Your article (Royal Mail second-class delivery cuts will take ‘many months’ to roll out, 1 September) raised a wry smile in our household. We have not had a regular mail delivery since 2020. It has gone from weekly to irregular to the present situation where we haven’t had any mail for a month. We look forward to getting mail on alternate days – it will be a novelty.
Kay Smith
Leeds
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And am I right to infer that the Daily Sport is more up your street, SkiSunday/BouncedCzech/LondonsBurning/CarryingMgmnt?
Funnily enough, I have never quoted or linked a Daily Sport article as an argument against anyone on the internet. Strange
Well, you yourself assert further up the thread that another forum member is a Guardian reader, and so I thought we were playing a bit of a game in guessing members’ favourite newspapers. I was merely hazarding a guess that on account of its image-rich content the Sport would be right up your street, though if I am in fact mistaken as to your choice of newspaper then so be it
My nan in south Suffolk frequently gets a massive bundle once a week, and I can tell you that at our depot it's mostly town rounds that get left, some for days. It's frustrating having to tell customers that we're not doing birthday cards today but just parcels.
My nan in south Suffolk frequently gets a massive bundle once a week, and I can tell you that at our depot it's mostly town rounds that get left, some for days. It's frustrating having to tell customers that we're not doing birthday cards today but just parcels.
Crack on and do the cards as well then
In my opinion, it doesn't help that certain reserves use the excuse of "not knowing" a duty as justification for just doing the tracked and specials whilst leaving all the mail in the frame. Management need to be cracking down on them instead of relying on the few competent workers to clear everyone elses backlog.
My nan in south Suffolk frequently gets a massive bundle once a week, and I can tell you that at our depot it's mostly town rounds that get left, some for days. It's frustrating having to tell customers that we're not doing birthday cards today but just parcels.
Crack on and do the cards as well then
In my opinion, it doesn't help that certain reserves use the excuse of "not knowing" a duty as justification for just doing the tracked and specials whilst leaving all the mail in the frame. Management need to be cracking down on them instead of relying on the few competent workers to clear everyone elses backlog.
There's only so much you can do on a day, and overtime pays piss all. (In fact it's the same as regular time, but taxed more). It's not us posties' problem to ensure everything is covered - that responsibility falls on management.
If I'm on a double parcel round and I'm asked to clear the parcels, I take mail where I'm going and work to my time. I agree with you about that excuse, though - the best way to learn a round is to go to every house with mail. Although, realistically posties shouldn't be chucked on random rounds without training for health and safety reasons. A couple of times my old manager asked me to go on a high risk round (stop-start on the A12) and you weren't actually allowed to do that duty without "special driver training". Didn't stop the manager trying, though.
My nan in south Suffolk frequently gets a massive bundle once a week, and I can tell you that at our depot it's mostly town rounds that get left, some for days. It's frustrating having to tell customers that we're not doing birthday cards today but just parcels.
Crack on and do the cards as well then
In my opinion, it doesn't help that certain reserves use the excuse of "not knowing" a duty as justification for just doing the tracked and specials whilst leaving all the mail in the frame. Management need to be cracking down on them instead of relying on the few competent workers to clear everyone elses backlog.
There's only so much you can do on a day, and overtime pays piss all. (In fact it's the same as regular time, but taxed more). It's not us posties' problem to ensure everything is covered - that responsibility falls on management.
If I'm on a double parcel round and I'm asked to clear the parcels, I take mail where I'm going and work to my time. I agree with you about that excuse, though - the best way to learn a round is to go to every house with mail. Although, realistically posties shouldn't be chucked on random rounds without training for health and safety reasons. A couple of times my old manager asked me to go on a high risk round (stop-start on the A12) and you weren't actually allowed to do that duty without "special driver training". Didn't stop the manager trying, though.
OT is a higher rate for me on a 40hr contract.
I agree that reserves should be trained on duties. Surely it'd make sense to have each reserve learn a few duties, with overlapping cover so you've got 2 or 3 people able to cover each duty if needed. Problem there si due to being so short staffed, they can't spare a reserve to go out with a reg.
I know there's been foolk from other offices on loan to help out but thats a double edged sword cos although you have an extra body, they leave early and half ass the job cos they don't know the area and its not their problem.
My nan in south Suffolk frequently gets a massive bundle once a week, and I can tell you that at our depot it's mostly town rounds that get left, some for days. It's frustrating having to tell customers that we're not doing birthday cards today but just parcels.
Crack on and do the cards as well then
In my opinion, it doesn't help that certain reserves use the excuse of "not knowing" a duty as justification for just doing the tracked and specials whilst leaving all the mail in the frame. Management need to be cracking down on them instead of relying on the few competent workers to clear everyone elses backlog.
There's only so much you can do on a day, and overtime pays piss all. (In fact it's the same as regular time, but taxed more). It's not us posties' problem to ensure everything is covered - that responsibility falls on management.
If I'm on a double parcel round and I'm asked to clear the parcels, I take mail where I'm going and work to my time. I agree with you about that excuse, though - the best way to learn a round is to go to every house with mail. Although, realistically posties shouldn't be chucked on random rounds without training for health and safety reasons. A couple of times my old manager asked me to go on a high risk round (stop-start on the A12) and you weren't actually allowed to do that duty without "special driver training". Didn't stop the manager trying, though.
OT is a higher rate for me on a 40hr contract.
I agree that reserves should be trained on duties. Surely it'd make sense to have each reserve learn a few duties, with overlapping cover so you've got 2 or 3 people able to cover each duty if needed. Problem there si due to being so short staffed, they can't spare a reserve to go out with a reg.
I know there's been foolk from other offices on loan to help out but thats a double edged sword cos although you have an extra body, they leave early and half ass the job cos they don't know the area and its not their problem.
I'm on a 30 hour contract so would need to do 7 hours of o/t to hit the amazing 50p extra rate. That's before it's taxed! Most people I've spoken to in the DO don't do overtime because the incentives are poor. Even compared to other blue collar jobs in other sectors; time and a quarter or even time and a half isn't uncommon. A mate I know works for the council and gets triple pay for working Christmas day... case in point.
At the end of the day, it's our job to turn up on time, try our best, deliver what we're told to deliver and go home at our finish time. Anything else is extra/optional but plenty of people work for RM specifically for work/life balance (including me) and so the opportunity to earn the pathetic overtime rate isn't a big motivator for anyone who's life doesn't consistently revolve around work.
OT is a higher rate for me on a 40hr contract.
I agree that reserves should be trained on duties. Surely it'd make sense to have each reserve learn a few duties, with overlapping cover so you've got 2 or 3 people able to cover each duty if needed. Problem there si due to being so short staffed, they can't spare a reserve to go out with a reg.
I know there's been foolk from other offices on loan to help out but thats a double edged sword cos although you have an extra body, they leave early and half ass the job cos they don't know the area and its not their problem.
I'm on a 30 hour contract so would need to do 7 hours of o/t to hit the amazing 50p extra rate. That's before it's taxed! Most people I've spoken to in the DO don't do overtime because the incentives are poor. Even compared to other blue collar jobs in other sectors; time and a quarter or even time and a half isn't uncommon. A mate I know works for the council and gets triple pay for working Christmas day... case in point.
At the end of the day, it's our job to turn up on time, try our best, deliver what we're told to deliver and go home at our finish time. Anything else is extra/optional but plenty of people work for RM specifically for work/life balance (including me) and so the opportunity to earn the pathetic overtime rate isn't a big motivator for anyone who's life doesn't consistently revolve around work.
Yeah as a 40hr all my OT is 1.25x
Most of the time we're expected to be busy while there either with sorting or delivery. The legacy contracts will sit around during sorting then be back early and sit around some more. They work less hours, do less actual work while there then bitch that they don't get covered
