Royal Mail Strike - Quick Question?

[stevie vip 99]

Lol Dogg many peolple think it's like that, it's not though i'm afraid.

You don't just stroll in around 8am and pick up bag to deliver (people still think this is the case!), most start around 3/4/5am depending and most have to start early to give them a chance of getting it all done, also when you get post around 4pm the postmans duty will have long finished!

I agree about a lot of the courier services, in b'ham city centre where i work couriers just leave post outside of buildings on the street and at the wrong buildings but a lot of people still think it's us leaving the post there and get moaned at constantly, you just cant tell some people

[Redoilcan]

Is this the wrong time to ask if Royal Mail are recruiting?

[ChrisF]

in b'ham city centre where i work

Do you work at the depot in new town or one of the offices in the centre? My dad worked at several of them but finished at the one at the end of Colmore Row...

[Salsa Party Animal]

Is this the wrong time to ask if Royal Mail are recruiting?

Yes and No as it depend on area.

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/erecjump2?catId=500185&mediaId=16000165

[Jebus]

When and why did it go tits up?

The very day they abolished second delivery, and it's been getting gradually worse since.

They were too short sighted to see what second delivery gave them, a get out clause. Ever since then they've been trying to find "alternative" means of recreating the second delivery, but they won't admit they f*cked it up.

Ever since that day it's been a steady stream of clueless failures, short sighted ideas...I could go on, but won't.

[Salsa Party Animal]

I would push it down to several things

1. Losing night shifts mean more work for day shift which mean more delay getting out

2. Starting at 6am instead of 5am (Don't bother me)

3. Balancing workload is not done correctly as some walks are too big and unrealistic

4. Downstream mail getting cheaper to make it easier to pollute the system with more junk mail, putting more work on postie. Plus internet means more information and bigger mailing list

5. Balancing workload as Saturday to Tuesday is good and sensible and Wed to Friday is too much workload. We can't leave office until we threw in every mail into walk frame.

6. Managers getting too lazy or under pressure and doesn't have courage to say no to head / region office

7. Cost cutting means fewer staff.

8. Not getting walk scheduling machines ready when we need them.

[stevie vip 99]

Do you work at the depot in new town or one of the offices in the centre? My dad worked at several of them but finished at the one at the end of Colmore Row...

Used to work in the huge mail centre in the city centre but thats all gone now , we then had a little office behind the old place but now thats gone too and we're now based in the newtown office. Not ideal as we do our walks in a differant area (another Royal Mail bright idea) but it's ok there i guess.

End of colmore row, thats the normal post office in victoria sq so may not know him as never reallly had anything to do with that place

[stevie vip 99]

Another reason It's gone pear shaped, postman in differant areas all work differant hours and shifts!!!

As Legandary says no night shift or as jebus says no 2nd delivery but my office is nothing like that, i work nights (midnight start) and then do a delivery after but most of my office start at 5am and still do a 2nd delivery due to our office covering the city centre, one of the only places still doing 2 deliverys!!!

There's just no consistency across the board with hours and working practices, one office may work really well but just down the road another office works another way and can be a mess, no one knows what anyone else is doing!!!

[hush]

i hear they mybe one on friday for london

[Jebus]

Another reason It's gone pear shaped, postman in differant areas all work differant hours and shifts!!!

Actually, I think part of the reason its gone wrong is because they've STOPPED the above happening.

Too many large companies assume that everything is simple and everywhere should run the same, when in reality it doesn't work like that. RM are striving to put every employee's work/hours/etc under the same hat and it's ****ing things up.

What they've done in the past is that if an office is performing really well, they savage the budget of that office and give it to an underperforming office. What you end up with then, is two appalling offiices because you've taken the budget from the office performing really well and given it to a ****e one, which is still run by a ****e manager who doesn't know how to do his job. RM is carrying SO much dead weight in managers it's sickening. Some of them don't even have valid certificates, I know of Posties who have taken courses for the manager, gotten the certificate FOR them.

[Daragon]

Not particularly strike related, but over the past few days I have been sickened by the ineptitude of our new postie.

I've had important packages too big for the letter box go undelivered having to wait another 48 hours for redelivery (I can't drive so getting to the sorting office is quite out of the question for me). The question is, you may be asking, why is my new postie so inept? I don't mean to boast, but I don't live in what you'd call a small house, we have a doorbell in plain sight on the ****ing front door which this idiot seems completely oblivious to, instead choosing a simple ratatat as his means of communication (which I'm not going to hear from my bedroom with the 360 on) it was simply by chance that I'd noticed the van pull up just a few minutes ago, otherwise it would have been another 48 hours wait.

God only knows how the rest of the people in the area are faring. Not meaning to tar all posties with the same brush here, but he makes it hard for me to sympathise for the strikers when you have morons like this running around!

[Jebus]

There's a simple reason a posty would ignore a doorbell.

If it's not working, he can't know. If he can't hear the ring, he doesn't know it's not working. Personally I tend to ring AND knock, covering both bases. I remember getting a bollocking from an old woman about "knocking her door when I have a bell". Once I'd explained, she apologised.

I doubt it's that, and your example...well, he's probably a ****ing numpty, but just throwing that out there.

Check your doorbell is working then have a polite word with him, or leave a polite note, and he'll do what you want...though I can't guarantee if you request sexual favours, he'll comply.

[Daragon]

Oh you'd hear the doorbell if you pressed it (unless you were deaf and he sure as hell wasn't) and it's definately working - he just walks straight up to the door and knocks - understandable if we have a knocker but we don't.

There's really no excuse other than a blatant "I can't be ****ed with this job" attitude. I've already placed a complaint in regards to this joker, so hopefully we'll end up with yet another replacement, albeit a smarter one sooner rather than later.

[Jebus]

Right, you'd hear YOUR doorbell, but perhaps not on the other 400-600 houses he delivers to?

It's a monotonous job and you tend to go into autopilot with your methods. I'm saying if he's had a bollocking for not ringing someones doorbell before, he may not bother any more and bang on the door, to "be safe" (in his mind), which of course is backfiring in this case. Of course, only he knows for sure, but why don't you put a note up for him asking to ring the doorbell, or better yet speak to him yourself? He's another human being, he's not out to get you.

Oh and if he's your regular posty, you can't get rid of him by complaining, he's signed for the duty, can't be take off it from a few complaints. Also, from experience, the manager probably won't even log that type of complaint.

I'm not trying to defend him, but so many people go straight to the "I'm ringing the manager" whereas if they just talked to us, most of the time we can sort it out quicker.

[prinnysquad]

My postie has been a legend recently. Stopped us in our car on the way out because he had a small recorded item that needed to be signed for. He could have quite easily ignored us because it was a feebly light and small item, but no, he did the sensible thing. He's also delivered the best part of a hundred parcels in the last few weeks, which is getting quite embarrassing tbh, hearing 5 parcels hammer into the doormat every day. I knew he wasn't a slacker.