Well paid yes or no?

[yubin282]

you must of done 10 or more hours over time a week to get 27 grand that takes some doin on delivery

Theres a guy in my office does all the OT he can, works all his annual leave, days off and comes in at 4AM to sort the IPS.

He told me he earns 35K, i worked out that he once worked 60 hours per week OT when he was supposed to on annual leave. So he got almost 100 hours pay that week.

[koolishy67]

Decent job if you are getting more than 34 hours decent job if you are doing 20 hours and have few kids earning below £16000 decent job if you are looking to buy house below £14000 I got mortgage easily without any problem decent job if you happy with used car.... I still think this is the decent job with good pay and job security opertunity for more overtime

[2yearpostie]

Two year postie states can I afford a house? No. Can I afford a car? No ,can I afford to rent a house ? No. He has answered my question. Makes me think if you have to live like that, what’s the point?

Ah, but the alternative for me is stacking in Tescos/packing in a warehouse and id have to work an extra 15 hours to get the same money to not be able to afford anything!

[Pumpernickel]

IMO it's reasonably paid. We aren't well paid, but we aren't badly paid either.

A lot of the issues some might have (apart from those who've been here years) would probably relate to the contracted hours more than anything, being part time.

I've done all sorts of jobs in all sorts of sectors. The "best paid" (for the time) was another unskilled job in a factory doing things like cleaning, putting labels on bottles, putting lids on, slicing cheese, boxing things up and palletising. Bit of overtime got me in the 40% tax bracket (ok quite a bit of OT tbf) around 20 years ago. I did hate the job though.

Been through all sorts of other stuff, in no particular order:

Driving (summer heat was intolerable stuck in a cab with what felt like an asthmatic blowing through a straw for "ventilation", and the bottle of warm yellow stuff for company. Lots of time pressure and entitled muppets "bending" the rules thinking their 5 minute jaunt to the hairdressers was much more important than the load you have in the back, with no regard to you having to conform to your tacho)
Construction (paid myself through college for years to get a trade, but ended up stuck in abusive pay schemes that the entire industry bought into whereby you're forced to pay just to get your wage, provided through a blatant [imo] tax fiddle [no idea if this still goes on], plus you never know if you've got a job next week, or how far you'd be commuting. As has been mentioned too: it's dangerous. Seen a couple of "life changing" accidents and a death on the sites I worked on)
Warehousing (one of the most "enjoyable" jobs in this, forklifting round a company yard on nights in summer. Just me, forklift, and a walkman. Pay was almost non-existant though)
Fiberglass factory (can't sleep due to the constant itching which went on for weeks after I quit. pay was crap too)

We could be better paid, and given the circumstances we work in we probably should be, but it isn't at "bad" pay levels IMO. I'll be blunt though: every single job out there has it's upsides and downsides. Until you try them you have no clue what goes on (bear in mind the people that seem to think we just deliver to their street then go home. You may be taking that line of thinking about any other job out there).

[2yearpostie]

Or to put it another way a police constable starts at 20k a year, or £12hr, which job would you sooner do?

[postslippete]

For the job that we do I would say that we are "reasonably" well paid. It might not be rocket science but we don't half get through a lot work these days as duties seem to get ever bigger, packets have gone through the roof, mail has once again started to pick up as expected, we are now expected to do collections on delivery and once we get rid of these overpaid and underworked senior managers with fancy titles that don't directly contribute to our bottom line. Well then its not unreasonable to expect a decent pay rise with the savings made.

But we know that is not what the business has in mind. They want to give us "the little people" as little as possible whilst they make as much profit as they can through cost cutting.

[rambo1]

Good topic.

I like to think I’ve done some crap jobs - construction (backbreaking and dangerous), customer complaints in a call centre, even a stint as a glass collector in a rough pub having to wipe up people’s sick etc.

This isn’t one of the crap jobs, not in my eyes anyway. My average hours last year were 7 while 4 and I earned £27k for being outdoors delivering stuff. I’ve mates I went to uni with who design kitchens and work in marketing who are stressed as anything, have to take work home, frequently stay in the office till gone 6, are expected to do unpaid overtime at busy project times AND earned less than me.

I think it helps that I worked for RM, left to do other jobs then came back. I like to think I have a bit more of a balanced view than an old boy who started in the 1970s and says the job is dreadful but has never done a different job.

I was told my good feeling would pass once the honeymoon is over, I’ve been here 2 years now and still enjoy it, I never wake up dreading going in.

For what it is, it's not badly paid. It is however very physical and maybe when you've done 20 yrs instead of 2 ,you may get a grasp of just how physical it is and totally unsustainable for anyone starting out now. I dare say very few will make it 40 yrs in this job now.

[rambo1]

A lot of posties think the job is that well paid that they're willing to give £2k back to royal mail by coming in 10 mins early and working through their break because 'they haven't got time otherwise' . It beggers belief.

[andyman606]

At ours the part timers work their full 25 hrs and do absorption for free and come in early whilst the full timers get paid for 38 hours but only do 5 hours a day so they think the full-time pay is good for doing part time hours.....the part timers not so much.....as for the firm/support drivers in ours they work even less than the full timers but collect two duties in a day so get paid 14:5 hours a day and only work 6 they think its really pays well as a £50k postman..... seniority pays handsomely not so much for the new starters/part timers but hey if I'm alright jack stuff them.....see you tomorrow in the lions pit some of you may be in for a shock soon!

[rambo1]

At ours the part timers work their full 25 hrs and do absorption for free and come in early whilst the full timers get paid for 38 hours but only do 5 hours a day so they think the full-time pay is good for doing part time hours.....the part timers not so much.....as for the firm/support drivers in ours they work even less than the full timers but collect two duties in a day so get paid 14:5 hours a day and only work 6 they think its really pays well as a £50k postman..... seniority pays handsomely not so much for the new starters/part timers but hey if I'm alright jack stuff them.....see you tomorrow in the lions pit some of you may be in for a shock soon!

How do full timers only do 5 hrs a day? What do the managers in your place actually do if they get back early?? Sounds to me like the mangers are on the best pay to doing f all ratio.

[andyman606]

The managers leave at 10:30 after everyone goes out so they do 4:30 hours a day now that is another well paid job and next day they give the part timers s**t if they don't do their absorption at 3pm.
I believe there may be some savings to be made at our office but don't hold your breath I believe this has been going on for 15 years!!! Its a goodnight from me and a goodnight from Casper the ghosters!

[sindba]

Simple way to answer this question.

Ask yourself if your job makes you financially comfortable. If Yes, it's well paid. If No, it's not.

[HTPostman]

Good topic.

I like to think I’ve done some crap jobs - construction (backbreaking and dangerous), customer complaints in a call centre, even a stint as a glass collector in a rough pub having to wipe up people’s sick etc.

This isn’t one of the crap jobs, not in my eyes anyway. My average hours last year were 7 while 4 and I earned £27k for being outdoors delivering stuff. I’ve mates I went to uni with who design kitchens and work in marketing who are stressed as anything, have to take work home, frequently stay in the office till gone 6, are expected to do unpaid overtime at busy project times AND earned less than me.

I think it helps that I worked for RM, left to do other jobs then came back. I like to think I have a bit more of a balanced view than an old boy who started in the 1970s and says the job is dreadful but has never done a different job.

I was told my good feeling would pass once the honeymoon is over, I’ve been here 2 years now and still enjoy it, I never wake up dreading going in.

For what it is, it's not badly paid. It is however very physical and maybe when you've done 20 yrs instead of 2 ,you may get a grasp of just how physical it is and totally unsustainable for anyone starting out now. I dare say very few will make it 40 yrs in this job now.

Very true, although including the time I did before, I’ve now done a total of 5 years at RM. Nothing to write home about but enough to give me a good idea of the physical side of it.

[HTPostman]

you must of done 10 or more hours over time a week to get 27 grand that takes some doin on delivery

I’m on a 25 hour contract, over the last year I’ve averaged 44 hours (19 hours OT a week). Including Covid/Xmas bonus and the claim I put in for holiday pay that’s £27k.

I usually work my day off and most days I’m happy to do OT. My only rules are I don’t work for free so no starting before my time, I don’t work Sunday (I have been asked a few times) and I don’t work my holidays, I think it’s a disgrace some people do and management let them but each to their own.

[grchpo]

How can you do 19 hours overtime & we are not allowed to book any, change might be coming for you, back to basic pay.