peejay14 wrote:I intend now to take my job a lot more seriously. Till now I have just kept my head down and delivered mail, now I want to know just in what direction the company is taking its posties. What little I know just now will suffice to get me by day-to-day, but my question now is what future is there for us posties? Since I cannot see the job I do today still being around in 10 years time, I shall be asking those in charge just what I can expect from my employer in the years to come. As a business, the company requires to generate work, but what work will we be doing in the not-too-distant future? I need an idea of just how the future is shaping up for us, and what plans the top-brass have for the company going forward. I don't mean the gloom-and-doom news of the changes that will occur in order to get us there, I am more interested in the vision that our leaders have for the future of the business. Surely they must have one, and a positive one. And not only do I want to be a part of that future, I would like to contribute in my own small way to making the plan that will get us there.
I am starting to sound somewhat anti-union, although let me assure you that I did not start out that way when I first joined this board a few weeks ago. I haven't fully convinced myself either that I am fully anti-union, as I have not really thoroughly assessed the place that unions have in the machinations of a company, and I'm sure that there are a great number of pro-union people that I could learn a lot from. However, it is my opinion that the action taken by the CWU over the past three weeks has held the company back and may even have stinted its growth and hampered the plans it had going forward. (I do wonder if I am using company-like slogans here (as someone has already 'accused' me of), but then perhaps this is just the easiest sort of language to use). And again, like the company brochures tell us, probably like me it sees a place for a union that will work along-side the company and help take it forward, maybe even in the form of an interface between the company and its most important asset - its staff, especially if communication between company and staff breaks-down.
I guess that my view of the recent industrial action is that on the whole both sides will live to regret it. I do not think that anyone can sensibly say that it was not destructive both to the company and the work it tries to generate for us. There must be problems, otherwise there would have been no cause for strike action, but for me striking was far from the best option to deal with the problems. No doubt some of you will still say that I have no grasp of the real problems nor a sense of the real difficulties, but in a sense if I don't then I still do not think that such knowledge would help me in my cause, as those are really just technical matters that require good and proper management and nothing more. What I am more interested in is (after overcoming the problematic technical and operational aspects of the job that are holding everybody back): where are the solutions to the crisis taking us? Because in order to go somewhere, there has to be somewhere to go to; in other words, is there a place for us in the future?
I think by throwing myself into the deep end on here, I have learned more about the kind of postie I am, and more about the kind of postie I want to become. I've had, and still have, a lot to say, and it's not all been easy reading I know (as some of your replies haven't been either). If I do not find enough people willing to come-and-go with me on here, then I will probably quickly broaden my search for answers to encompass other sources of information. That would be a pity though, because on here I'm sure there are a lot of sensible posties from whom I could yet still learn a thing or two to help me on my way. Though be glad perhaps that I will not continue to conduct my search via such self-indulgent posts as this. I will more likely, as some of you have also requested of me, try to put my points more directly.
I knew that the "friends and foe" button in my User Control Panel would come in useful at some stage... 
:cfo :mfo
, " On Sundays we all do the prepping as a game for the kids to the sound of " Slayer " on the cassette recorder " .