Does this job get easier after Christmas?!!!

[Celgar]

Christmas is no harder or more stressful than any other time of year. All days are the same.

If you find they are not, either:

A) you are not utilising all paid hours;
B) you are not utilising the overrunning procedure; or
C) you are not doing either.

Emotions are out. Automation is in.

We all know that is an incorrect statement entirely. Even in any week of the year not every day is the same. I acknowledge it is the final responsibility of RM to get everything delivered on time and that at this time there is more of a willingness to pay out overtime. So from that point of view you could argue there is less stress. We are mostly loyal to our 'customers' though, there will be far more parcels this year than last year, and it will invariably be a struggle to get everything in the van. It isn't uncommon for rurals to do double trips this time of year and shared duties can feel like they are in a world of hell. RM was passing down future warnings and instructions to DOMs in early November this year to be prepared to put non-parcel & packet items to one side. So it's a known fact that the post Xmas day backlog in terms of cards and letters will be far more of a problem this year.

In short all days are never the same.

[Celgar]

Had 7 slots of leaflets the last 2 weeks and got the hatrick up next week unbelievable

My walk has had six D2D the past two weeks with many of the larger or bulky types.

[rubberbond]

Had 7 slots of leaflets the last 2 weeks and got the hatrick up next week unbelievable

Well it was deal of the century when the union signed us up for this. Trouble is what they didn't tell us was it was only from Royal Mail's perspective.

[Mask]

3 bags? Where do I sign up? :D

Had a minimum of 2 York’s of tracked, 1 York of untracked and 5 bags for the past week :O

[number one]

Christmas is no harder or more stressful than any other time of year. All days are the same.

If you find they are not, either:

A) you are not utilising all paid hours;
B) you are not utilising the overrunning procedure; or
C) you are not doing either.

Emotions are out. Automation is in.

You sound like one of those that do the utter minimum amount of work that you can possibly get away with. If you have no pride or desire to make sure customers receive their items in time for xmas then go and get a other job. A bit of overtime is expected (I know they can force you blah blah blah) at this busy time of year.

[LaggyBand]

Christmas is no harder or more stressful than any other time of year. All days are the same.

If you find they are not, either:

A) you are not utilising all paid hours;
B) you are not utilising the overrunning procedure; or
C) you are not doing either.

Emotions are out. Automation is in.

You sound like one of those that do the utter minimum amount of work that you can possibly get away with. If you have no pride or desire to make sure customers receive their items in time for xmas then go and get a other job. A bit of overtime is expected (I know they can force you blah blah blah) at this busy time of year.

I’m making a point. No need to get stressed at this time of year. Stay calm and either book extended delivery if required, or finish on time of preferred.

RMs stance is that emotions are out regarding allocation of resources to workload. Work at a reasonable pace, follow procedures and the issue becomes objective entirely.

So no stress. Actually, I think it’s entirely reasonable to suggest that a typical postie will have more prep and organisation to do indoors at this time of year. You’d agree, surely? What then, do you find “easier”, as per the topic? Indoor or outdoor?

I’m a postie too - I get it. On the face of it, it certainly does seem to be “harder” this time of year. I’m simply putting forward the position that, I believe RM want a more robotised front line delivery staff, through the use of PDAs. From this perspective, there is an argument to be made that Christmas is no more “difficult” on the postie than any other time of year.

It’s a trick to put the pressure of Christmas onto the postie. Most fall for it.

Obviously for management at this time of year the position is entirely different..

[LaggyBand]

Christmas is no harder or more stressful than any other time of year. All days are the same.

If you find they are not, either:

A) you are not utilising all paid hours;
B) you are not utilising the overrunning procedure; or
C) you are not doing either.

Emotions are out. Automation is in.

We all know that is an incorrect statement entirely. Even in any week of the year not every day is the same. I acknowledge it is the final responsibility of RM to get everything delivered on time and that at this time there is more of a willingness to pay out overtime. So from that point of view you could argue there is less stress. We are mostly loyal to our 'customers' though, there will be far more parcels this year than last year, and it will invariably be a struggle to get everything in the van. It isn't uncommon for rurals to do double trips this time of year and shared duties can feel like they are in a world of hell. RM was passing down future warnings and instructions to DOMs in early November this year to be prepared to put non-parcel & packet items to one side. So it's a known fact that the post Xmas day backlog in terms of cards and letters will be far more of a problem this year.

In short all days are never the same.

Again, you’ve been tricked into thinking pressure rests on the postie rather than management. Whether I agree or not, RM want an automated delivery staff where resource to workload is objective.

[SpacePhoenix]

Nowadays it seems to be more like resource to budget rather than resource to workload

[Postie45]

Christmas is no harder or more stressful than any other time of year. All days are the same.

If you find they are not, either:

A) you are not utilising all paid hours;
B) you are not utilising the overrunning procedure; or
C) you are not doing either.

Emotions are out. Automation is in.

You sound like one of those that do the utter minimum amount of work that you can possibly get away with. If you have no pride or desire to make sure customers receive their items in time for xmas then go and get a other job. A bit of overtime is expected (I know they can force you blah blah blah) at this busy time of year.

working your hours ≠ doing minimum and not caring. People have a life outside of this job, be it they need rest or have other commitments they are only EVER obliged to work the hours they agreed to in their contract. I`ll point to the amount of people being hired on 25 hour contracts these days that RM dont give a crap about your need for earnings during lighter periods when they dont need you in.
Also theyre not "your" customers, leave RM and find out how much theyre "your" customers, theyre RM customers. Posties getting shifted from delivery to delivery on a daily basis, dont tell me theye "your" customers.
"A bit of overtime is expected" and this is the problem, it shouldnt be, because they fail to prepare sufficiently they shift the burden onto the workers.
I hope you do all the OT you feel is sufficient and I wont judge you one way or the other, however there could always be someone doing more and saying you arent doing enough.

[aiden01]

Christmas is no harder or more stressful than any other time of year. All days are the same.

If you find they are not, either:

A) you are not utilising all paid hours;
B) you are not utilising the overrunning procedure; or
C) you are not doing either.

Emotions are out. Automation is in.

You sound like one of those that do the utter minimum amount of work that you can possibly get away with. If you have no pride or desire to make sure customers receive their items in time for xmas then go and get a other job. A bit of overtime is expected (I know they can force you blah blah blah) at this busy time of year.

Why should people go the extra mile at christmas when they find it hard to get ot paid all year. then again maybe they will get said ot in middle of feb. you should be a manager with all your great ideas..

[CharlesSpooner]

You sound like one of those that do the utter minimum amount of work that you can possibly get away with. If you have no pride or desire to make sure customers receive their items in time for xmas then go and get a other job. A bit of overtime is expected (I know they can force you blah blah blah) at this busy time of year.

Is this approach any less valid than RM's stance of most amount of work for minimum financial outlay? If RM had pride or desire to make sure customers receive their items then the workload measures wouldn't be so ridiculously skewed. Following RM's official guidelines and methods on delivery would ensure the most dismal Xmas performance in delivery history.

But still, you go and let yourself be hoodwinked by the rhetoric of pride, desire and the false valour of going the (unpaid) extra mile Boxer.

[LaggyBand]

You sound like one of those that do the utter minimum amount of work that you can possibly get away with. If you have no pride or desire to make sure customers receive their items in time for xmas then go and get a other job. A bit of overtime is expected (I know they can force you blah blah blah) at this busy time of year.

Is this approach any less valid than RM's stance of most amount of work for minimum financial outlay? If RM had pride or desire to make sure customers receive their items then the workload measures wouldn't be so ridiculously skewed. Following RM's official guidelines and methods on delivery would ensure the most dismal Xmas performance in delivery history.

But still, you go and let yourself be hoodwinked by the rhetoric of pride, desire and the false valour of going the (unpaid) extra mile Boxer.

Destroyed. And tricked.

[ArthurPewty]

But still, you go and let yourself be hoodwinked by the rhetoric of pride, desire and the false valour of going the (unpaid) extra mile Boxer.

Love the George Orwell reference. Pretty apt too!

[Celgar]

Nowadays it seems to be more like resource to budget rather than resource to workload

It has been resource to budget for a long time now.

[Blinkboy44]

It really isn’t much harder at Christmas. It’s actually easier if your office has drivers who will take parcels. Yes there are more door to doors and cards etc. And you will have more small parcels in your bags. But for The rest of the year oversize and all parcels are down to you or your driver.

The hope that the parcels will drop off are never met now, with exception to odd occasions mostly around summer, but the usual lazy suspects we all have on our rounds who buy everything off the internet, continue being lazy all year round!