who can beat this

[The Real BFO]

today saturday at 1049 the queue in our office was taking 48 minutes to be served - can anyone out there in post office counters beat that.

[goggins69]

I think the queue in my office was similar but I could have worked had I been asked to go in.

[The Real BFO]

Hi Goggins 69 - how come you were not asked to work - i would have thought the manager in your office would have known it would be busy - something to do with the time of year !

[goggins69]

Although several colleagues sick apparently no money for overtime

[The Real BFO]

unbelievable

[PostalOfficer]

Actually, it's very believable I'm afraid. We've got 2 off sick (stress would you believe?), there's no annual leave, so the 'spare' leave reserve helps to make up some of that, but overtime is a dirty word and the promised backups from head office all seem to have had disasters on their own jobs that they have to attend to. Basically it seems to be the normal staffing we have throughout the year. The only extra they can afford this year is for 3-letter-acronyms to watch over us; see 'Another Bad Day' thread.

So like the defenders of Rorkes Drift*, we form line, wait for the masses to come at us and hope we survive.

* Think Michael Caine in "Zulu".

[Running Man]

It must be totally and utterly demoralising for those of you, or your colleagues, that are willing and available to work overtime during our busiest time of year but are being denied because we have allegedly "got no money" to pay overtime.
Especially given that Alan Cook has just announced that our current financial performance is much better than expected and we have exceeded our half year profit target!
My office is really lucky insomuch as we have nobody who is desperate for overtime but several members of the team will work extra hours and take the equivalent time off at a mutually convenient time; not because I have begged them to, I hasten to add, but because it suits their particular work/ life situation. Their efforts and their flexibility are never taken for granted and I "bend over backwards" to accommodate their individual requests for time off in appreciation of how they have helped the team in times of need.
I feel really lucky at present to have such goodwill in my team as the senior management of POl seems to be doing its utmost to kill off any remaining goodwill amongst its loyal staff in Crown Offices with their shoddy and disrespectful approach to cost cutting "initiatives".
Senior management seem to think that they can roll out the "we've got no money" or "we're fighting for survival" catchphrases in support of any of their ill-conceived ideas and we will all be stupid enough to believe it (again!).

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Actually, it's very believable I'm afraid. We've got 2 off sick (stress would you believe?), there's no annual leave, so the 'spare' leave reserve helps to make up some of that, but overtime is a dirty word and the promised backups from head office all seem to have had disasters on their own jobs that they have to attend to. Basically it seems to be the normal staffing we have throughout the year. The only extra they can afford this year is for 3-letter-acronyms to watch over us; see 'Another Bad Day' thread.

So like the defenders of Rorkes Drift*, we form line, wait for the masses to come at us and hope we survive.

* Think Michael Caine in "Zulu".

"There's fousands of 'em"

[The BFO]

My office is really lucky insomuch as we have nobody who is desperate for overtime but several members of the team will work extra hours and take the equivalent time off at a mutually convenient time; not because I have begged them to, I hasten to add, but because it suits their particular work/ life situation. Their efforts and their flexibility are never taken for granted and I "bend over backwards" to accommodate their individual requests for time off in appreciation of how they have helped the team in times of need.

Quite logical – you sound like a decent sort of manager. Sadly, there are too many who are not like that. I will not help out, even though I would be happy to, because I know it will be a devil of a job to get the time back.

On a personal note, I would caution you about too much vitriol – unfortunately you are greatly outnumbered by the brainwashed, unintelligent majority amongst your ‘seniors’.

[billyf]

today saturday at 1049 the queue in our office was taking 48 minutes to be served - can anyone out there in post office counters beat that.

...and when the customer finally gets to the counter we have to ask if they want this, that and the other....when all they want to do is get what they came in for and leave ASAP!!

[Running Man]

This topic has gone very quiet lately.

It's either because,
(a) It's not been such a bad week out there which I can't believe because we've had a real kicking this week at the counter or,
(b) everybody's totally fed up doing this

One thing I will say is that our customers have been really patient and understanding in the run up to Christmas and have given us almost no abuse whatsoever.

So come on; whatever the reason is let's find out what it's been like out there.

[The BFO]

So come on; whatever the reason is let's find out what it's been like out there.

Knackering, and deeply tedious...

[Running Man]

The BFO summed Christmas up quite nicely.

Sort of sums up the whole of 2009 really doesn't it?

Maybe 2010 will be a whole lot different- WORSE!!!