The Good Old Days

[Carla]

My old manager used to go out on deliveries when we were a few men short but that only happened occasionally

[L Tommo]

One thing I don`t miss from the old days is when you was on bag tipping and had to put the bags onto them metal trolleys,the amount of times you got an electric shock off the buggers!
Also the awful woolly jumper feck me talk about itch.

Still do... Them cages have a anti static lead on them but after a while the shock still gets ya!!!

and a CRACK right up ya arm... Them bloody fishemen jumpers where like wire wool on ya skin...

I tend to go for the bib n braces N a fleece But shorts are in order now N a polo.

I miss the Lightweight Blue rain coats. These hi vis coats with a body warmer is just to hot... Even with out the warmer..

I dont like the public to know im a postie now.. The SHAME OF IT!!


out

[manwithnovan]

One thing I don`t miss from the old days is when you was on bag tipping and had to put the bags onto them metal trolleys,the amount of times you got an electric shock off the buggers!
Also the awful woolly jumper feck me talk about itch.

Still do... Them cages have a anti static lead on them but after a while the shock still gets ya!!!

and a CRACK right up ya arm... Them bloody fishemen jumpers where like wire wool on ya skin...

I tend to go for the bib n braces N a fleece But shorts are in order now N a polo.

I miss the Lightweight Blue rain coats. These hi vis coats with a body warmer is just to hot... Even with out the warmer..

I dont like the public to know im a postie now.. The SHAME OF IT!!

Ah the fun i have with the old static build up, i can store it like a conductor go behind someone and gently touch their ear Oh how they jump


out

[PalacePostie]

Getting 12 hours overtime each week for escort duties (per man).Are office was deemed to dangerous to deliver alone,so we had to pair up
2 walks still get it to this day

Escort duties?????? Dangerous????? Sorry am i being naive

About 15 years ago over 20 postman got mugged,3 post vans were held up by gun point and the office got turned over in the space of a couple of weeks,so we were made to deliver in pairs ,hence getting 2 hours a day overtime because basically you were doing 2 walks albiet your own delivery and walking round with the other postie while they delivered there's

[Leyton Crozier]

Do not despair Out there in south London there is still a postman with a thermal jacket AND an old fashioned delivery sack. True it says "Japanese Post" on it in Nippon and English and the string is sash cord but it works. My previous one had Deutsche Post with a German flag, missed that one when it wore out and the spare one is from China. They turn up now and again and can easily be "liberated and recycled".

[slider]

The thing that I miss the most is the feeling of belonging to something worthwhile, and the respect that came with it. My Dad was a Postman for nigh on 30 years in the 70's/80's/90's and a bit of the 2000's and for a large part of that time being a Postman or anything to do with the Post Office meant that you were someone, a pillar of the community, someone to be respected, to be relied on. I joined the Counters in the mid 80's and even then to be a Postal officer on the counter was a sought after responsible job. Nowadays anyone who works for any part of Royal Mail Group is a target for abuse and criticism. I am a Branch Manager now, in one of the Smiths 70, and all I get from the public is complaints about the queue, or their lost letters, or their passport photos being refused, in fact anything they want to moan about. I was involved in an office converting to franchise nearly 2 years ago and I still get harangued in the streets where I live because of the queues in the franchise! Even my wife gets it in the ear from people who know what I do! If anyone asks me what I do for a living I tell them I work for the Govt. so they think I am a secret agent, anything other than a Royal Mail employee.
But do we help ourselves? I think not. My Dad had 2 sets of uniform, one for summer and one for winter. He never left the house without a tie on, and never wore trainers until he was issued official Hi-tec ones. Contrast that with the operatives who collect from my counter, shorts - not official issue, shirt - whatever they fancy, sometimes Royal Mail, but not always, Hat- Chelsea baseball cap, Socks- sometimes, Footwear - usually white trainers. If they turned up for work like that in the 70's/80's they would have been sent home to change, and I don't want to hear any nonsense about the job being hard physical work, so they have to be comfortable, for the 2 simple reasons that the job hasn't changed that much in 30 years that standards can slip that much, letters are still letters and an 11kg bag of mail weighed the same then as it does now, and you can still look reasonably smart in Post Office issue uniform and o the job in relative comfort.
All establishments have to move on, but some of the old stuff was worth having, and respect from the public has been eroded by a lot of what we do ourselves.

While i agree with a lot of what you say i would like to point out that in the seventies we only took out a fraction of what we now take. I joined back in 1975 by the way; also we were not issued with shirts back then but could wear anything ie own t shirts and i remember first wearing my own trainers in about 78-79. but but shorts would not have been allowed. i think the days of pristine looking postman predates the seventies or at least mid seventies by some time although i completly agree a lot of staff theese days do look like they are of to a football match. As someone whos worked for royal mal nearly 33 years i think the job is worse in many ways now than it was back then.