Toxic work environment.

[postslippete]

Glad someone started this topic


I've known a few posties that have committed suicide in the past and whilst they had other issues as well; working at Royal Mail probably made their condition even worse.

It's not difficult to see why. The daily grind of walking mile after mile doing the same route with a bag on the back in all weathers, feeling exhausted, knowing they have to do it all again tomorrow. The working environment plays a part as well but the same issues still exist and probably made worse now many of our duties are almost unachievable particularly on busy days. In addition, sick pay has been reduced so anyone who might need to go on sick will be putting their health on the line so they don't lose out and managers will still be expecting them to do a full shift.

The pressure is always on COMs to get that workload delivered and many of them couldn't give a sh*t how it's done - whether that's using bullying/coercion, blackmail (we will keep you on this round), sob story (I'm going to get in big trouble with my boss), paying out ghost overtime or using creative accounting to make it show that the office is clearing. Eventually these COMs get found out (as if the senior managers above them don't know ) and they get moved on either to a different delivery office where they start again with a new team or they leave with a decent pay off.

It's the company's culture that has changed ever since privatisation. Everything is driven by profit and is run by people who know the cost of everything and the value being the square root of f** all.

[Ren Hoëk]

I think there is some good comments so far. The main issue seems to be workload and expectations. I think RM want what they cant have at this point.

Again, just today I had to explain why I couldn't complete. I came back to 4 days worth of mail. Couple that with double slots and that slows down prep time considerably before having to drag it all around the street on a trolley. I should not have had to have that conversation. Not once did she say thanks for your efforts today.

My attitude was put into question. As if i'm supposed to be happy with what is happening. Almost as if because im not smiling is the reason I cant complete these silly duties. Soon to be even sillier having cut off another few duties. The office is a chaotic free for all and im being compared against people who do zero IPS and run around/skip breaks. I do the job as prescribed. Steadily and to spec.

If it goes on much longer il be off long term with stress.

[Shadedpostie]

Think most of it stems from having managers letting the usual suspects getting away with certain stuff for years and when it comes to eventually telling said staff they have to do things such as taking a bit extra out so they don't clock it an hour early, they throw a hissy fit and then management don't stay on them and just revert back to old habits. Then, obviously other people see this and are like, "why the hell am I killing myself in this job and getting grilled when person A, B and C are constantly taking the piss and getting away with it?' I've heard people literally just driving around for an hour to avoid doing more work when managers have told people to not come back early too. Place is a complete s**t show and needs a shake down from the top and some from the bottom.

[SpacePhoenix]

I've heard people literally just driving around for an hour to avoid doing more work when managers have told people to not come back early too.

I would have thought that something like that would have been flagged up on the PDA actuals. Also I find it hard to believe that there could be a whole hour of delivery without there being at least 1 item that needs scanning

[world class male]

in my opinion the managers,like already stated are just puppets purely acting on the instructions from above, sometimes they don't even know who is on certain duties or if on day off until an hour or more into the shift,
a previous comm told me once they know who swings the lead but restricted on how to deal with it,
you can guarantee that if they do fix a problem it will only cause a different one to someone else,

then we have us posties, we all know those who do as little as possible indoor, and no way will they help anyone struggling, the performance standards are very low with quite a few here but because they are actually tasked with 50% less indoor work than most others it became their speed,
this then causes arguments with comms for those who are really struggling purely through inept management,
there is a significant lack of teamwork but RM caused the "i'm alright jack" mentality among us and would sooner walk about for 15 mins and those who do try to push themselves usually end up getting even more work given as the normal

[Kenfandango]

A lot of us in our DO were present when our COM told his direct superior that the revisions had utterly ruined loads of walks, pointing out that some of them were never possible in the first place and adding another 25 minutes work, 7 miles away, to it was ridiculous. The area managers response was "it comes from above me, you have to make it work." The toxicity is embedded in every layer, with tiers of "management" passing the messages down and passing the blame back up.
One of our least useful postie's just got a promotion to trainee manager, and was telling us that there's no option to say only a percentage of a duty went out, it's either done or not. Ergo if you come back from 6 days off and nobody touched your walk in that time, leaving you only able to take 2 loops, the "system" is told that the walk was cleared. Not sure how true that is but I can believe it

[mwalker88]

The film 'Idiocracy' immediately springs to mind.

[Shadedpostie]

I've heard people literally just driving around for an hour to avoid doing more work when managers have told people to not come back early too.

I would have thought that something like that would have been flagged up on the PDA actuals. Also I find it hard to believe that there could be a whole hour of delivery without there being at least 1 item that needs scanning

With the managers we have in our office, the s**t doesn't even surprise me the least of they turn a blind eye to it to avoid confrontation with some of the guys in here. They are legit scared of them. The staff in question tend to ghost overtime, door step or just come in early for nothing so they'll look the other way unless their big boss have gave them matching orders to do so or come in for an inspection. We even still have some people bagging up and leaving even before the 33 hours have even arrived. It's completely bonkers when you have people legit struggling to complete walks be it walk being too big or it's been left there for days/weeks, but on another end telling the runners/ghosts to not come back early. This point , I don't even think they care long as it gives them an excuse to slash more hours out the office and parcels are gone. They are playing the long game.

[Nickvilla20]

in my opinion the managers,like already stated are just puppets purely acting on the instructions from above, sometimes they don't even know who is on certain duties or if on day off until an hour or more into the shift,
a previous comm told me once they know who swings the lead but restricted on how to deal with it,
you can guarantee that if they do fix a problem it will only cause a different one to someone else,

then we have us posties, we all know those who do as little as possible indoor, and no way will they help anyone struggling, the performance standards are very low with quite a few here but because they are actually tasked with 50% less indoor work than most others it became their speed,
this then causes arguments with comms for those who are really struggling purely through inept management,
there is a significant lack of teamwork but RM caused the "i'm alright jack" mentality among us and would sooner walk about for 15 mins and those who do try to push themselves usually end up getting even more work given as the normal

You’ve beautifully summed up the whole situation.

I’m on a HCT walk which in comparison isn’t to bad I offered to swap some of my calls with another which they walk past with calls I walk past but they weren’t interested as he had the I’m alright jack attitude. We have never been a united workforce.

[ihatedogs]

Simple answer is (myself included) most of us have a chip on our shoulders and go in with the wrong attitude

That’s because We have been made like that. Not because We want to be like it

Simon Thompson caused most of this - the piece of ****

Exactly what he was brought in to do unfortunately. He'll see it as a job well done for which he was rewarded extremely well. He won't be losing any sleep over the daily battles the front line staff have to go through.

[ihatedogs]

It wasn't always like this.
I remember when I actually liked coming into work, taking pride in doing my job to the best of my ability, managers happy, staff happy, customers happy.
Then, about 20 years ago, a continuous cycle of cuts, changes to working practises, and a profound decrease in respect for workers on the shop floor began.
Which has led us to the job/company we have today.
From Gold, to absolute rust.

Couldn't agree more mate. Back in the 90's/00's offices were completely clear on a daily basis, overtime was there if you wanted it & RM hadn't yet started employing shitty managers. Ours was ex army & treated everyone the same. You could get leave reasonably easy, swapping days with a colleague if you liked & you weren't harassed for being on the sick.
Now look at us, absolute shambles.

[postslippete]

I think there is some good comments so far. The main issue seems to be workload and expectations. I think RM want what they cant have at this point.

Again, just today I had to explain why I couldn't complete. I came back to 4 days worth of mail. Couple that with double slots and that slows down prep time considerably before having to drag it all around the street on a trolley. I should not have had to have that conversation. Not once did she say thanks for your efforts today.

My attitude was put into question. As if i'm supposed to be happy with what is happening. Almost as if because im not smiling is the reason I cant complete these silly duties. Soon to be even sillier having cut off another few duties. The office is a chaotic free for all and im being compared against people who do zero IPS and run around/skip breaks. I do the job as prescribed. Steadily and to spec.

If it goes on much longer il be off long term with stress.

The CWU leadership in their own words stated that Royal Mail senior management created a "toxic environment" due to the disregard for quality of service

https://www.cwu.org/press_release/royal ... tatement/

and the reasons why in Dave Ward's words.......

https://twitter.com/CWUnews/status/1661 ... 56?lang=en


are due to the revisions and the only answer to that is to review the revisions, lifting the embargo on recruitment, treating people better and in quite a few cases putting some of those hours back into workplaces and putting right those problems that they have created.


Was it really one of the main reasons why the Union postponed the vote on the ballot or was Dave just trying to make posties feel better by acknowledging why things have gone t*ts up??


During the pandemic when we were taking double mail everyday we had an agreement with the rep that we should only be taking 4 loops of mail on a duty. Something similar should apply to this situation that Royal Mail have purposely created otherwise the current workload is a conversation that goes round in circles between managers and staff. But there is no pandemic, no overwhelming staff sickness and no industrial action to blame the failures of the USO on. So after they have shifted the goalposts and made the pitch bigger; they are now blaming us for failing to score.

[A2B]

I think there is some good comments so far. The main issue seems to be workload and expectations. I think RM want what they cant have at this point.

Again, just today I had to explain why I couldn't complete. I came back to 4 days worth of mail. Couple that with double slots and that slows down prep time considerably before having to drag it all around the street on a trolley. I should not have had to have that conversation. Not once did she say thanks for your efforts today.

My attitude was put into question. As if i'm supposed to be happy with what is happening. Almost as if because im not smiling is the reason I cant complete these silly duties. Soon to be even sillier having cut off another few duties. The office is a chaotic free for all and im being compared against people who do zero IPS and run around/skip breaks. I do the job as prescribed. Steadily and to spec.

If it goes on much longer il be off long term with stress.

The CWU leadership in their own words stated that Royal Mail senior management created a "toxic environment" due to the disregard for quality of service

https://www.cwu.org/press_release/royal ... tatement/

and the reasons why in Dave Ward's words.......

https://twitter.com/CWUnews/status/1661 ... 56?lang=en


are due to the revisions and the only answer to that is to review the revisions, lifting the embargo on recruitment, treating people better and in quite a few cases putting some of those hours back into workplaces and putting right those problems that they have created.


Was it really one of the main reasons why the Union postponed the vote on the ballot or was Dave just trying to make posties feel better by acknowledging why things have gone t*ts up??


During the pandemic when we were taking double mail everyday we had an agreement with the rep that we should only be taking 4 loops of mail on a duty. Something similar should apply to this situation that Royal Mail have purposely created otherwise the current workload is a conversation that goes round in circles between managers and staff. But there is no pandemic, no overwhelming staff sickness and no industrial action to blame the failures of the USO on. So after they have shifted the goalposts and made the pitch bigger; they are now blaming us for failing to score.

Excellent post The CWU pointed out what we all knew was going wrong in deliveries and we backed them only to be then dumped ibto the daily chaos we have now

[Ren Hoëk]

So after they have shifted the goalposts and made the pitch bigger; they are now blaming us for failing to score.

Very much what it feels like. Every single f***ing day.

[A2B]

I think there is some good comments so far. The main issue seems to be workload and expectations. I think RM want what they cant have at this point.

Again, just today I had to explain why I couldn't complete. I came back to 4 days worth of mail. Couple that with double slots and that slows down prep time considerably before having to drag it all around the street on a trolley. I should not have had to have that conversation. Not once did she say thanks for your efforts today.

My attitude was put into question. As if i'm supposed to be happy with what is happening. Almost as if because im not smiling is the reason I cant complete these silly duties. Soon to be even sillier having cut off another few duties. The office is a chaotic free for all and im being compared against people who do zero IPS and run around/skip breaks. I do the job as prescribed. Steadily and to spec.

If it goes on much longer il be off long term with stress.

The CWU leadership in their own words stated that Royal Mail senior management created a "toxic environment" due to the disregard for quality of service

https://www.cwu.org/press_release/royal ... tatement/

and the reasons why in Dave Ward's words.......

https://twitter.com/CWUnews/status/1661 ... 56?lang=en


are due to the revisions and the only answer to that is to review the revisions, lifting the embargo on recruitment, treating people better and in quite a few cases putting some of those hours back into workplaces and putting right those problems that they have created.


Was it really one of the main reasons why the Union postponed the vote on the ballot or was Dave just trying to make posties feel better by acknowledging why things have gone t*ts up??


During the pandemic when we were taking double mail everyday we had an agreement with the rep that we should only be taking 4 loops of mail on a duty. Something similar should apply to this situation that Royal Mail have purposely created otherwise the current workload is a conversation that goes round in circles between managers and staff. But there is no pandemic, no overwhelming staff sickness and no industrial action to blame the failures of the USO on. So after they have shifted the goalposts and made the pitch bigger; they are now blaming us for failing to score.

Excellent post The CWU pointed out what we all knew was going wrong in deliveries and we backed them only to be then dumped into the daily chaos we have now