How things have changed...

[acw6535]

Hi
I started on 30th April 1984
seems like a lifetime ago now...

Royal Mail didn`t worry about budgets/targets/profits etc.
There was no WTL/Team Briefs
You could smoke on your frame/fitting
Postman used to be able to borrow vans for their own use
(I remember one guy filled a hi-top up with so many bags of cement,planks of wood etc,it
had difficulty moving)

Young postman today must think I`m joking when I tell them
we used to just have the one bag of mail most days...

OK,there were no limits on bag weights,so quite often,the bag was 25kg
should we require an extra bag,it was left usually at a paper shop en-route.
You could leave Rebate mail(the predecessor of Mailsort) up to 7 days in your
frame before you had to deliver it)

sorting used to take no longer than 30 mins(and there was no mech bundles)

One of my first walks had over 600 calls,but I was finished most days at 8.45am

OK we had second delivery to do,and boxes to empty,but we usually took it in turns,
so only 1 person did 4 or 5 second deliveries,and the rest of us went straight home.

Door to Doors(or Household Deliveries as they were called then)were sporadic-some weeks
we had them,others not.

Of course,there was a downside to working for Royal Mail back then...
the wages,in real terms,were even worse than today
The Inspectors(manager) used to send you home if you had dirty shoes
If you left any mail on your bench,you could expect a "Please Explain" letter
the next day.
Trainers were a big no-no
the bikes had NO gears at all(even the slightest hill was a bastard)
the wet weather gear consisted of a donkey jacket,which was "upgraded" to a kagool
after a while
What door to doors we had usually consisted of bingo cards from various newspapers,
and woe betide anyone who missed any house out,as more often than not,the occupant of that house
would be on the blower asking where there bingo card was

So...which is best?

Allen

[dc5]

how tricks Allen so of that stuff u wrote still go on in the office i work in like the vans gettin loaded 2 the brim with all sorts of what ever u need 2 get rid of out the house or from the backdoor plus i don"t think the household payment has went up in last 10 year. take care

[acw6535]

how tricks Allen so of that stuff u wrote still go on in the office i work in like the vans gettin loaded 2 the brim with all sorts of what ever u need 2 get rid of out the house or from the backdoor plus i don"t think the household payment has went up in last 10 year. take care

Nah...you can`t do anything with the vans now,least not at our office.
It`s all special trip forms etc you have to fill in these days.
This was in the late 80s...

and yeah...households at 1.67p...I think it`s more like 15 years since they went up (from the "massive" figure of 1.5p)

[vigilante]

aaahhh!
nostalgia.
I miss the good the good old days!!!!
i joined 06.84.
discipline was a bloody sight worse but we had a damn good laugh and morale was brilliant.
oh well back to f*****g reality.

[dave7634]

Started as a Postal Cadet in 81' at 6am in the morning. Taken to frame and introduced to guy same age as me, turned out he was also a Cadet but had been there a year before. Threw job in and was put in the back of a van with also 4-5 other staff all gawping at you and asking questions like, "what school were you from and where do you live?" Got out a little before 6.50am and started delivering. One bag only but he split it and I carried the packets. Had little brown pouch with us which contained 3 keys for post boxes and also a orange Recorded Delivery Book. Delivered mail and emptied the postboxes on our delivery. Finished at 8.20 by going into papershop, buying a paper, can of coke and proceeded to sit in local park and I fed the ducks while he sat and read paper till 9.40 when we returned to office and had a meal relief of 30 minutes. Prepped next delivery and also a part timers (double 2nd delivery) and was issued a bike and lock. That was weird. Never been on a bike where handles turned but metal frame on front stayed stationary. Took some time to get used to it. Came back at 1.10pm and then worked on facing table till 1.45pm finish. 6 days a week and was paid cash either Thursday afternoon if you did afters OR Friday morning after first delivery if you did days. All along I was told NOT to come into office off first delivery before 9.40 and not before 1.10pm otherwise other cadets would get mad. I was terrified!

[bigsharkboy]

when i read this part of the forum it brings back good times i started in 1986 and seen many changes most not good

i blame job and finish and fixed duties for most of the problems we now face

thats progress for ya

thanks :lfo :cfo :lfo :cfo :lfo :cfo

[dave7634]

when i read this part of the forum it brings back good times i started in 1986 and seen many changes most not good

i blame job and finish and fixed duties for most of the problems we now face

I suppose the amount of money which was being thrown into RM in hose early days, not knowing an exact figure would have been astronomical and I suppose it had to change. People in our Delivery Office don't want to know the new starters nowadays. They've been there an hour before their time throwing in their precious jobs to make 1/2 hour on the end and they aint gonna waste a beat trying to get to know any new starters plus they don't seem to last 2 minutes before they've left again anyway.
Fixed duties and one delivery I think killed off our particular DO from what I've seen. Come 10am the canteen is a ghost town. You used to have to tell one of the wet behind the ear starters that a "gaffer needs to see you" so they'd get up and go and see what they wanted so you could get a damned SEAT at that time in the morning. And all the ones who had 20 odd years service or more used to sit around 1-2 tables pushed together. Nobody, it seemed, sat anyway near those seats or god help you

[IWW Fellow Worker]

I started in 1980. I remember starting at 06.00. Half an hour IPS If you were on packets and 25 mins on letters. On Saturday mornings eveyone went as slow as possible so as it was nice and light. Leave the Rebate on top of the frame and shoot out as soon as you were ready. They didn't mind you bringing back the registered slips on Monday, so as soon as you were finished, it was straight home. The PE C (no DOM's then) had been in the army and knew how to manage men (there was only one postwoman, and she looked like a bloke). The best boss I've ever had. Two lads left their second delivery hidden under the rebate one Friday. It was only about twenty items, but the PE C found them. The next morning he had them both in the office with the rep. The windows rattled and you could hear him all over the office telling these two not to mess with him in future. Bingo! That was it. All done and dusted and no hard feelings on either side. None of this form filling and investigatory interviews and bureacratic crap with cases going on for months and some snot of a screw cocking up the notes and lying through his backside. This PE C came into work on the Sunday before Christmas in 1981 to do the dockets so as the lads could have their O/T before Christmas. On his way home it began to snow, his car crashed and he never recovered. He came back to get an award from the PE A. He said "I can't say I've ever been happy working for the Post Office. I've been content, but never happy. There is something wrong with someone who says they are happy going to work every day for a business like this." The PE A's face was a picture!
It's been downhill ever since as far as our managers are concerned. No initiative and the lot of them are not worth a balloon.

[jafferpants]

If you guys think it's changed since the eightys how the hell do you think i feel I started in 1967. thats when you could be sacked if your hair was to long and as for the word cut off it did not exsist. If the walk took you past your time you had to finish it, it was in your contract and you could not claim overtime.what would you guys think now if you were doing the same job as the bloke next to you but getting less money because he was over 21 and you wern't. Mind you one thing was better then you had more respect for the managers because you had to walk the streets for 10 years before you could even be considerd for the job. So they all knew a postmans work inside out. Unlike to-day where they become managers because they cant cope with postys lot lazy c***s

[ROCKY]

my first section boss could tell you where every street in the area was,you asked him he looked at the ceiling for a couple of seconds and then you got the answer and we work in a big area

[tosser]

My first postmaster (not this DOM Bollocks!) started as a messenger boy and new the job inside out, he was hard but fair and didn't like paper-work, if he gave you a bolloking you took notice.....because he had your respect

[Ilovemyjob]

More than anything I can't get over how I used to be able to pile rebate up on top of my bay and it would take TWO BLOODY WEEKS before I had enough to make it worth sticking in the frame for an hour's overtime. I now get more of it in one walk sorted bundle. Maybe I dreamt it - kind of like one those UFO abduction "recovered memories".
Yes ... i also remember managers you could respect being in a majority. Admittedly the one I work under now is an ex-postie and a nice guy, but he's pretty powerless to actually do anything.

[disheartened]

Aha yes the old rebates.....the trick at our office was to borrow the guys next door,stick them on top of ones frame,get 2 or 3 ours then put them back on your mates frame.

ajust as a foot note,i only started this job to get some money together,then find a proper job......that was back in 19th March 1979

[ROCKY]

ive only got 15 years in, but i started for three months to give me chance to find a job in my old trade of printing,chuffin long 3 months

[OMV 5]

its funny reading theese threads and like a few other lads i was a postal cadet in 86 in glasgow like yous the job has change for the worse i remember back then it was a big drinking cultrue you got your wages in your hand on a thursday and then smuggled into a pub with the older postmen and drivers lol i remember the household delivers bingo cards anyone who bunged you at xmas got a few extra through there door as a reward but treasured memories