Later start times

[CarryingMGMT]

I saw "everyone else works 9-5 so why shouldn't they?!" get thrown about as an argument against us going on strike quite a lot, but we work different hours because it is not a normal job. One of our afternoon staff had a van breakdown recently and didn't get home until after 10pm (her finish time is 7pm.) She got told the next day that she should have spent her time walking trackeds to individual houses instead of waiting in the van.

How does the possibility of a breakdown make it "not like a normal job"?

Anyone who drives can break down and get home late. At least we get paid while we're waiting in the van!

Probably because every single other large business in the country actually looks after their fleet of vehicles.

Funnily enough, most other places actually look after the staff too.

[SMS1969]

She got told the next day that she should have spent her time walking trackeds to individual houses instead of waiting in the van.

I’ve experienced that before. My next tracked was 2 miles away, the one after that 2.5 ish miles - I was told by my manager go walk and deliver them while I wait.

There really are some callous barstards amongst our management.

[thefox]

Out of interest if a van breaks down do you have to wait till the breakdown people arrive even if its say an hour after your finish time before they can get to you,can you not get your wife say to pick you up when your shifts done and drop keys of at office and get the manager to come get keys and go pick up the van.im a non driver so was just wondering.

[rubberbond]

I do find it odd people complaining about traffic, or dealing with the school run. This is just what working people do.

Why should we work wierd early start and finish times? There's really no reason for it.

Even weirder are the posties who took the job because they actually had childcare and caring responsibilities and Royal Mail actually encouraged postwomen to apply for the job promoting it as 'family friendly'. Is there no reason for that too?

I completely understand the anger if some peoples lifestyle choices are inconvenienced.

But the changes they want aren't unreasonable. They just want us to do a more standard working day, for justified business reasons.

Like what ? Some ridiculous “ green agenda”, that no one who ever orders something to be physically delivered actually gives a toss about, otherwise they wouldn’t order so much crap made in China. Nobody has ever asked for this bullshit about “ lowest carbon footprint “ , if Royal Mail truly believed in the green bollocks then why did they replace cycles with vans?

[postslippete]

I saw "everyone else works 9-5 so why shouldn't they?!" get thrown about as an argument against us going on strike quite a lot, but we work different hours because it is not a normal job. One of our afternoon staff had a van breakdown recently and didn't get home until after 10pm (her finish time is 7pm.) She got told the next day that she should have spent her time walking trackeds to individual houses instead of waiting in the van.

How does the possibility of a breakdown make it "not like a normal job"?

Anyone who drives can break down and get home late. At least we get paid while we're waiting in the van!

Whilst van breakdowns always happen especially with our fleet, overtime last time I checked is not compulsory. We don't own the vans so why can't a manager come out and wait instead? Our lives don't revolve around Royal Mail.

[TopperGas]

Postie's have a duty to look after the mail, if you left mail in the van it's possibly a conduct issue, or that's what the manager would tell you if you said that you were living the broken down van at the side of the road and going home!

[Ren Hoëk]

Out of interest if a van breaks down do you have to wait till the breakdown people arrive even if its say an hour after your finish time before they can get to you,can you not get your wife say to pick you up when your shifts done and drop keys of at office and get the manager to come get keys and go pick up the van.im a non driver so was just wondering.

I had this happen to me. Van gave up the ghost at the end of my duty a few miles from the depo. Boss had already dipped off home early and was uncontactable. So I gave myself enough time to walk back to the depo to finish on time and left a note on her desk explaining where the van was with the keys. They could not grasp the fact that it was a them problem and not a me problem.

[Clappedoutpostie]

Postie's have a duty to look after the mail, if you left mail in the van it's possibly a conduct issue, or that's what the manager would tell you if you said that you were living the broken down van at the side of the road and going home!

On that logic somebody should stay in attendance with the van whilst your off doing a loop.

[Mr Rush]

Like what ? Some ridiculous “ green agenda”, that no one who ever orders something to be physically delivered actually gives a toss about, otherwise they wouldn’t order so much crap made in China. Nobody has ever asked for this bullshit about “ lowest carbon footprint “ , if Royal Mail truly believed in the green bollocks then why did they replace cycles with vans?

It's just the latest cover story. Disaster capitalism needs the equilibrium to be punctuated by extreme events through which they can implement policies under cover that would otherwise be subject to scrutiny in the open. They tried it with GDPR, they struck gold with Covid, now they're using Net Zero. I'm not implying anything about the veracity of any of these events; merely that they provide convenient pretext.

[norris9]

I completely understand the anger if some peoples lifestyle choices are inconvenienced.

But the changes they want aren't unreasonable. They just want us to do a more standard working day, for justified business reasons.

Obviously the change in times suits you for whatever reason, but it won't suit most.

For me the concern is what the traffic will be like going to work and coming back, if it's crap then it's going to be an annoyance, if not then maybe the change will be pretty plain sailing, though.....

Another thing is....my round has loads of schools on it....so I am expecting mayhem around 3-4pm with traffic getting crazy and finding a place to park the van being difficult.


One benefit from finishing later is that my legs tend to give in at 8pm every evening and from that point onwards it's hard to stay awake. Obviously, finishing later means my legs will start aching later, which is a good thing. If we finished at 5pm, my legs probably wouldn't ache until 10pm, which is a time I'd rather be going to bed.

[postslippete]

Postie's have a duty to look after the mail, if you left mail in the van it's possibly a conduct issue, or that's what the manager would tell you if you said that you were living the broken down van at the side of the road and going home!

But surely you would expect the manager to come out and you would leave the van once they get there, if you didn't want any overtime? If they can't be bothered to do that then they really shouldn't be managing in the first place. It would make for an interesting grievance to show how inflexible some managers are towards leaving the confines of their office environment. My view is that they are delivery managers and just like during the strikes they can also deliver parcels

[heraldmoth]

Cmon, they knew

If they knew they have deceived the membership

No way

[thefox]

Postie's have a duty to look after the mail, if you left mail in the van it's possibly a conduct issue, or that's what the manager would tell you if you said that you were living the broken down van at the side of the road and going home!

Alternatively ask the manager what do you want me to do will i lock the van before i leave or do you give me permission to take whats left home and either bring it in next day or you come collect it from my house when the vans fixed.

[thefox]

Out of interest if a van breaks down do you have to wait till the breakdown people arrive even if its say an hour after your finish time before they can get to you,can you not get your wife say to pick you up when your shifts done and drop keys of at office and get the manager to come get keys and go pick up the van.im a non driver so was just wondering.

I had this happen to me. Van gave up the ghost at the end of my duty a few miles from the depo. Boss had already dipped off home early and was uncontactable. So I gave myself enough time to walk back to the depo to finish on time and left a note on her desk explaining where the van was with the keys. They could not grasp the fact that it was a them problem and not a me problem.

Good on you

[TopperGas]

Postie's have a duty to look after the mail, if you left mail in the van it's possibly a conduct issue, or that's what the manager would tell you if you said that you were living the broken down van at the side of the road and going home!

But surely you would expect the manager to come out and you would leave the van once they get there, if you didn't want any overtime? If they can't be bothered to do that then they really shouldn't be managing in the first place. It would make for an interesting grievance to show how inflexible some managers are towards leaving the confines of their office environment. My view is that they are delivery managers and just like during the strikes they can also deliver parcels

That's never happened at my DO, plus if you breakdown on SA etc the managers have long gone, I've no idea what the company policy is for breakdowns?