Richard Barker Departs

[bigjames]

Received an E-mail this morning basically saying Mr Barker is on leave for 2 weeks, but will not be returning at the end of his leave. Until a replacement is appointed Roger Gale will be standing in.

[DGP1]

You lot go through bosses more than we do

[billyhayes]

MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS.

[fishtank]

Do you think he might pop on to say goodbye Billy?

[POSTMAN]

Bollox to that Fish,do you think he'll pop on and give us the gossip.

[The BFO]

I genuinely hope he is OK and wish him well. I did not find him inspirational, and despite the fact that I do not know him personally, I do think he is a decent man who wanted to do the ‘right thing’.

Having said that, if I subsequently hear he has gone with a huge parting remuneration I will not be amused!

[billyhayes]

...if I subsequently hear he has gone with a huge parting remuneration I will not be amused!

Prepare to be unamused. This was a major point of our pay deal. We were getting nowt while the senior manangers 'long term incentives' or whatever they called them went up massively. He is going with a nice little bunce. Guaranteed.

[onlyanother30years]

I will miss him, he was my hero , just hope and pray that Paulapoos doesn't leave us aswell.
I would feel like I've been orphaned.

[goggins69]

After a couple of weeks on holiday I mentioned to my ABM I had heard Richard was leaving she said she had heard nothing and didn't know if it was true. This was during three weeks of training I had to catch up on. After 3 weeks of facts and figures being read to me I almost lost the will to go back on the bureau. I must stress this training didn't include any thing on the new bureau system, or any mention of anything that has happened in the operational focus.

[kathleen1]

After a couple of weeks on holiday I mentioned to my ABM I had heard Richard was leaving she said she had heard nothing and didn't know if it was true. This was during three weeks of training I had to catch up on. After 3 weeks of facts and figures being read to me I almost lost the will to go back on the bureau. I must stress this training didn't include any thing on the new bureau system, or any mention of anything that has happened in the operational focus.

You are lucky or maybe not, i miss the WTL every week because of my duty, i am suppose to get it at 10.00am on a thursday
i can honestly say i haven't received it since last year.
The BM normally stands next to me when i am serving and rambles on and on,i just ignore him apparently its too busy to give me my training, its always busy when he takes clerks off for coaching though, then he has the bare face cheek to say to me "you have let me down today with your lack of conversations" thats because i was one of two clerks serving all morning with the queue to the door.
I done six passports loads of special delivery, but i have let you down they haven't got a clue and it was the 30th of the month with no extra staff, he actually changed a duty to give them the day off because the area manager was coming the next day so we were working one short all day.
Do you reckon rwbarker was given the push because he came to our union meeting in liverpool? he could always stand in for the union boss Dave Ward i think he is the double of him.Good luck to rwbarker for getting out of the business i do think he had a good sense of humour especially with our payrise.

[goggins69]

He lived not far from our office, he used it sometimes. Good luck to him in the future.

[billyhayes]

..."you have let me down today with your lack of conversations" thats because i was one of two clerks serving all morning with the queue to the door.
I done six passports loads of special delivery...

Ah yes, one of my all time favourites. The good 'ol "conversations" mantra.

We got a couple of people who will try and sell anything and everything to everyone. BUT... only the WRONG things!!

Rattling on to the same set of grannies, day after day after week after week, who live week by week on nowt but the state pension, who have literally no-one left on Gods Earth but the cat at home, about our life insurance!

Of course they all politely refuse and off they toddle. While there is a very real sense of desperation, even fear, creeping to the surface in these clerks that they simply must get a referral no matter how weak it is. They'll try again next week. Same day, same time, same granny.

Now I am not the best salesman in the world I'll admit that right out, but surely.. SURELY, these people must understand that these avenues have been well explored, time and time again.

ALTHOUGH... Of course come the inevitable warm-downs or carpeting in the managers office to 'update' they can at least say, "I have had 20 conversations, all said no, but I still had 20 conversations". Manager is 'happy' so to speak, "All you can do is ask." they reply.

Then there'll be a couple of us who sit there bashing specials and PF ins and overs priorities, passports etc etc, (sound familiar Kathleen1?), generating REAL income, whilst our efforts are in very real terms, scuppered by someone sat right next to us talking all their own customers OUT of a special... "recorded will do you I think" or 'saving' them £8 on a Global Priority and lumping them with Global Value. Or my very favourite, "I can check your passport for you, BUT it will cost you £8.17, you realize that?"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Give
Me
Strength

Whilst typing this I've realized something...

Is it EASIER to talk to the wrong people about the blatantly wrong product rather than talk to the right people about the right product? Discuss.

But back to the plot... Yeah bye then Richard, who's next?

[FinancialSpecialist]

Sorry but I can't help but feel this is a really negative rant and I was very affected by this sort of argument in a previous office. Firstly, special deliveries, passports, etc. are business as usual. Those who are going on to have conversations about other products should also be hitting these targets, as they are part of the core job of counter staff. When working on the counter I recognise this and would never dream of discussing Over 50s when a customer presents a passport form, or bypassing special delivery in favour of trying to get a car quote. This issue should not be the case.

Secondly, if someone fully appreciates that their counter colleagues are not having the right conversations with the right people, then how come in their wisdom they aren't having any at all? We sell such a wide range of products which should be of use to people, have won awards and genuinely do help a lot of our customers, so where is the issue?

I have worked in a few different offices and one consistently underachieved, one quite often achieved and the current one over achieves. Some put this down to targets, but this is not the issue, it is directly linked to staff motivation and the dreaded conversations. Offices where people talk to their customers in a friendly and engaging way do well, those where they don't, don't.

In a previous office there was such a mix of staff as you have referred to - half the counter clerks tried their hardest to speak to every customer about something, and the other half refused to talk to anyone about anything. Although the ones who didn't have conversations felt like they were brilliant at their jobs, the reality is that they weren't. The biggest problem for POL in this climate, in my view, is not the upper management (which I admit have made a lot of mistakes), but the frontline staff on "countdown" and who couldn't give 2 sh***s about targets, their office or the future of their colleagues, they just want their redundancy and to be away.

As someone not in the business a huge length of time, I find this an extremely selfish and hard thing to deal with. How could these people who have worked together for years really have such little respect for themselves or their fellow workers? We don't all want to be paid off and leave, it is not your right to just work on in the "old Post Office way", using this as an excuse to do as little as you can to get through the day, until one day the business is doing so badly that your office is closed and you are paid off. If these people really want out so badly, then why don't they just go? No one will be crying to keep them.

I recognise that there are different reasons why people don't refer, some are nervous, some aren't very good at it and some just can't be bothered. It is this last category that I find very hard to deal with.

[billyhayes]

Yes, yes, yes. I get it. You think it's a negative rant. Here's the news... IT IS.

Again we have someone here that believes that those who speak up, OBVIOUSLY don't have conversations!!!

Where did I say I didn't??? I said I am not the best sales person and that is entirely a different thing.

This is such an easy get out for many to pidgeon-hole people into. If you look back to a post made by 'Mad Max' a month or so ago, you will find that that poor soul, like you, thought that because I have negative views then it follows that I do not have conversations or sell to customers. Much you have to learn young apprentice.

You say that these "issues should not be the case." and "so where is the issue". But they are very real issues in many offices. The "business as usual" is sidestepped just so the desperate bugger can get a pat on the head for referring over crap that has not got a chickens chance in Thailand of ever turning into a sale. And they don't. Time and again.

I agree with you that there are loads of people across the whole network "on countdown" but many of these very same clerks are also still getting on with the job of selling etc. They just aren't deluding themselves that all will be rosy come 31st March 2012. I myself along with others in office will SELL, yes sell, as is the job, but on the other hand we will all laugh and joke with each other and the customers about how doomed we are. I bet you can't get your head around that one.

My point is made not against any of the following; "count downers" (sellers or not) , deluded newbies that think all is well, those that successfully sell a lot or those don't talk at all... it is against the very REAL breed that will patently ignore "business as usual" through nothing other than fear.

If you have never seen it then you are blinkered.

One positive, yes, I CAN be positive is I totally agree with this;

"We don't all want to be paid off and leave, it is not your right to just work on in the "old Post Office way", using this as an excuse to do as little as you can to get through the day, until one day the business is doing so badly that your office is closed and you are paid off. If these people really want out so badly, then why don't they just go? No one will be crying to keep them."

[Blue8]

Well said billyhayes We old timers have heard so many wonderful ways of turning the PO around we are dizzy.
I can sell and talk to customers but find it difficult when managers interupt you while you are serving, I do find it difficult asking someone if they want a mobile top up when for the last god knows how many weeks they have told me they don't have a mobile but as a mere counter clerk who is not allowed to think for herself or listen to customers i have to becouse I have a dictator sorry manager walking up and down behind me because without them I won't be able to do my job.


It is the management that has made us negative you can't move off the counter without being asked where you are going. I used to have the initiative to do things myself but over bearing managers have knocked that out of me.


So Financial Specialist just wait till you have been in the job a few years!!!