Nobody can realistically be a breadwinner as an OPG now

[fadetogrey63]

Why did you accept job then considering most on here think there is better paid jobs out there??public do not care what we are earning they just want there mail delivered on time. really want to KNOW where all these super paid jobs are without qualifications.
[/quote]
Well my office is only a few mins walk, and yeah I knew the low hourly wage but I didn't know about the rest of the new contract crap.. it's not so much about there been much better paid jobs, but there are much easier jobs for around the same wage, yeah they may be boring and mundane, but would also be a lot less hassle, and yes I am looking to get out, I'm to old for what the job has now become,

[norris9]

The minimum wage in this country is far too low when you consider the cost of rent/housing and therefore our wages are too low.

Big negatives of the job:

-Low pay
-Exhausting
-You regularly get harassed by managers for doing a good job.

Which is no surprise why people leave regularly.

Positives are:

-You get exercise
-Although repetitive - you don't get bored
-Finish in the early afternoon
-Good pension

[thefox]

Turn it in, welcome to the real world, before I came to RM I did plenty of of mine wage jobs and survived.
If you ain't happy you have the option to find something better paid.

He's right though.

[Mazdaman]

Why did you accept job then considering most on here think there is better paid jobs out there??public do not care what we are earning they just want there mail delivered on time. really want to KNOW where all these super paid jobs are without qualifications.

Well my office is only a few mins walk, and yeah I knew the low hourly wage but I didn't know about the rest of the new contract crap.. it's not so much about there been much better paid jobs, but there are much easier jobs for around the same wage, yeah they may be boring and mundane, but would also be a lot less hassle, and yes I am looking to get out, I'm to old for what the job has now become,
[/quote]where does this idea come from that we have no qualifications?
Many of my posties here have qualifications. Many at my office went to grammar schools. Especially the old guys like myself who have done many years here. You may not be qualified for anything else but many of us are.

[Newandscared]

The minimum wage in this country is far too low when you consider the cost of rent/housing and therefore our wages are too low.

Big negatives of the job:

-Low pay
-Exhausting
-You regularly get harassed by managers for doing a good job.

Which is no surprise why people leave regularly.

Positives are:

-You get exercise
-Although repetitive - you don't get bored
-Finish in the early afternoon
-Good pension

Last time I looked at Trussell Trust website they had worked out that a single person with no children would need 29k a year to live comfortably. The metrics they used are rent, utilities, food and tech like a phone or internet and then some left over money for spending on leisure. The amount needed to live comfortably goes down a little in a couple and then back up when you have children. It is a bit of an eye opener. Don't let people hassle you for having possibly the only job you could get when you needed income. Many of us are in the same position.

[Idk]

Turn it in, welcome to the real world, before I came to RM I did plenty of of mine wage jobs and survived.
If you ain't happy you have the option to find something better paid.

Why did you come to RM rather than getting a job with better pay?

Because I was working a damn sight harder with less pay where I came from. Doing a delivery is easy compared to that.

[Idk]

The problem is the ones who think it’s an ok wage have nothing. They live with parents or a one bed rented flat or room in a shared house. They can’t afford a car and very rarely have holidays. This is actual fact in my area. If we were up north I could live like a lord but try the south where the average wage is £35k
Go and talk to the public and get their opinion. Most will be shocked about the pittance we are paid. Oh well big pay rise in April, let me guess. 2% and big Dave will tell us that’s a good offer and the best you will get as they have no money.

2 cars and a house here, so your statement doesn't stack up.

[NWpostie]

So what's a typical 37 hour contracted postie earning with no overtime.... £25,000?

So you can borrow 4.5x your income for a mortgage loan. In our case a lender would allow you to borrow £112,500. Maybe you are 30 years old and been saving for years and managed to saved £20,000 + your granny just died and you have now inherited another £20,000....

You have a £40,000 deposit and can borrow £112,500....allowing you to buy a property for £152,500....

You might be able to get a 1 bed apartment up north....but down south you are absolutely screwed.


It's not just the wage that's low....it's how ridiculously high property prices are. For a 3 bed family home down south you need £400k - £500k minimum.

Good luck owning a family home unless your wife/husband is a doctor, CEO, lawyer, Union general secretary, or OF model.

Problem is not enough houses built, too many people coming in this puts pressure on housing and rentals, successive government has failed to build more houses and letting more people in the country and allowing them to stay bringing in more of their relatives, in spite making promises to deal with it, Starmer cancelled the Rwanda scheme without an alternative plan, chickens have come home to roost.

[Dingo99]

The problem is the ones who think it’s an ok wage have nothing. They live with parents or a one bed rented flat or room in a shared house. They can’t afford a car and very rarely have holidays. This is actual fact in my area. If we were up north I could live like a lord but try the south where the average wage is £35k
Go and talk to the public and get their opinion. Most will be shocked about the pittance we are paid. Oh well big pay rise in April, let me guess. 2% and big Dave will tell us that’s a good offer and the best you will get as they have no money.

Yeah, I still live at home l(ive in S.E Kent), I am single so can't afford bugger all down here, rent or mortgage you need two incomes, deffo don't earn enough at RM and I am full time on legacy!

[Dingo99]

So what's a typical 37 hour contracted postie earning with no overtime.... £25,000?

So you can borrow 4.5x your income for a mortgage loan. In our case a lender would allow you to borrow £112,500. Maybe you are 30 years old and been saving for years and managed to saved £20,000 + your granny just died and you have now inherited another £20,000....

You have a £40,000 deposit and can borrow £112,500....allowing you to buy a property for £152,500....

You might be able to get a 1 bed apartment up north....but down south you are absolutely screwed.


It's not just the wage that's low....it's how ridiculously high property prices are. For a 3 bed family home down south you need £400k - £500k minimum.

Good luck owning a family home unless your wife/husband is a doctor, CEO, lawyer, Union general secretary, or OF model.

Tell me about it, I have a few quid in savings and have enough for a deposit but the house prices in Kent are shocking, can't afford anywhere unless I do like my mate did and get a house in a cheap area that needs gutting!

[Jonathan Alsatian]

I left an office job paying over £30K per annum to come and do this. I handed my notice in and told them the job was making me very unhappy. So far I don't regret that decision. I agree we are underpaid, especially those on the new contracts like me! Since joining RM I don't have spare cash left over at the end of the month like I did in my last job but I can pay my bills, my mortgage and run a fairly modest car. I'm probably about £500 a month worse off working for RM but at least I am not sitting in front of a computer all day feeling my physical and mental health ebbing away. Plus even though RM managers can be bad the pressure here is far more manageable than in my last job. Here there is the option to bring stuff back if the workload is totally impossible and RM managers tend to just move onto the next guy when they don't get what they want from you. Unlike my last job where management had "meaningful and robust" conversations about "extra support" which was just a way of them saying your not hitting your targets and the want to support you out the door. And the boredom was horrible in my last job definitely. I much prefer this despite the poor terms and conditions and one or two cretinous managers. When this job does finally knacker me physically I might be forced back to where I just came from, or something similar, but until then I will plod on with this as its actually not half as difficult as many other jobs I've done in the past. I have the occasional really bad day nowadays instead of every day being unbearable .

[menditsa]

I left an office job paying over £30K per annum to come and do this. I handed my notice in and told them the job was making me very unhappy. So far I don't regret that decision. I agree we are underpaid, especially those on the new contracts like me! Since joining RM I don't have spare cash left over at the end of the month like I did in my last job but I can pay my bills, my mortgage and run a fairly modest car. I'm probably about £500 a month worse off working for RM but at least I am not sitting in front of a computer all day feeling my physical and mental health ebbing away. Plus even though RM managers can be bad the pressure here is far more manageable than in my last job. Here there is the option to bring stuff back if the workload is totally impossible and RM managers tend to just move onto the next guy when they don't get what they want from you. Unlike my last job where management had "meaningful and robust" conversations about "extra support" which was just a way of them saying your not hitting your targets and the want to support you out the door. And the boredom was horrible in my last job definitely. I much prefer this despite the poor terms and conditions and one or two cretinous managers. When this job does finally knacker me physically I might be forced back to where I just came from, or something similar, but until then I will plod on with this as its actually not half as difficult as many other jobs I've done in the past. I have the occasional really bad day nowadays instead of every day being unbearable .

So you took an £11k pa pay cut to come to Royal Mail.
Big number 30k lets all bow down your majesty. You failed to say how many hours a week for that 30k didn't you. I bet 50.

Here there is the option to bring stuff back if the workload is totally impossible

Tosh, utter tosh

[RyanH]

[/quote]
Why did you accept job then considering most on here think there is better paid jobs out there??public do not care what we are earning they just want there mail delivered on time. really want to KNOW where all these super paid jobs are without qualifications.
[/quote]

I left a little while ago after 18 1/2 years, yes it was a little daunting as it's a hell of a long time to do 1 job, but I needed to get out for my own mental health...

Obviously I was on a legacy contract so my terms and conditions were a lot better than the new contracts, but there was no way I was prepared to be treated like dirt every day 6 days a week for doing the job well to be paid so poorly..

I may be one of the lucky ones, as I managed to find a new job with much better pay(around 1k month on average) and no weekend work unless you want too(double pay too..)

So there are better paid jobs out there without the need for qualifications, I think a lot of it is being brave enough to leave in the first place, and I for one am 110% happier, I just hope things improve for everyone else

[Jonathan Alsatian]

I left an office job paying over £30K per annum to come and do this. I handed my notice in and told them the job was making me very unhappy. So far I don't regret that decision. I agree we are underpaid, especially those on the new contracts like me! Since joining RM I don't have spare cash left over at the end of the month like I did in my last job but I can pay my bills, my mortgage and run a fairly modest car. I'm probably about £500 a month worse off working for RM but at least I am not sitting in front of a computer all day feeling my physical and mental health ebbing away. Plus even though RM managers can be bad the pressure here is far more manageable than in my last job. Here there is the option to bring stuff back if the workload is totally impossible and RM managers tend to just move onto the next guy when they don't get what they want from you. Unlike my last job where management had "meaningful and robust" conversations about "extra support" which was just a way of them saying your not hitting your targets and the want to support you out the door. And the boredom was horrible in my last job definitely. I much prefer this despite the poor terms and conditions and one or two cretinous managers. When this job does finally knacker me physically I might be forced back to where I just came from, or something similar, but until then I will plod on with this as its actually not half as difficult as many other jobs I've done in the past. I have the occasional really bad day nowadays instead of every day being unbearable .

So you took an £11k pa pay cut to come to Royal Mail.
Big number 30k lets all bow down your majesty. You failed to say how many hours a week for that 30k didn't you. I bet 50.

Here there is the option to bring stuff back if the workload is totally impossible

Tosh, utter tosh

37 hours actually. Every weekend off. Work from home three days a week and flexible hours. A defined benefits pension with 30% employers contribution. But it was a horrible complicated and stressful job. Trust me there are worse jobs out there than RM

Only work 25 hours at RM compared to 37 in the old job so not sure that counts as a pay cut but yes its a big drop in income from an average paid full time job to a poorly paid part time job. I wanted a part time job and to work outdoors. I'm not sure why that annoys you so much menditsa? Your tone seems a tad argumentative. You seemed to think I was boasting about my previous salary. Erm nope. 30k is not exactly a great salary. Tell me menditsa, have you only ever worked at RM? Does the idea of a job outside of RM scare you? I've done a few different jobs over the years including some very badly paid ones so I am allowed to say that I don't think RM is all that bad. If however I had joined RM straight from school 30 years ago and never worked anywhere else then yeah I would probably think it was the worst job ever too.

[datasaint]

Remember the good old days when Pullinger and Ward were dead set against a "race to the bottom", and were adamant a reduction to the 6 day a week USO wouldn't happen on their watch.

Now the Union are basically encouraging RM to tear the business up.