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Once upon time in Royal Mail

Postal workers discussion forum. Discuss the day to day life in a Blue Shirt.
Custard Jelly
Posts: 46
Joined: 17 Jul 2024, 19:07
Gender: Male

Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by Custard Jelly »

Before COVID hit. Do any of you old heads remember. When 1 walk didn’t go out or when someone went sick. Managers used to run around like headless chickens begging workers to do overtime.
Managers used say please please you want do 1 row or 1/3 or half walk or full walk lol.

I remember it was 5 or 6 hours overtime for a full walk lol. I can’t remember

And when ONE letter was bought back or left. It was chaos lol.

NOW you can leave has much mail has you want hahaha.

And NOW has long has you done all Specials/Tracks/Post boxes/Collections. Managers are happy
yellowbelly
Posts: 3713
Joined: 23 Jun 2015, 15:51
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by yellowbelly »

Custard Jelly wrote:
01 Aug 2024, 20:51
..................

And NOW has long has you done all Specials/Tracks/Post boxes/Collections. Managers are happy
That's probably because these are all part of their scores for 'achievements' along with making sure van checks
are done on the PDA, SISO's are registered, Scan to Core Routes are done so the recipient gets that all important
text, but as for actually delivering mail..........meh!!
jimmynailsalive
EX ROYAL MAIL
Posts: 303
Joined: 28 Dec 2013, 13:36
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by jimmynailsalive »

Young bucks in the game today will be laughing over telling stories in years to come of the days of lapsing and how your duty was so light you had to take extra from another frame😂
postslippete
Posts: 4188
Joined: 14 Jul 2014, 16:27
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by postslippete »

Management and OfCom have been complicit in failing the universal service. Before COVID we were never making record losses either; we only made those once the company realised it could get away with not completing duties and it was just an excuse to suggest that it was delivering letters rather than the huge investments that they have made and the record amounts of money taken out by wealthy shareholders.

People will argue on here that the company needed to change because letter traffic has declined, and it did - by making the duties bigger. It's odd that many posties are now running round like headless chickens in our office instead of the managers because of the extra loops that are now on their frame. But the only way to fight back is to do the job properly and let them deal with the chaos!
On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.
Jb1969
Posts: 387
Joined: 29 May 2014, 13:06
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by Jb1969 »

jimmynailsalive wrote:
01 Aug 2024, 21:46
Young bucks in the game today will be laughing over telling stories in years to come of the days of lapsing and how your duty was so light you had to take extra from another frame😂
To do that you would have to ignore the “just deliver tracked” & take it all, cut off when your time is up.
Is just delivering the tracked deemed a reasonable request, I doubt a Court would see it that way.
EVERY delivery office I go to fails every day now.
My particular fav is the new quote from RM “ we deliver 95% of 1st class mail in two day” so it’s quite blatant now.
Mr Rush
Posts: 3296
Joined: 05 Aug 2011, 14:27
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by Mr Rush »

Jb1969 wrote:
02 Aug 2024, 08:03
Is just delivering the tracked deemed a reasonable request, I doubt a Court would see it that way.
Unfortunately you take your chances with that approach because the union has never advised its members against playing into the destruction of the USO. Very few people feel they are in a strong enough position to stick their necks out by rejecting that instruction as unreasonable.
The machine stops.
scotchy1962
EX ROYAL MAIL
Posts: 866
Joined: 25 Mar 2020, 16:55
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by scotchy1962 »

Mr Rush wrote:
02 Aug 2024, 16:49
Jb1969 wrote:
02 Aug 2024, 08:03
Is just delivering the tracked deemed a reasonable request, I doubt a Court would see it that way.
Unfortunately you take your chances with that approach because the union has never advised its members against playing into the destruction of the USO. Very few people feel they are in a strong enough position to stick their necks out by rejecting that instruction as unreasonable.
Let's face it any union shouldn't really be telling any company how to run their business, what they should be doing is looking after the members who pay their money so they aren't treated like they are in a victorian workhouse
RM employ you for x amount of hours a day spread over a week, as long as they aren't asking you to do something stupid any reasonable request from the manager as to how he wants the hours filled is ok by me.Just don't ask me to work over my time or expect me to.
postslippete
Posts: 4188
Joined: 14 Jul 2014, 16:27
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by postslippete »

Jb1969 wrote:
02 Aug 2024, 08:03

To do that you would have to ignore the “just deliver tracked” & take it all, cut off when your time is up.
Is just delivering the tracked deemed a reasonable request, I doubt a Court would see it that way.
EVERY delivery office I go to fails every day now.
My particular fav is the new quote from RM “ we deliver 95% of 1st class mail in two day” so it’s quite blatant now.

Today, we had 3 duties that weren't covered on the indoor work plan. The manager told us to ensure that the Tracked items are delivered on those duties and they were prepared to pay a few staff extra to get them delivered. I suspect if any postie decided to take things further by refusing to deliver Tracked items over the mail that Royal Mail will forward what they said in the Select Committee's - that we are a business which is losing money and that we need an urgent reform of the USO. So I guess from their point of view that it is a 'reasonable request'. Posties who don't follow what their managers say in this regard are certainly playing with fire.
On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.
Jb1969
Posts: 387
Joined: 29 May 2014, 13:06
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by Jb1969 »

postslippete wrote:
03 Aug 2024, 14:47
Jb1969 wrote:
02 Aug 2024, 08:03

To do that you would have to ignore the “just deliver tracked” & take it all, cut off when your time is up.
Is just delivering the tracked deemed a reasonable request, I doubt a Court would see it that way.
EVERY delivery office I go to fails every day now.
My particular fav is the new quote from RM “ we deliver 95% of 1st class mail in two day” so it’s quite blatant now.
If the USO is law & the Manager in question asks you to break it will the Judge support?

Today, we had 3 duties that weren't covered on the indoor work plan. The manager told us to ensure that the Tracked items are delivered on those duties and they were prepared to pay a few staff extra to get them delivered. I suspect if any postie decided to take things further by refusing to deliver Tracked items over the mail that Royal Mail will forward what they said in the Select Committee's - that we are a business which is losing money and that we need an urgent reform of the USO. So I guess from their point of view that it is a 'reasonable request'. Posties who don't follow what their managers say in this regard are certainly playing with fire.
postslippete
Posts: 4188
Joined: 14 Jul 2014, 16:27
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by postslippete »

Jb1969 wrote:
03 Aug 2024, 16:59

If the USO is law & the Manager in question asks you to break it will the Judge support?

I'm no legal expert and a judge would only be present after a member of staff has been dismissed and they then decide to take it up with an employment tribunal. If posties followed all the correct procedures regarding leaving mail behind you might assume that they have a good chance of receiving justice, whatever that might be, but cases are rarely that straightforward.
On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.
enskied
Posts: 1877
Joined: 16 Aug 2013, 17:14
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by enskied »

Ah, the "reasonable request" it almost never is. It's please cover my arse.

It's not reasonable to ask you to lie, hide , mask anything and everything to ofcom, too the public, to the gaffers higher up (asif they haven't issued the directive)

We know what is reasonable.
GizzardPuke
Posts: 44
Joined: 14 Apr 2024, 20:24
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by GizzardPuke »

If it's a reasonable request they'll put it in writing. They won't in my experience so I just start at the beginning and see how far I get before the end of my duty time. I prioritise Specials and make sure they're done by 1pm as per RM policy - nothing else matters. This drives the managers nuts as I'll bring back passports and other Tracked and scan them as 'delivery not attempted'. They can't and won't do a thing about it.
Barnacle
Posts: 2900
Joined: 13 Dec 2022, 16:58
Gender: Female
Location: Earth

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by Barnacle »

GizzardPuke wrote:
09 Aug 2024, 17:07
If it's a reasonable request they'll put it in writing. They won't in my experience so I just start at the beginning and see how far I get before the end of my duty time. I prioritise Specials and make sure they're done by 1pm as per RM policy - nothing else matters. This drives the managers nuts as I'll bring back passports and other Tracked and scan them as 'delivery not attempted'. They can't and won't do a thing about it.
I’m surprised that they’ve ignored passports being scanned as delivery not attempted. They’re the golden child which fines them a hefty amount on each missed delivery.
’You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.’
kazardaimenu
Posts: 1391
Joined: 13 Apr 2022, 19:11
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by kazardaimenu »

Yes if we forget to deliver a passport the manager’s on the phone asking questions. Never happens with a special delivery.
world class male
Posts: 903
Joined: 03 Jul 2013, 15:29
Gender: Male

Re: Once upon time in Royal Mail

Post by world class male »

we have walks every single day not even planned to be prepped, tracked possibly maybe done but if any doubt they don't get scanned in so no failures
our clowns are more concerned with stars on our pda and positive comments from those lucky to receive something,
it's a complete farce