What's the point of having a duty?

[stanleybowles]

Not really a question more of a rant. DM26 has been in our office for around a month and I'm in a van share with another driver. So far (apart from the first week) every Saturday rather than one of us staying in and doing indoor work (as we were told would happen) and the other doing the tracked and first class on both our jobs, I've been put on deliveries I'm entirely unfamiliar with to do tracked and first class. Yeah I know start time, break time, finish time and what doesn't get done doesn't get done, but after 36 years in the business it's a massive pain in the arse to not be doing your own job on a Saturday as you have done for years. Anyone else in the same boat?

[Mr Rush]

Yes, lots of movement on Saturdays since it's been all hands on deck the entire time since deployment. Is there a procedure to determine who in a pairing gets to do their duty on a Saturday to keep things fair or is it all at management's discretion, i.e. the laziest simplest plan of copy-pasting last week's rota?

[Rommagic]

It’s hard to learn a different job on a Saturday then not do it again for months.

[tramssirhc]

Its important to remember it was the CWU who said we'd get to stay on our duties. That was simply untrue.

[Rommagic]

Should be indoor work for those who want it on saturdays but seems management want everyone out mistakes gone up and dark at 4pm soon for some they working until 6pm already.

[Perseus]

Not really a question more of a rant. DM26 has been in our office for around a month and I'm in a van share with another driver. So far (apart from the first week) every Saturday rather than one of us staying in and doing indoor work (as we were told would happen) and the other doing the tracked and first class on both our jobs, I've been put on deliveries I'm entirely unfamiliar with to do tracked and first class. Yeah I know start time, break time, finish time and what doesn't get done doesn't get done, but after 36 years in the business it's a massive pain in the arse to not be doing your own job on a Saturday as you have done for years. Anyone else in the same boat?

That sounds more like how DM26 is supposed to operate on a Saturday vs many offices I've heard of. Although, why you are the one to move all the time rather than rotate it?
It's supposed to be 1 person per 2 duties, a few others mopping up the awkward bits or a few parcels off duties that are busy, then the rest of the staff indoor, or assist where needed.
I can guarantee tomorrow in ours everyone will get to stay on their native duty/van share and do 1C and tracked only. Singles doing 180 tracked, paired in a van doing 150. Then the usual who do about 30 tracked and say they are too busy to help out.

[raXor]

I really can't see what the problem is here. Most people are expected to move around jobs these days, it's just the way it is. If you don't know the job, you simply put it onto an ad-hoc DPR, add the boxes and collections if you like and get delivering as per the GPS. You'll probably need a second PDA to be able to scan the boxes and collections.

Most of the new starters in our DO just get put on parcels for a good few weeks whilst not knowing any of the duties, but many get on just fine, even delivering the 1st class which I must admit is a pain having to manually add a dummy delivery point onto the PDA (unless you can figure them out which you likely can if you already have parcels on the same streets and the duty isn't rural).

Also, a lot of people think they have a duty, when in reality they don't. The duties belong to RM and the company is well within rights to move people on business needs. It's just how things work - basically in any job, you get told what you're doing and you get paid for it.

[hans solo]

Really so can they all be paid the same
Get same workloads
Get paid breaks like their colleagues
Same sick pay
Same holidays
Didnt think so
Dream on pal

[twoloops]

About six week into this DM26 malarkey & I have only worked one Saturday, happy daze