WHAT WOULD YOU REPLACE SELECTION BY SENIORTY WITH

[Pinky 1]

i have over 30 years service, but now find myself back as a reserve, spare or whatever you want to call it.some people in my office seem to have been "Appointed". they start of as a casual ,but after a few months get put on a walk which is vacant and just keep on it. this vacancy is never advertised, and when you ask why not, you just get blank stares.

same here

same here

same

Oh dear, it's not just our office then .... it took three months of hassle to get our dim to advertise one vacant duty ....
his "boy" was quite happy covering it ....

[Lounge Lizard]

i have over 30 years service, but now find myself back as a reserve, spare or whatever you want to call it.some people in my office seem to have been "Appointed". they start of as a casual ,but after a few months get put on a walk which is vacant and just keep on it. this vacancy is never advertised, and when you ask why not, you just get blank stares.

same here

same here

same

Oh dear, it's not just our office then .... it took three months of hassle to get our dim to advertise one vacant duty ....
his "boy" was quite happy covering it ....

Ao that's why we need Seniority enforcing, so that the manager can't jusr give the best walks to his favourites.

[POSTMAN]

i have over 30 years service, but now find myself back as a reserve, spare or whatever you want to call it.some people in my office seem to have been "Appointed". they start of as a casual ,but after a few months get put on a walk which is vacant and just keep on it. this vacancy is never advertised, and when you ask why not, you just get blank stares.

same here

same here

Well all 3 of you are clued up,you should know what to do and not let it go on.

[Judgee]

I support the seniority system. If you put in the time you deserve a slightly better round.

I don't support carrying seniority over when moving offices. We had a guy from parcel force start in our office who had been there 20 years. Next resign he jumped straight into a top walk even though he hadn't actually pounded the streets more than 6 months Our office is popular and seems to atract a lot of staff from other offices, some years I've seen my own seniority drop many places rather than rise, which is frustrating to say the least!

Walks need to be evened up alot too. The difference between the best and worse walks in our office means 80% of the delivery staff are basically carrying the other 20% some of the lucky few finishing 2 or 3 hours earlier than the guys at the other end, walk drops ranging from 300 the best to 800 the worst. I think if they were evened out it would help smooth out some of resentment. Yes senior members do deserve a slightly easier ride but at the moment it feels like someone is taking the piss

[ianthmpsn]

seniorty is the fairest way of picking duties as its the only way of doing it that keeps managments nose out of the process as they seem to what to micro manage us down to the second at the moment.i started at the bottom and after 23yrs am at number 21 out of 193 .when i joined as a cadet i knew what the score was with picking duties .i wonder how many of the people who are complaining about senoirty are the jonny come latelys who feel hard done by or are the brown nosers who dont like it because no matter how much sucking up they do they cant jump up the list if managment chose who went on what duties i coukld write a list of names of people who would be on the cushy ones and who would get the hammer, if it was a fair system i should,nt be able to do that

[Ethilfrog]

somethink that is respected by the majority and only disliked by the minority....

There seems to be an assumption here that seniority is generally popular. Is there any evidence for this? Has a proper survey been done? You can see the majority of contributors to this forum like it, but a self-selected group is not a valid sample.

[Ethilfrog]

The only alternative to seniority is letting the managers decide

This seems to be the only suggestion answering the topic. It's also the correct answer. It's what happens in other companies.

and TBH that is just a disaster waiting to happen so, it may be flawed but it's the best system I can see.

And here we have the counter-argument. Look -- assigning staff to jobs is one of the basic functions of management. The answer to our problems isn't to adopt unfair procedures because our managers are no good -- we need better managers. To the people who compain about favouritism, nepotism, etc... the managers complained of are incompetent and/or corrupt. They would not last in a well-run company. I also note the posts from very senior people whose managers have over-ridden seniority, again breaking the rules.

All right, the company as is is not well-run. You'd better hope that it becomes well-run pretty soon or we won't have a company left to complain about. Some of us may end up working for the opposition ... hope the orange and brown of TNT suits your complexion, I understand it's a difficult colour to wear.

On the other hand, maybe I'm wrong about this. Maybe seniority is the best way of assigning jobs, and the reason it doesn't happen in other companies is that, as usual, RM is well ahead of the trend.

[andy2007]

somethink that is respected by the majority and only disliked by the minority....

There seems to be an assumption here that seniority is generally popular. Is there any evidence for this? Has a proper survey been done? You can see the majority of contributors to this forum like it, but a self-selected group is not a valid sample.

If someone could arrange it, I think it would be interesting to find out just how popular the system is. But the only people I've come across who ever complain about it, are the ones who're very low on the list. Yet, the same people seem to like it, when they have more time in.

Still. That's just my personal experience. It may be different elsewhere.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

somethink that is respected by the majority and only disliked by the minority....

There seems to be an assumption here that seniority is generally popular. Is there any evidence for this? Has a proper survey been done? You can see the majority of contributors to this forum like it, but a self-selected group is not a valid sample.

If someone could arrange it, I think it would be interesting to find out just how popular the system is. But the only people I've come across who ever complain about it, are the ones who're very low on the list. Yet, the same people seem to like it, when they have more time in.

Still. That's just my personal experience. It may be different elsewhere.

Actually I have only 6 years in and with my age I will never be anywhere near the top and I still support it. If the style of Management within RM was different I may be of a different opinion, but at the moment its the best, imperfect yes, but better than the other options.

[baldrick]

I'm quite senior now, but I did agree with seniority even when I started in RM.
It has always seemed to me the fairest way to allocate jobs. The alternatives
are a lot worse - favouritism, cronyism and nepotism.
The only problem now that I become a 'Senior Man' is that the 'good jobs' in MCs
have long gone, and AL isn't allocated on seniority any more.

[baldrick]

Look -- assigning staff to jobs is one of the basic functions of management. The answer to our problems isn't to adopt unfair procedures because our managers are no good -- we need better managers.

Well yes, but that ain't going to happen, is it?
Management seems to get worse not better, and it comes from the top.
Seniority was originally introduced by Royal Mail (management) over 150
years ago to end corruption in the allocation of duties.

[andy2007]

I'm quite senior now, but I did agree with seniority even when I started in RM.
It has always seemed to me the fairest way to allocate jobs. The alternatives
are a lot worse - favouritism, cronyism and nepotism.
The only problem now that I become a 'Senior Man' is that the 'good jobs' in MCs
have long gone, and AL isn't allocated on seniority any more.

Sooner or later someone will retire, or move on to something else. When that Duty comes up, you'll have priority over those with less seniority. That's how I got my Duty.

[ianthmpsn]

the reason we need to keep seniorty is unfortunately to protect decent people from our own so called work mates who would back stab and kiss managments arse to get the duty they wanted. we are going to be loosing some collection duties soon and it is amazing how many people have developed bad backs and dodgy knees since we were told the news and now claim they cant do walks yet were healthy a week ago

[reluctantpostie]

Does seniority get used in any other Industry/workplace to determine who does what job?

When i started work in a factory i went in and was given a job to do. I did that job until i left. I have never ever been able to understand the reason for constant change and swapping around of duties.

One thought. I f you went to hospital you would not to expect to have brain surgery performed by the cleaner or the porter because they have been there the longest.

[Pinky 1]

One thought. I f you went to hospital you would not to expect to have brain surgery performed by the cleaner or the porter because they have been there the longest.

No my friend, but you would expect to be treated by someone with the relevent experience, and the longer that experience the more likely you'd get a better job done ......or so they say