Ignored by specific consultant?

[Emptier055]

Hello, I'm a new worker with Angard and I have some doubts about whether this is standard treatment and I should get out ASAP, or whether I've just been getting extremely unlucky.

I started working with Angard on Nov 1 this year and I get shift emails almost every day (A total of 16 since I started, mostly 10PM-6AM or Midnight-6AM) from three different shift consultants. I have received 3 from Mister A , 2 from Mister B, 11 from Mister C. Mister A has allocated me to shifts all three times, Mister B has allocated me shifts both times, while Mister C has never allocated me to a single shift, despite replying to every email almost instantly.

Is this typical of Angard? Should I bother trying to call or email Angard to file a grievance? Do I even have a grievance to file, or am I just wasting my time? I understand the nature of a zero hour contract, but surely they wouldn't send out emails if they had no shifts to be filled?

Thanks.

[MailSorter10]

Well, is Mr C of certain ethnicity and you are not? Or maybe he has his favourites?

It's a bit difficult to say if it's random or on purpose. Sometimes, I respond to emails and get nothing and sometimes I get shifts assigned. To be honest, in most cases emails are from the same person. Only out of UK hours emails are from Indian employees.

[Emptier055]

He is of a different ethnicity, yes, is consultants selecting people based on ethnicity a widespread thing with Angard?
A and B were both also of a different ethnicity and were fine assigning me to a shift.

I think it's strange how despite replying eleven times, I still haven't been allocated by this one specific person to a single shift. I spoke to a longer term worker (4 Years) during a shift assigned by one of the other consultants and we compared email response times to Mr. C, my replies were sometimes faster than hers, sometimes not, yet she was always chosen over me, she was also of a different ethnicity to the consultant, so I imagine there is just some list of favourite employees that I'm not on?

[dodado]

I have been with Angard for nearly 10 years & have found there is no rhyme or reason to that lot. Things happen like favouritism etc but unfortunately you'll never be able to prove it. The basic rule of thumb is just go with the flow because worrying about it will just wind yourself up & it's just not worth it. This zero hours contract is 100% perfect for me, but of course everyone is different depending on their circumstances

[MailSorter10]

There's definitely list of favourites. The same people getting the best or longest shifts, while others just random ones or never get weekends.

[TobysPaw]

There has to be some sort of weighting in the shift allocation towards certain people (call it favouritism if you will) because I can go to my MC and some of the same people are there every single time (and I don’t have a specific day/days that I tend to go).

So some of them must be getting booked in pretty much every single day, and probably in advance rather by last-minute emails.

I don’t mind it though as I I don’t want to do Royal Mail more than about once per week so it’s fine for me, but yes the booking process will never be very transparent.

[MailSorter10]

If you look at it from manager's point of view, you would want the best people as often as possible, to make sure everything works and you achieve targets. If you watch some RM people, they are extremely slow and lazy, but manager can't do anything about it. Of course, some Angard people aren't better either.

For example, last Friday, number of good RM people were off and their replacements were really slow. That slows down a whole team. And on top of that, you have new Angard casuals without experience. No one really trains them, they are just sent to do different tasks and work based on what other people tell them.

[SpacePhoenix]

If you look at it from manager's point of view, you would want the best people as often as possible, to make sure everything works and you achieve targets. If you watch some RM people, they are extremely slow and lazy, but manager can't do anything about it. Of course, some Angard people aren't better either.

For example, last Friday, number of good RM people were off and their replacements were really slow. That slows down a whole team. And on top of that, you have new Angard casuals without experience. No one really trains them, they are just sent to do different tasks and work based on what other people tell them.

This time of year you've also got new Xmas casuals thrown into the mix as well

[TobysPaw]

If you look at it from manager's point of view, you would want the best people as often as possible, to make sure everything works and you achieve targets. If you watch some RM people, they are extremely slow and lazy, but manager can't do anything about it. Of course, some Angard people aren't better either.

For example, last Friday, number of good RM people were off and their replacements were really slow. That slows down a whole team. And on top of that, you have new Angard casuals without experience. No one really trains them, they are just sent to do different tasks and work based on what other people tell them.

I certainly agree with everything you’ve said here including your observations. And yes, it makes most sense to have people in who are familiar with the processes and therefore not have to constantly retrain people. So it seems then it is the case that the managers on site are primarily responsible for directly booking people in as they know who is who (bearing in mind this thread was originally a query about an Angard consultant who would have no way of knowing who the best workers are)

In my case I almost never get booked in advance (I’m obviously not very impressive lol) but I seem to have a pretty high acceptance rate from answering Angard last-minute emails which suits me fine as my main job can make it harder to plan in advance.

[MailSorter10]

We have casuals starting from today and no one from Angard night shift was booked in advance. I wish them luck with all Amazon parcels. Of course they can still book us later in the day.

I don't have a lot of luck responding to emails, regardless of who is sending them. 5 minutes after the email is sent is too late and it's not always possible to respond immediately.

[Casual999]

Hope this helps :-

Royalmail friends & family will always get priority for angard shifts - it evens states this on the notice board on the mail centre noticeboard. The partner of the mail centre manager gets guaranteed 5 shifts a week !

Plus the xmas casuals have been starting and have been offered 12 weeks of shifts and will be cheaper than experienced Angard casuals.
Though quite a lot of xmas casuals leave ( not liking the work) and then royalmail have to book Angard casuals

Regards

[xUzi786]

same thing as last year, xmas casuals are being prioritised over experienced angard staff like myself, they are getting 5 -6 shifts a week and angard only getting one or two shifts booked and also risk being cancelled due to large number of xmas casuals.

[Tibtab39]

Angard has never been much of a meritocracy, doesn't really matter if you're good at the work or not.
I think favouritism among the consultants is usually related to other reasons.

[PDAHappy]

In response to the above query.Yes the shift managers can request Angard certain staff to work a shift.Do some consultants favour some over others, yes they probably do.But ultimately they have to fill the quotas they’re given by RM and if you cancel shifts at the last minute you’re probably not going to endear yourself to the consultants.
The influx of Xmas casuals do mean that the last two weeks of November normally that there’s few shifts for Angard.But as others have said Xmas casuals normally don’t stay the whole Xmas period and the shift managers will soon be getting Angard back in.

[gurpbarnes6]

In my earlier post I raised issue that despite putting my availability down few weeks ahead sometimes I don't get booked, yet they send emergency shifts that doesn't make sense. Why not book those who are available then in the worst case scenario then send emergency shifts if they still cannot fill shifts.