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PDA to call office to cut off

Postal workers discussion forum. Discuss the day to day life in a Blue Shirt.
azza30
EX ROYAL MAIL
Posts: 112
Joined: 09 Apr 2018, 14:48
Gender: Male
Location: Eternal Misery

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by azza30 »

Hi there all,

I work in an office that has 99.9% subservient posties who will do whatever they are told and have not met one who will take their full meal break, go over, automatically take lapsing etc :no no :d'oh!

But I am not intimidated by the DOM and just think he and the LM are twats. I've had several loud confrontations with them and had the union involved. I am quick, but refuse to be taken for a slave, therefore I won't take lapsing most of the time and do very little overtime and take my 30 min break om delivery.

Now that Actuals are running I feel more protected as I know what I do. Last week I cut off a couple of times, to the annoyance of the managers and they said other people can do the round in the time. I just say I'm doing the job properly, check the Actuals.

My question is if I (try to) follow the cut off procedure and try to call the office via the PDA, but they don't work (wrong number stored I think) and I don't have a personal phone to use (why the f*** should I, anyway) what do I do? Just stroll back to the DO with the cut off? :wave

Thanks in advance.
Bahia Feliz
Posts: 1169
Joined: 22 Sep 2008, 21:04
Gender: Male

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by Bahia Feliz »

azza30 wrote:Hi there all,

I work in an office that has 99.9% subservient posties who will do whatever they are told and have not met one who will take their full meal break, go over, automatically take lapsing etc :no no :d'oh!

But I am not intimidated by the DOM and just think he and the LM are twats. I've had several loud confrontations with them and had the union involved. I am quick, but refuse to be taken for a slave, therefore I won't take lapsing most of the time and do very little overtime and take my 30 min break om delivery.

Now that Actuals are running I feel more protected as I know what I do. Last week I cut off a couple of times, to the annoyance of the managers and they said other people can do the round in the time. I just say I'm doing the job properly, check the Actuals.

My question is if I (try to) follow the cut off procedure and try to call the office via the PDA, but they don't work (wrong number stored I think) and I don't have a personal phone to use (why the f*** should I, anyway) what do I do? Just stroll back to the DO with the cut off? :wave

Thanks in advance.
This is one of the big problems,you are supposed to tell them before you even start tying up that you are cutting off or booking over let alone when you are out on delivery!!
Navalron
EX ROYAL MAIL
Posts: 1044
Joined: 12 Aug 2017, 10:40
Gender: Male
Location: Glasgow

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by Navalron »

Like I've said in a previous post, I think that the PDAs will be a good thing but don't think it will last when the true extent of goodwill and freework that posties do comes through. Then the project managers who thought it up will get back around the table to think up the next headf..k for posties. I think ALL managers at EVERY level should have to do a minimum 26 weeks on the walks when they first start if not coming from the floor and return for 4/8 weeks every 2 or 3 years and then they would get to know all the problems that RM are going through but particularly in delivery where posties are saddled up like third world donkeys. :arrrghhh :arrrghhh :arrrghhh .
azza30
EX ROYAL MAIL
Posts: 112
Joined: 09 Apr 2018, 14:48
Gender: Male
Location: Eternal Misery

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by azza30 »

As I only have 5 hours, the trolley has to be ready to go when I get there as they know I take my break on delivery. As most of the HTC walks are a 15 min walk to the start and 15 min walk back (one of them is nearer 25 min walk back to DO from last delivery) and all the rounds are near on 4 hours or more on a busy day. So, no matter on the spew that they spout, my trolley is ready when I get there as they know I'm not frightened to bring stuff back.

So what I have to do is look in the trolley and find out how many bag drops there are and judge it before I leave the DO. I will then tell them if I think I won't get done, before I leave. My question is, if I cannot fulfil the 2nd part of the cut off procedure by contacting the office whilst I'm out(because the PDA phone doesn't work), do I just take it back? As I told them in the morning I may have to cut off, and I attempted to ring with the PDA later during the delivery but because they are too lazy to sort the PDA phone system I couldn't ring them (and they expect me to use my phone - which I don't want to). So can they call it willful delay? They are willfully putting P/Ter's on rounds that are too big. I will argue it's down to them.
danterossetti
Posts: 136
Joined: 19 May 2013, 18:19
Gender: Male

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by danterossetti »

Ask them to ring you at say 1pm
LaggyBand
Posts: 1065
Joined: 29 Jun 2015, 14:07
Gender: Male

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by LaggyBand »

Email the DOM, tell them you don’t carry a personal phone on delivery ( I did this for a while when I cracked the screen after dropping it from a call by RM! - it’s not unreasonable) and ask the DOM what he wants you to do if you feel you can’t complete once out.

In the interim period, simply say this to your manager everyday before you leave, preferably with a witness:

“I suspect there is a chance that I may not be able to complete and the DOM knows I have no phone to contact you - what do you want me to do if I can’t complete?”.

Unfortunately these are the hoops we have to jump through just to stick to the f**king contract.
Celgar
Posts: 2795
Joined: 01 Nov 2017, 17:11
Gender: Male

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by Celgar »

It's not easy for you as not doing the prep yourself it's going to be nigh on impossible for you to judge from day to day if you will go over time. The alternative system to summer or all year lapsing is that no one can leave the office to go home before the end of duty time. Where the staff in offices are all of the same mindset and willing to stick together then it's possible to do this. Unfortunately in most offices you will have some Postie's who are much quicker, or even appear to be superhuman, and are still in the style of 'job & finish'. Those people are no going to want to hang around in the office for maybe 60 or 90 minutes

If you think your duty may be too long to complete in duty time on a regular basis the other option is to ask the DOM to come out with you on delivery and time you on the job. If you are one of the last ones back a lot of the time this is likely the case and it may be possible to move some delivery points from your walk. A common way to partially amend longer walks is to remove the IPS element of the job but it sounds like all the prep is done for you already.
The views I express here are mine alone and do not represent the views of Royal Mail Group.
lightningpostman
Posts: 271
Joined: 22 Apr 2015, 20:54
Gender: Male

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by lightningpostman »

The whole cutting off p[procedure needs to be reworked , all these hoops to jump through,

do not use your personal phone under any circumstance, do they pay you a phone allowance? do they pay your phone bill?

If the pda has not been set up correctly like many of the offices I have worked in then its on there shoulders.


The constant bs of having to approach dom I can complete yadda yadda yadda and the intense scrutiny and unnecessary arguments and heated conversations do nothing for morale and simply put our backs further up against the wall.

Union need to step in and fix this bs cutting off procedure
azza30
EX ROYAL MAIL
Posts: 112
Joined: 09 Apr 2018, 14:48
Gender: Male
Location: Eternal Misery

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by azza30 »

Thanks for all the advice everybody!

My LM is such an anus. He deserves and earns no respect at all and the DOM is just the same.
A proper arrogant, integrity lacking, rude, lazy imbeciles with NO people skills. How on earth do RM interview and train these people?

So what I will do is tell them in the morning I may need to cut off, but I can't tell for sure, and that they need to call me at a certain time or get the PDA's fixed to enable calls. If they don't agree, I will say okay, I will bring back whats left and they can then check the actuals. I should then invite them to do the walk with me on a Wed or Thu in particular to see how long the jobs should take doing them properly.

Be under no illusion, when I go out on van rounds, I will generally always beat the other person back to the van especially if I work like they do. I can walk as quick as anybody else.

The funny thing is I was employed as Delivery with driving, but they haven't bothered putting me through the RM driving test, probably because they know I would just cut off and bring it back, unlike everyone else!

But now actuals have come in, there is a golden opportunity for everyone to get one over the management and get more realistic amounts of work issued with walks shortened etc. I'm also very aware that one of the uses of actuals data will be the development of one hour time slots for parcels. So if everyone continues using shortcuts, etc the job will become even harder as you will then be targeted on these hour slots as well. If EVERYONE does the job properly - no more free early starts, no breaks etc - Don't they realise that they are only benefiting the bonus takers?


Our office is actually terrible - we had terrible staff survey results with our scores dropping from last year. We actually had HR in with the union interviewing apparently. But as usual Part time late starters weren't even told this was happening by management - I wonder why?
Celgar
Posts: 2795
Joined: 01 Nov 2017, 17:11
Gender: Male

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by Celgar »

azza30 wrote:Thanks for all the advice everybody!

My LM is such an anus. He deserves and earns no respect at all and the DOM is just the same.
A proper arrogant, integrity lacking, rude, lazy imbeciles with NO people skills. How on earth do RM interview and train these people?

So what I will do is tell them in the morning I may need to cut off, but I can't tell for sure, and that they need to call me at a certain time or get the PDA's fixed to enable calls. If they don't agree, I will say okay, I will bring back whats left and they can then check the actuals. I should then invite them to do the walk with me on a Wed or Thu in particular to see how long the jobs should take doing them properly.

Be under no illusion, when I go out on van rounds, I will generally always beat the other person back to the van especially if I work like they do. I can walk as quick as anybody else.

The funny thing is I was employed as Delivery with driving, but they haven't bothered putting me through the RM driving test, probably because they know I would just cut off and bring it back, unlike everyone else!

But now actuals have come in, there is a golden opportunity for everyone to get one over the management and get more realistic amounts of work issued with walks shortened etc. I'm also very aware that one of the uses of actuals data will be the development of one hour time slots for parcels. So if everyone continues using shortcuts, etc the job will become even harder as you will then be targeted on these hour slots as well. If EVERYONE does the job properly - no more free early starts, no breaks etc - Don't they realise that they are only benefiting the bonus takers?


Our office is actually terrible - we had terrible staff survey results with our scores dropping from last year. We actually had HR in with the union interviewing apparently. But as usual Part time late starters weren't even told this was happening by management - I wonder why?
I thought they were looking at bringing in four hour windows for tracked items only. Not that I would be surprised if they tried to bring in one hour windows. I don't think it would be possible for us to do one hour windows as we have more variables to figure into the equation .

:chuckle We had an HR person arrive at our office about the survey results but it was because our results were too positive & they wanted to find out why.
The views I express here are mine alone and do not represent the views of Royal Mail Group.
azza30
EX ROYAL MAIL
Posts: 112
Joined: 09 Apr 2018, 14:48
Gender: Male
Location: Eternal Misery

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by azza30 »

Our results were well below the national results!

Now imagine if you took out the results from the LM's favourite Minions who will do anything to keep the status quo in their favour by propping up these Managers. The results would be so bad I think it would make National news!
PJ101
Posts: 52
Joined: 08 Nov 2013, 21:26
Gender: Male

PDA to call office to cut off

Post by PJ101 »

Its not hard to chang things. The union just needs to agree the maximum no of times the over running procedure can be used for a particular duty or that excess can be paid. Also a limit for the office should be in place.