Collection failed, am i in anyway to blame? shambles!

[tragictramp]

As ive been on light duties most of this year other than when sick, i have been working in the callers office, counter side getting peoples parcels etc..

A fortnight ago whilst on annual leave i was called my the office staffing guy, telling me i will be doing the other side, scanning specials in/tracked and in charge of collectors etc, I said that i would not be upto speed with that duty and was told a colleague (experienced) would work with me the whole shift and get me upto speed on what is needed to do that duty.

On turning up for the shift 11.am the other guy was sent out to do a walk and told me verbally who was doing our 6 afternoon collections, leaving me doing 2 duties, 1 which i have a lack of experience in doing and the normal parcel collecting side, obviously a backlog of items returned/pda's van keys etc built up whilst also trying to serve customers. In the furore of all this being returned and serving customers, collection drivers came in requested their collection keys etc and left to do their duty.

At around 3.30 the experienced guy turned up and i went on my break for 40 mins,it took a while to catch up once i returned, the experienced guy then finished his duty at 5.15 saying if i have any problems call him, it took a while to catch up once i returned, at 5.27 just before closing the office to customers a firm turned up telling me that they hadnt had their daily collection and had several specials to be sent, I instantly called the experienced guy who said the driver he had mentioned earlier might be late or missed it and not to worry just send the specials on.

At around 6 o clock we have 1 of the collections come into the office to forward the specials and open bag collections etc to the mail centre, no one arrived so at 6.05 onwards i was trying to call who i believed was doing this collection and got no answer, at 6.25ish the postman who i was told was doing the collection which had failed a firm earlier turned up asking who was doing this collection as he had just come off delivery, i said i was told it was him and he said he wasnt listed, he called the dom who got him to take the outbound mail direct to to the mail centre some 15 miles away and told me to do this 1 loop this guy hadnt finished, apparently the collection driver who was listed failed to turn up.

On returning the next day, i was told this driver who failed to turn up had come in that morning handing a note over saying he quit as of the day before, I was then ushered into an unofficial q&a of what happened which caused the collection to fail, i asked if i could or need the union and was told it was just exploratory, since then it has been explained that the collections for each day are put on the floor signing on desk and not given to the den and i should get my information from that, also the keys have been put into sleeves with the folders and place on coathangers to make it visible what collections have gone out or not turned up.

I now have to attend a fact finding interview this week, which the possible outcome could be the conduct code for me and the experienced guy (who was out on delivery), obviously ill take a union rep but i just think the whole things a shambles, I was doing 2 duties without appropriate training, without knowing which collection person does what job, what areas each collection goto, what time they start and no foresight that a guy ive never seenor heard of before might quit and not turn up.

Since then i havent really had anymore training other than knowing who does a certain collection number, And having to txt the dom when all collections are out and if their are any failures/problems (I was just asking them on their return if their was anything missed etc), midweek i noticed their was a program on the pc that was called collection performance report or something similar so i had a look on it and obviously realised what it is used for, when i txt my dom to say collections had returned i asked if i should be using this program, he answered with yes and to check it in future. I havent had any training on how to use it and can only grasp the basics as you dont have time to sit and study it but on the follwoing days i havent had training on that.

Luckily the guy whos been on leave who does this duty permanently is back monday, so i get to go back to a different duty.

I know a decision has not been made, its just how everything is run is pathetic, constantly taking callers staff out to do loops/walks, managers doing loops in their cars, no training given to do duties.

The dom wants me out on ihr, he apparently has tried local offices to see if theirs any suitable work and couldnt find any, i dont get to see a knee specialist until at least january, but got to goto rehabworks next week for a 3-4 hour assessment and a nice hour journey each way which should be fun.

[ganda]

To be honest, reading through this, you did everything you could. The main culprit is the collections driver, it went downhill from then. How you are being implicated is beyond me. You do have a point about though, wanting to use it against you to try and get rid of you. Have you got the IR rep involved?

[rehabron]

You have given a very in depth report on the situation in your posting and that is exactly the same amount of coverage you give in the fact finding interview with a union rep present.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

A fortnight ago whilst on annual leave i was called my the office staffing guy, telling me i will be doing the other side, scanning specials in/tracked and in charge of collectors etc

Did you receive a leadership allowance or anything?

[tragictramp]

I havent received a leadership allowance as the original staffing guy went on holiday the day before i was put on this duty, its supposed be put through psp tomorrow, but im not in so id imagine they will forget.
What also confuses matters is that some people do hybrids and have collected their keys before i start, and others take theirs to do the collection straight after their round.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

I havent received a leadership allowance as the original staffing guy went on holiday the day before i was put on this duty, its supposed be put through psp tomorrow, but im not in so id imagine they will forget.
What also confuses matters is that some people do hybrids and have collected their keys before i start, and others take theirs to do the collection straight after their round.

if you are due to be paid a leadership allowance for this week, then you may have some issues, basically you would were being paid to ensure these duties were covered(albeit payment not put through yet), if no allowance and the postie didnt coevr his collection was due you would be fine, you were not being paid to take on the responsibility

[tragictramp]

Shouldn't their be some training records in regards to doing different duties?, in any other professional company their would be, and even after this failure i wasnt given anymore training/advice and the den still doesnt get given the duty list directly.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

Shouldn't their be some training records in regards to doing different duties?, in any other professional company their would be, and even after this failure i wasnt given anymore training/advice and the den still doesnt get given the duty list directly.

yes there should be, but the issue you may have is at the end of the day you are being paid to take responsibility to ensure the collections are covered, if someone doesnt turn up you need to find a resolution to the situation, it may be failing the collection, doing it yourself or simply calling the dom to ask him what he wants you to do, not being aware that the collection isnt being done is not really an excuse you were getting extra money to make sure it was

in mitigation you will be able to say you were not trained properly etc

The postie who didnt turn up for the collection will potentially be in trouble as well,

[tragictramp]

The postie quit, i had no proper knowledge of who was doing collections, was doing 2 jobs at once whilst on light duties, I didnt request to do this duty, I still dont feel fully trained for the duty and didnt request to take on any of the responsibility and dont care about the extra money.

What is the worst discipline that could come from this?

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

The postie quit, i had no proper knowledge of who was doing collections, was doing 2 jobs at once whilst on light duties, I didnt request to do this duty, I still dont feel fully trained for the duty and didnt request to take on any of the responsibility and dont care about the extra money.

What is the worst discipline that could come from this?

you have known about the responsibility involved for a number of months and were asking about how to claim the extra money a few months ago, if you didnt feel fully trained you should have told your manager if he didnt do anything about you should have spoken to your rep

I wouldnt think you would get more than a warning for this if i am being honest but if your dom is trying to get rid of you he may push for more

[tragictramp]

And the last time i done it, i was left in the same position of not knowing who does what collections, they just happened to turn up and do their job rather than quit, well we will see what happens.