How does a repick actually work? Does a sheet go around starting with the most senior to pick 1st ?

[Bunjinan]

There

[P13]

I agree but I’m a 57 year old rookie doing the job for the past 3 years taking out the mail for a lad thirty years younger who can only take half of it - and I’m not quick.
Simply bring in performance reviews
On the other side their are a lot of older postman who are
Outstandingly efficient

Who decides who is competent and who does the performance reviews ?
Do you do the job properly, no doorstepping, no running , taking your legally required breaks , starting at your proper start time, using the mandatory equipment ie. Lightweight trolleys ?

[pieoftheday]

some people will be in for a shock when most of the part-timers get a duty ahead of them.

done my walk for 29 years, I very much doubt a part time will be getting mine very soon

I had a duty for 20 years, it went part time so I lost it

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I agree but I’m a 57 year old rookie doing the job for the past 3 years taking out the mail for a lad thirty years younger who can only take half of it - and I’m not quick.
Simply bring in performance reviews
On the other side their are a lot of older postman who are
Outstandingly efficient

Interesting, would you trust your present manager do to it competently, never mind without bias, and would they consider the capabilities, weaknesses and strengths of each person. In the forces, I had to do yearly reviews, and it isn't easy. I personally don't think Royal Mail would be able to do it without radical changes in how they train their managers, and I think they need to add the missing ingredient. Leadership.

Royal Mail managers are supervisors, not leaders, that's not their fault it's RMs. Too much micromanagement, not enough trust and bonuses not targetted to improving the company, but to paper over the cracks. RM needs to change it management culture, but its needed to do that for the last 17 years that I have been in. That's why yearly reviews won't work.

Also to have any point in fair yearly reviews, you need a progression system to help the best shine, and to help improve the less able. But as a Postie, there is no progression, all the jobs are basically the same. If you personally want to progress then the skills from Postie to Manager are not transferrable, and it's hard to base any "promotion" on the yearly reviews.

[Clappedoutpostie]

I agree but I’m a 57 year old rookie doing the job for the past 3 years taking out the mail for a lad thirty years younger who can only take half of it - and I’m not quick.

How many hours extended are u booking for completing it?

[TopperGas]

I agree but I’m a 57 year old rookie doing the job for the past 3 years taking out the mail for a lad thirty years younger who can only take half of it - and I’m not quick.
Simply bring in performance reviews
On the other side their are a lot of older postman who are
Outstandingly efficient

Interesting, would you trust your present manager do to it competently, never mind without bias, and would they consider the capabilities, weaknesses and strengths of each person. In the forces, I had to do yearly reviews, and it isn't easy. I personally don't think Royal Mail would be able to do it without radical changes in how they train their managers, and I think they need to add the missing ingredient. Leadership.

Royal Mail managers are supervisors, not leaders, that's not their fault it's RMs. Too much micromanagement, not enough trust and bonuses not targetted to improving the company, but to paper over the cracks. RM needs to change it management culture, but its needed to do that for the last 17 years that I have been in. That's why yearly reviews won't work.

Also to have any point in fair yearly reviews, you need a progression system to help the best shine, and to help improve the less able. But as a Postie, there is no progression, all the jobs are basically the same. If you personally want to progress then the skills from Postie to Manager are not transferrable, and it's hard to base any "promotion" on the yearly reviews.

That's what I can never understand about RM's job adverts when they refer to "good career progression" as if you work in a medium to small DO their seems zero progression if you have no interest in becoming a manager.

As far as annual reviews, given virtually every other company does them I can't see why RM can't, I find it a bit odd that there's no way RM can identify, and reward, the hard workers compared to the shirkers.

[mjd24]

Why should it be on seniority - we have some who leave half their walk as it’s too much but as a float with less seniority we finish their walk - should be done on competency and annual reviews

They might leave half their walk now but did they do it when they were young and fit 30 odd years ago?? Probably not. Most of the seniors have done what the rookies are doing now by being on different walks and if I'm quite truthful the business are far more accommodating now to the new starters.

For example, in our office the re-pick specifically "ring fenced" part-time duties irrespective of seniority so that senior posties could not pick certain duties unless they were prepared to drop their hours to part-time. The rationale behind this is that the screws wanted a full-time/part-time van sharing pairing rather than a full-time/full-time one. Its bullish*t though they just want a part-time workforce because every time a full-timer leaves, a bag carrier arrives in their place.

Much, much easier back in the day though.

[Bunjinan]

I agree but I’m a 57 year old rookie doing the job for the past 3 years taking out the mail for a lad thirty years younger who can only take half of it - and I’m not quick.
Simply bring in performance reviews
On the other side their are a lot of older postman who are
Outstandingly efficient

Who decides who is competent and who does the performance reviews ?
Do you do the job properly, no doorstepping, no running , taking your legally required breaks , starting at your proper start time, using the mandatory equipment ie. Lightweight trolleys ?

Management/ supervisors decide who is competent- that’s how it works in the real world. I take my breaks and sometimes go slightly over but nothing that excessive

[ted_e_bear]

"Management/ supervisors decide who is competent- that’s how it works in the real world."

Unfortunately, that quality of leadership from the real world doesn't exist within RM, and more to the point, disappointingly I can't see that changing in the foreseeable.

[Cucumber]

Why should it be on seniority - we have some who leave half their walk as it’s too much but as a float with less seniority we finish their walk - should be done on competency and annual reviews

They might leave half their walk now but did they do it when they were young and fit 30 odd years ago?? Probably not. Most of the seniors have done what the rookies are doing now by being on different walks and if I'm quite truthful the business are far more accommodating now to the new starters.

For example, in our office the re-pick specifically "ring fenced" part-time duties irrespective of seniority so that senior posties could not pick certain duties unless they were prepared to drop their hours to part-time. The rationale behind this is that the screws wanted a full-time/part-time van sharing pairing rather than a full-time/full-time one. Its bullish*t though they just want a part-time workforce because every time a full-timer leaves, a bag carrier arrives in their place.

Those are 2 separate issues though.
The clear rationale behind making each van share a full time/part time pairing is to stop FT/FT pairing up and pulling all the tricks in the book to get out early and finish early, often without FULLY prepping the indoor part of another duty.

Managers want this so people can't a) leave early as there partner isn't in yet, b) leave early and there is still indoor prep to be done and c) have PT staff leave bags of mail as their duty isn't prepped for them.

All this would be irrelevant if management actually operated a fair and balanced indoor way of working, but this makes their job easier.

[postslippete]

Those are 2 separate issues though.
The clear rationale behind making each van share a full time/part time pairing is to stop FT/FT pairing up and pulling all the tricks in the book to get out early and finish early, often without FULLY prepping the indoor part of another duty.

Managers want this so people can't a) leave early as there partner isn't in yet, b) leave early and there is still indoor prep to be done and c) have PT staff leave bags of mail as their duty isn't prepped for them.

All this would be irrelevant if management actually operated a fair and balanced indoor way of working, but this makes their job easier.

We have a few FT/FT pairs where one does the IPS and the other does the splitting. But many part-timers tend to come in early anyway so that they can get out early. The only PT staff that seem to leave bags of mail as their duty isn't prepped for them are those that come in bang on time and just expect to jump in the van with everything bagged up ready to go. Are we to blame the postie for that or management that rarely operate a fair and balanced indoor way of working??

Personally, I think a fairer way of working would be to have part-timers work maybe 3 full days a week rather than have them coming in a lot later and working a 5 day week. Managers could do that and not have to ring-fence any duties at all because the real reason managers do it is because they want staff to go part-time

[clashcityrocker]

Personally, I think a fairer way of working would be to have part-timers work maybe 3 full days a week rather than have them coming in a lot later and working a 5 day week.

The reason you have part time staff is due to the reduction in indoor work.
It would make no sense therefore in these days of "improved efficiency" to bring people in where there is no work to do.

[postslippete]

Personally, I think a fairer way of working would be to have part-timers work maybe 3 full days a week rather than have them coming in a lot later and working a 5 day week.

The reason you have part time staff is due to the reduction in indoor work.
It would make no sense therefore in these days of "improved efficiency" to bring people in where there is no work to do.

The full-timers are still regularly being brought in up to 2 hours early on overtime to do IPS and/or scan tracked parcels. That would suggest to me that there is no immediate reduction in indoor work

[Cucumber]

Those are 2 separate issues though.
The clear rationale behind making each van share a full time/part time pairing is to stop FT/FT pairing up and pulling all the tricks in the book to get out early and finish early, often without FULLY prepping the indoor part of another duty.

Managers want this so people can't a) leave early as there partner isn't in yet, b) leave early and there is still indoor prep to be done and c) have PT staff leave bags of mail as their duty isn't prepped for them.

All this would be irrelevant if management actually operated a fair and balanced indoor way of working, but this makes their job easier.

We have a few FT/FT pairs where one does the IPS and the other does the splitting. But many part-timers tend to come in early anyway so that they can get out early. The only PT staff that seem to leave bags of mail as their duty isn't prepped for them are those that come in bang on time and just expect to jump in the van with everything bagged up ready to go. Are we to blame the postie for that or management that rarely operate a fair and balanced indoor way of working??

Personally, I think a fairer way of working would be to have part-timers work maybe 3 full days a week rather than have them coming in a lot later and working a 5 day week. Managers could do that and not have to ring-fence any duties at all because the real reason managers do it is because they want staff to go part-time

The duties that have part time staff on them who come in on time - do they often come in to find their duty no where near ready to go, with duties that are exclusively full time pairings left well before? If this is/was the case as I suspect, then it's no wonder they enforced a FT/PT pairing.
You say that they WANT staff to go part time by ring fencing certain duties. Are these duties really easy or something? Or maybe they are part time because they can only be done in part time hours?
I've never heard of anyone giving up contracted full time job to pick a certain duty.

[Chelseablue]

some people will be in for a shock when most of the part-timers get a duty ahead of them.

done my walk for 29 years, I very much doubt a part time will be getting mine very soon

I had a duty for 20 years, it went part time so I lost it

Me and other half ( in another office) both lost our dutys wed been on a very long time due to revisions which have been a huge mistake. So no reason for the changes .