Posties - how do you feel about your job?

smartecosse · Post by **smartecosse** » 08 Dec 2019, 09:19

Started in April......really enjoying the job other than the fact that management spend all day fighting fires and there is zero teamwork in the DO.

Have a heavy round that is hard work to get completed on time anyway let alone now the packets are through the roof.

Coming back over time almost every day which causes issues with childcare and then don't even get paid for it.....all sorted now though as I just left an entire loop in the frame along with the packets for it and said I don't have time to complete it.....

No way I'm working for no pay.

It's like it's a surprise it's busy!

Pippedbythepost · Post by **Pippedbythepost** » 08 Dec 2019, 09:32

Love the job. Bullying culture though

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 08 Dec 2019, 10:23

There is some 'progression' in the sense of maybe getting your own walk, if you want to be on the same walk every day. There is the possibility of becoming a manager or DOM but who would really want all that pressure from above to treat the workforce like ****? I know I wouldn't touch that job with a bargepole. I think the main problem in RM is the move over time from full time to part time duties. The job does not suit and more often than not cannot be completed in those meagre hours even on quieter days.
It does amaze me how many elastic bands some posties get through especially if you have the large size ones as they rarely snap. Mail pouches on shared duties seem to be the main collecting area for them then those same posties go round other frames gathering more bands rather than empty out the pouches.

Caesar · Post by **Caesar** » 08 Dec 2019, 10:23

I started in March so this is my first Xmas with RM. I'm enjoying the job. I'm lucky in the fact that I don't have to finish at any particular time so I've been working late recently.
The organisation isn't the best but it's at least has good as any other places that I've worked at and given the pressure at this time of year I kind of expected it to be manic.
I had aches for the first couple of months but manage OK now, I do stretch my legs and feet every morning.

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 08 Dec 2019, 11:57

The job has changed massively over the years from it being a public service to now being one primarily driven towards budgets and efficiency. One time a day I would get an hours overtime for taking out a single parcel out when I finished - now the managers seem quite happy to leave a York full of packets undelivered as long as they aren't tracked.

The PDAs provides Royal Mail with the means to check up on us postie's like how many scans you've done and check where you are and what you've done on delivery. It's all for the company's benefit rather than its customers I feel and it's something which is going to get worse that's for us I'm sure.

We have had a massive influx of agency workers which only serves to devalue our jobs even more. I'm surprised the Union has allowed this to happen but it seems to me that this union at shop floor level are quite happy to turn a blind eye - as long they are alright. That's been the case for the last few years anyway

Post by **Jack1960** » 08 Dec 2019, 12:28

wacko74 wrote:
Jack1960 wrote:Done 40 years, I love it just as much as I ever have , always done delivery and just don't understand the many negative comments on this site .

Let me guess, one of the old timers that has been on the same duty for much of that 40 years with it remaining largely unchanged, very rarely if ever gets messed around and moved on to other duties because you don't actually know any of them and to top it off getting all sorts of money for nothing additional payments through ''grandfather rights''... and to think the union claim to be opposed to a ''2 tier workforce'' when in reality it already exists.
You couldn't be more wrong , I have done every round in the office and often get moved if a cdv needs covering etc , and what is money for nothing ? The only grandfather rights I know about are the ex PHG payments .I have done about l00 different rounds over the years in 3 different offices.As ,any postman is, I am " as required" and despite having my own round I can be asked to move to another duty at any time and happily do so.
So you are wrong on every point.

Dorset Plodder · Post by **Dorset Plodder** » 08 Dec 2019, 14:25

Thought I'd already posted on this ... Must be going Senile.

I quite enjoy the job, love the outdoor aspect. If I had to work in a factory I'd go mad .... again(tried it once ... nearly went mad)! Dealing with the Public doesn't worry me, I find chatting with the Customers quite nice.

Although ironically enough I consider myself an Anti-Social type character, if I'm shopping, or out for the day I HATE PEOPLE!

Norris bought up an interesting point about feeling your rest days are just there to get ready for work again. I feel that too, the long term gradual grind just knackers me out. Most days I'll have a "Power Nap" when I get home, and the Aches & Pains don't seem to get enough time to recover.

My Biggest problem with this job is having to work with some Really Annoying Arseholes! We all know who they are, because we've all got them in our Delivery Offices.

Enough to say they're NOT the guys who offer a hand, or go out of their way to be helpful. I have NO Confidence that the Business will Ever get rid of these types , because they're the ones working the way RM want.

I plan on sticking around for a few more years (IF Rico lets me) and think the only way I'm going to last is just to continue to "Do the Job Properly"!

norris9 · Post by **norris9** » 08 Dec 2019, 17:33

Dorset Plodder wrote:Norris bought up an interesting point about feeling your rest days are just there to get ready for work again. I feel that too, the long term gradual grind just knackers me out. Most days I'll have a "Power Nap" when I get home, and the Aches & Pains don't seem to get enough time to recover.

I think it's possibly the beginning of the end for me.

No way can I continue in a job where 24/7 I am exhausted and ache, often going to bed at 6.30pm knackered and only get 1 day off at a time. It feels like I am forever working.

I have given it time and time isn't improving anything. If anything things have got worse.

I see the old guys doing this job and think - well they seem fine. I see the guys that go out and do MORE work or work their day off - and they seem fine. Some tell me they go out for a run or to the gym after work....

I don't know if most these guys collapse into bed more or less as soon as they get home and they just tolerate any pain and exhaustion or they are just elite posties and I am not cut out for it.

yellowbelly · Post by **yellowbelly** » 08 Dec 2019, 17:56

postslippete wrote:........ One time a day I would get an hours overtime for taking out a single parcel out when I finished - now the managers seem quite happy to leave a York full of packets undelivered.........

This sums up RM - unbelievable management inefficiency - on the one hand how can 1hr's OT be justified for
one parcel (although very nice for the recipient) and on the other - York's full of packets not delivered due to
not enough personnel - absolutely crazy........

postieblueshirt · Post by **postieblueshirt** » 08 Dec 2019, 18:43

yellowbelly wrote:
postslippete wrote:........ One time a day I would get an hours overtime for taking out a single parcel out when I finished - now the managers seem quite happy to leave a York full of packets undelivered.........
This sums up RM - unbelievable management inefficiency - on the one hand how can 1hr's OT be justified for
one parcel (although very nice for the recipient) and on the other - York's full of packets not delivered due to
not enough personnel - absolutely crazy........

because when it was a public service there was no tight budget to stick to it wouldnt happen now

Ben79 · Post by **Ben79** » 12 Dec 2019, 11:08

MarkItZ3r0 wrote:Been in the job 8 years. Loved it at first, as everyone does. Every one of those years gradually got worse though. Constant arguments with managers and driver just to stop them giving me extra work. I'm on a park and loop with one of those guys who thinks they have authority to offload their work onto you just because they get the van keys - wildly misinterpreting key holder position.-
Anywho it's not all doom and gloom, I've been picking up a couple of night classes at my local college, as I have no plans to stay with the company until retirement. Mainly because, it really gets to me seeing the crap some of the long serving guys have to put up with, having wrecked their bodies in service to royal mail, only to be constantly harassed by some ex Tesco manager who doesn't even know what a bag box is and spends their morning gossiping about them to their little clique. I'm stuck here for a good few more years though, but having something else to focus on is a good distraction from the daily dose of RM bullshit. I feel a bit guilty ditching my fellow Posties. Nobody can weather a literal and figurative s**t-storm like these guys and I really hope mr Rico knows, despite the union, these guys don't take much s**t. So hows the weather in Switzerland? 'Coz it looks like a storms a comin.

Fantastic post! The inequality of the workload is shocking, and it's invariably the hardest working, quietest members of staff who bear the brunt. All the best with your night classes.

blacov · Post by **blacov** » 12 Dec 2019, 15:08

I would be really enjoying it but with amount of lies by managers this is getting really annoying and frustrating. OT owed regularly and when challenged you are lied to and taken for an idiot. Surely there must be a way to deal with it. These people do not own the company and they answer to somebody. I am sick and tired of lying. I wish managers would at least stop lying and treat people with respect. This would be a huge step forward.

norris9 · Post by **norris9** » 12 Dec 2019, 16:52

44% of 300+ voters hate the job. Interesting.

Job satisfaction of postmen is pretty damn low based on this.

ssdd · Post by **ssdd** » 12 Dec 2019, 17:02

norris9 wrote:44% of 300+ voters hate the job. Interesting.

Job satisfaction of postmen is pretty damn low based on this.

I see it a little differently. I would say most people like the job, but hate the management.

work · Post by **work** » 12 Dec 2019, 23:07

ssdd wrote:
norris9 wrote:44% of 300+ voters hate the job. Interesting.

Job satisfaction of postmen is pretty damn low based on this.
I see it a little differently. I would say most people like the job, but hate the management.

but poll for change = 97.1%, meaning there is a massive problematic working for this company at the present time...on that we nearly ALL AGREE