Proposed management structure in Delivery.

[Martin Walsh]

Large offices who perform one IPS , have one CSP , have one locker etc will not be separated as different cost centres and will continue to do resourcing , revisions as one office.

Seniority , leave, overtime , SA and MTSF issues will continue as one office in large offices !

[clashcityrocker]

Large offices who perform one IPS , have one CSP , have one locker etc will not be separated as different cost centres and will continue to do resourcing , revisions as one office.

Seniority , leave, overtime , SA and MTSF issues will continue as one office in large offices !

How can leave continue as one office with multiple "offices" within one office?
You could end up with one section having too many people off.

[DGH]

Large offices who perform one IPS , have one CSP , have one locker etc will not be separated as different cost centres and will continue to do resourcing , revisions as one office.

Seniority , leave, overtime , SA and MTSF issues will continue as one office in large offices !

This is fine.

But how on earth are 4 or 5 Customer Operations Managers expected to improve 'their' team of (presumably) c. 50 staff covering c.32 walks if 'their' team is in a constant state of flux with staff swapping in and out of teams as staffing issues demand (a rural goes down due to sickness and so someone with knowledge from a town team gets pulled in, meanwhile a firms duty is uncovered and the only person who knows it who's in the building is from another section). These issues occur on a daily basis. Equally, I could be in a team that covers one postcode section and yet be needed to do IPS on another section's parcels.

With no senior manager in office to make a decision, there will be constant tension between managers. How do you feel about failing two walks in your section today so that the rural manager can cover all his walks? It's batty.

[sindba]

If I'm on a float duty covering duties in 3 different sections, which COM do I approach with issues?

So many issues with this.

As ever with RM senior management hair brained schemes, sounds great on paper, unworkable in practice.

"World Class Mail" anyone?

[Woody Guthrie]

Large offices who perform one IPS , have one CSP , have one locker etc will not be separated as different cost centres and will continue to do resourcing , revisions as one office.

Seniority , leave, overtime , SA and MTSF issues will continue as one office in large offices !

The words half-assed spring to mind.
It's either one thing or the other, trying to bodge together something like this will end badly.
I would have thought with the stated ethos that smaller is better "large offices" would be the ones to benefit most from breaking them down.
It's a kinda laughable position to take, no matter whose position it is.

[Martin Walsh]

Woody so you think breaking a big office who share the Same IPS into different cost centres so they do their own resourcing, revisions and have their own WIPWH productivity whilst they still share the same IPS as a good idea.

Large offices have individuals who want to perform overtime in other parts of the office , use their seniority to sign for all duties in the office , part timers in big offices have the opportunity to increase their hours on the basis of potential workload across the office.

Having separate cost centres in a big office will stop all of the above as they will be ringfenced in those cost centres which will their own budget.

[DGH]

Either you go for decentralised management with 'pseudo-offices' of c.50 staff (around 30-35 walks) under one manager who answers only to someone out of office and deals with their own staffing, budget, etc (this is how Royal Mail's initial proposal reads, regardless of intent).

Or you have bigger offices pooling resources but with a more senior manager calling the shots supported by section managers (like now, basically).

Trying to meld the two could be described as ambitious, or as a bit bonkers. I get why it's easier to keep everything 'pooled' in bigger offices, but it's not really compatible with the proposed 'small teams/independent managers' approach.

[Woody Guthrie]

Woody so you think breaking a big office who share the Same IPS into different cost centres so they do their own resourcing, revisions and have their own WIPWH productivity whilst they still share the same IPS as a good idea.

As opposed to breaking up small and medium offices and doing the same?
It either makes sense across all offices or none.

[redneck]

Another balls up, led by how it appears to the shareholder and City, not how it functions on the ground in practice

[SpacePhoenix]

In MCs different work areas have had their own budgets for a good while, in addition to each shift having its own budget.

Just have a DOM who deals with any paperwork and replace all other managers with Team leaders who are in charge of all staff in their section but they also work on the section. Once everyone goes out on delivery, then you don't need more than one manager, as how many staff are left in the building at that point? Maybe a couple in the callers and maybe a couple in the SD locker

[rambo1]

Large offices who perform one IPS , have one CSP , have one locker etc will not be separated as different cost centres and will continue to do resourcing , revisions as one office.

Seniority , leave, overtime , SA and MTSF issues will continue as one office in large offices !

This is fine.

But how on earth are 4 or 5 Customer Operations Managers expected to improve 'their' team of (presumably) c. 50 staff covering c.32 walks if 'their' team is in a constant state of flux with staff swapping in and out of teams as staffing issues demand (a rural goes down due to sickness and so someone with knowledge from a town team gets pulled in, meanwhile a firms duty is uncovered and the only person who knows it who's in the building is from another section). These issues occur on a daily basis. Equally, I could be in a team that covers one postcode section and yet be needed to do IPS on another section's parcels.

With no senior manager in office to make a decision, there will be constant tension between managers. How do you feel about failing two walks in your section today so that the rural manager can cover all his walks? It's batty.

So. What you're trying to say is that the powers that be have no clue at all of how a delivery office actually works. Ah. Nothing changes.

[rambo1]

In MCs different work areas have had their own budgets for a good while, in addition to each shift having its own budget.

Just have a DOM who deals with any paperwork and replace all other managers with Team leaders who are in charge of all staff in their section but they also work on the section. Once everyone goes out on delivery, then you don't need more than one manager, as how many staff are left in the building at that point? Maybe a couple in the callers and maybe a couple in the SD locker

You can't just leave one manager in while everyone is out on delivery. They would have to talk to themselves and eat cakes and drink (and make) by themselves.

[Martin Walsh]

Woody out of the 1286 current delivery Cost centres 766 fit the model of what Royal Mail have in mind for COMs now and they are simply replacing a DOM with a COM.

The other 500 plus are either :

1 merged units who are two or more offices who have been amalgamated and have been put as one cost centre even thou they do everything separately from revisions , resourcing, different seniority lists , different leave picks , different overtime. We believe these should be different cost centres as at the moment for productivity purposes they get one overall traffic figure for the number of offices in a merged unit and one set of work hours so their WIPWH figure is not an accurate reflection.

2. Any larger office of more then say 60 plus who Royal Mail want to separate as different cost centres and therefore separate individuals to different offices / cost centres so they cannot do overtime in the other cost centre or centres depending on the size of the office. This is despite having the same IPS , Reg cage , CSP etc. All the revisions large offices done last year would have to be redone as the new cost centes once separated will have different WIPWH figures and targets. Plus you just know it in larger offices you COMs who had the their own groups that there will be race to work their group faster and harder then the other COMs.

Space no work area in a mail centes other then revenue protection has a different budget. If it did it would be a different cost centre meaning individuals in once work area could not work overtime in another unless they were transfer the payment. This particular Management reorg is sorely for Delivery offices.

[SpacePhoenix]

Space no work area in a mail centes other then revenue protection has a different budget. If it did it would be a different cost centre meaning individuals in once work area could not work overtime in another unless they were transfer the payment. This particular Management reorg is sorely for Delivery offices.

Do you have any understanding of how things work at the coal face?

Every work area has got their own budget. If a work area doesn't have the budget for using any free staff, them free staff get turned away. All the managers have to account for every hour that they use in their work areas

[number one]

Due to the lack of clarity on any of this to the staff can I just try and tell you my small understanding of it and maybe someone on here can correct me on anything I’m miss understanding.

Currently:

Delivery office has-

80 staff
1 DOM
1 line manager
1 IPS
1 CSP

New Plan -

80 staff split 50/50
2 COMs with 40 staff each
1 IPS
1 CSP
now working as 2 separate teams

Now isn’t this just going to cause conflict and arguments? How do you pick who’s on which “team”?

• what happens if one team has 5 on the sick and the other none?
• how are the teams picked?
• what happens if one team has all the fast posties?
• if both COMs are equal who is responsible for the building, reporting problems etc?
• how will seniority, leave and resigns work?

Every time an office has been merged and they have remained 2 offices working in 1 unit it has been a disaster and had a toxic working environment. It creates an US and THEM atmosphere. It’s only once the offices mix 100% to work as one do we see the whole “team” working.