the guys following you asking for their dole cheque, the ones who are looking for you to leave you bike (now trolley) alone for a second so they can swipe some mail on the off change it might be worth something, all those people don't seem to be around at 7am, whereas they are on the sink estates at 4pm+ in the middle of winter, as for your head torch, good for you, but it's not going to stop you feeling unsafe when its dark, your cold and tired with 400 plus calls left in an area you've never been to before

As for the summer I don't understand your statement "summer time scenario too where you finish earlier than normal and less time in the sun?" finish earlier than normal??? it's not going to be like the good old days, we are still going to be out in the hottest part of the day, I get that, even Royal Mail can't be blamed for extreme weather. It’s the job after all but with these new trials, trying to cut the amount of indoor work it could mean we start work at 8am, out the door by 9am and on delivery with flex, until 3pm +. The mark one human body can only do so much, and because of the decline of letters Royal Mails answer is, well just keep working them longer, make deliveries bigger, it can't go on like this, so last year we are out doing 750 calls in 4 hrs +, this year new revisions now we are on 900 calls in 5 hrs+ our next revision they want to take 1500 hrs out of the office, so next revision coming soon 1110 calls 6hrs+ where does this end? in six months 1250 calls 7 hrs+. I understand the problem, the decline in the mail but the answer cannot be just keep adding more calls to each delivery and expect us to go on delivering for longer and longer, that surely cannot be the answer, They want to push us, break us, we leave for a pittance, and they employ new people to use, break, get rid, and repeat

Get what you're saying. There's areas that quite honestly I wouldn't not be in this job if I had to deliver to, light or dark.
I meant in summer we will be working shorter days, although obviously in the heat of the day like we have been anyway for the last 10+ yrs. Ok, to all the runners, they are probably going to be working longer hrs than they used to, but then, they should have been doing the job right in the first place.

[rambo1]

Talked to my rep this morning. We all hate the deal. But their is no other deal coming.

Sorry I'm voting yes.

Voting no will not get a better deal, it'll be a worse deal plus strikes if any deal at all or the same deal slightly worse.

Instead I'm silently quiting. Walking slower. Pretending to be dumb. Uninterested. It's just clock in clock out now.

sorry if you are voting yes then you are NOT pretending to be dumb , you ARE dumb !

He’s supporting his union and voting for their recommended YES option.
A few weeks ago anyone who disagreed with the union you quickly threw under the bus…. Now anyone who agrees with them are being thrown under the bus.
Just accept that people have different priorities and views.

[rambo1]

Talked to my rep this morning. We all hate the deal. But their is no other deal coming.

Sorry I'm voting yes.

Voting no will not get a better deal, it'll be a worse deal plus strikes if any deal at all or the same deal slightly worse.

Instead I'm silently quiting. Walking slower. Pretending to be dumb. Uninterested. It's just clock in clock out now.

How do you know there won't be a better deal?

RM have just conditioned you to think that. Take a look at the share price it's the highest it's been in 6 months. This talk of the company going into administration and there being no money is all one big bluff.

Going into administration would be good for the share price of IDS because they'd just be left with the bits that actually make money.

[funkflex55]

We still have union posters up saying we want a no strings pay rise on them. Saying the deal is good because not all RMs changes are being made is not how it should be described. If you offered me a small plate of s**t and big plate of s**t I'm still not gonna eat the small plate because it's still s**t. Vote NO!

[Wullie10]

It's Saturday 25th Nov 2023 around 4:30pm, I've been on delivery since around 10:15am so just over 6 hrs, I should have finished half an hour ago but my COM informed me this morning that due to heavier than expected traffic that he was 'asking me' to flex up by half an hour. It has hardly stopped raining since I started and I'm soaked to the skin. It is dark and I'm not familiar with the area. I've been provided with a torch, but no batteries (was told I have to buy these myself) so I'm struggling to see some of the house numbers. The PDA has given up the ghost being so wet so I'm trying to write down the tracking numbers as I deliver them but due to the rain my pen has stopped working too. I was trying to take photos on my mobile phone but it's raining so hard that I dare not use it. I have just knocked on a customer’s door to pick up a customer collection but they said it wasn't ready and could I come back later, I said No. I’m just trying to get over a heavy cold so unable to go at a decent pace, the last couple of weeks of bad weather are taking their toll on me but can’t go sick because I had a four day absence around eight months ago when I twisted my ankle on delivery. I have three packets left that were attempted yesterday but they weren’t in so I have to re-deliver today, unfortunately due to the rain one of the address labels has got so damp the address has become unreadable, earlier, before the PDA died I was struggling to scan tracked so was putting them in manually, it was hard though because my hands were so cold. Because my hands are frozen I'm using the otherwise useless PDA to knock on the doors. A close call with a dog roaming around the street with no owner, I had to wait in someone’s garden until it got bored and run off. It is completely dark now and I'm struggling to get anyone to answer when I have packets, customers are not keen to open the door in the dark, the conversation is always the same "KNOCK, KNOCK" "who is it?" " the Postman, I have a packet for you!" nothing happens for a few minutes, lots of whispering behind the door, then see someone looking out of the living room window, then after some time the security chain is removed and a little old lady looks out of the crack of the door before taking the packet. Then onto the next house. The rain coming down harder now which is a blessing because a little earlier there was a couple of dodgy looking guys in hoodies who were following me, I was keeping my trolly as close to me as possible. My shoes are full of water due to the constant rain so not bothering avoiding the puddles, my feet couldn’t get any wetter. I still have around 100 calls left but I'm going to stop delivering the mail and just do the last tracked as instructed by my COM and I'm going to call it a day. I can’t write out any cards either because of my useless pen and my P739 cards are soaking wet so I hope they are all in and answer the door. I would have called my manager but he finished and went home at 10am this morning, I saw him getting in his car to leave as I pulled out of the yard to go out on delivery. Obviously my union rep wasn't in today either as he doesn't work Saturdays. It’s going to take me around 40 mins to drive back through the Saturday pre-Christmas traffic, a journey of 2 miles, so anticipate getting back to the office around 5:15pm, ten mins to pouch off and hopefully I can be leaving to clock off around 5:30pm, So I should be home around 6:15pm. I'm lucky I only live around 3 miles away and shouldn't take me too long in this traffic. Looking forward to my Sunday off tomorrow, it’s been a long week, Monday will soon be here again and expect a grilling off my COM as to why I brought back the hundred calls.

Sounds bleak….
But if you twisted your ankle at work and it’s work related it shouldn’t (unless the policy has changed) be added on to your sick allowance (if it’s a pot hole or whatever make sure you take a photo and inform your manager right away), and remember if it happened in someone’s driveway in the dark you could actually go down the route of legal action.
Don’t use your phone for any parcel/letter issues.
If your place of work are not providing you with proper equipment for you to perform your job (batteries for torch or padlock for trolley) then don’t do it. Health and safety is protected.
As for the dog roaming the street, take a photo, and then leave that entire street as inaccessible. You are just following protocol after all….
And if you can’t get hold of the manager (and only use the pda to call the office, don’t use your own phone) then again you can use that as evidence to back you up. PDA call history will show you tried calling several times and left numerous messages.

But you’re right…. There could be some really lousy shifts ahead…

Sorry that's my wally week , I'll be on the beach in Tenerife for the 6th holiday that year then back in time for my Christmas tips to pay for my holiday In January