How bad are things at Christmas?

[taurus88]

Me and a few other newbies were discussing this today. Having never experienced a Christmas at RM before, we were wondering what exactly we can expect in terms of increased volume, mail on our fittings, etc? Plus, how many more bags do you use at Christmas, and, if you're a docket kind of a guy, how much longer does your round take you to complete? I've got nasty visions of some of our (less enlightened - in an intelligence sense) people being out on the street till 5pm on Christmas Eve. I myself draw the line at when the light starts to fade, then I'm GAWN. So, hows it going to be?

Obviously, we'll have the joys of eighty seven million d2d items as well this year, but let's just pretend that that isn't happening for the sake of this thread. Oh, and should I have pizza or chicken for tea? I'm having a late tea today because I'm lazy. I guess being at work on Saturday and basically not being able to go out like every other frakker on a Friday does that to a man .

[morleyposty]

mail volumes and packets will be sky high as per usual at this time of the year...d/o will be loaded with yorks filled to the max...

and

probably like my or any other d/o up and down the country where office attendance will be 99% will be working during the period...if your a floater then you may be doing 1/2 a walk or sommat or you might be asked to go to an m/c or another d/o to help out there with the sorting etc...if this is the case then you can claim expenses

[krussel]

It will be like a really busy friday but more letters than flats so the bag weights can actually get lighter What does take the time is the packets and parcels which normally double from a busy day. If your a driver you can bet on 2-3 times the normal parcels. As for finishing times the delivery will prob take you an hour longer and you will be going out later as well. I normally finish around 3-30pm but some in our office were getting back 1.30pm last year. Hope that helps.

[skull]

Poorly addressed Xmas cards really wind me up , I would say 20 a day when it really gets going .

To
Dan & Sue .
? Duke Street .

To
The Family .
? Duke street .

You kill them off because you have not got a clue . Then someone is on the phone to a relation or friend " I sent you a card did you not get it , bloody Royal Mail ."

[Jimmcguinn]

Hers a little story about my experience with RM at this special time of year.(I'm sure this sort of thing isn't so unusual) :
I'm a floater,and a couple of walks I cover get a disgusting amount of packets at the best of times,at Christmas.....well
The thing is RM management never seem to put into place contingency measures to cope with the added pressure at peak times.Well anyway last christmas was the worst I've had during my 6 years at RM.Said walks were inundated with packets to the point where any excess (1st class included) were just thrown onto a trolley and after a couple of weeks there was a mini-mountain at the end of the aisle.DOM,seeing it was getting near to Christmas day,and sensing that dozens and dozens of these packets were going to be lying there well into the next year,started to panic and proceeded to literally start chucking parcels onto my frame along with snide remarks like "I'm sure you'll manage that alright" .Anyway the tipping point came when one of the walks I cover had a ridiculous amount of mail and packets for it.I just looked at it all before I even started to prepped it knowing I didn't have a f****** chance of getting all of it done.I informed the rep who informed my lino that I would be "cutting off",well according to the lino there was "hardly any mail" that day .
Anyway,after taking my break and trying not to get stressed I was ready to go at about 11:15,and was hanging about the entrance waiting for a lift out ,when the DOM appears and starts interrogating me about why I was still here and why wasn't I out delivering.I tried to remain civil and explain my position a couple of times but he just kept on and on,we eventually started arguing and I said somethings I shouldn't have with the end result of me being given a written warning..
This christmas is going to be alot different.Whatever goodwill I had towards RM was lost forever that day. I'm not getting stressed and I'm not working a minute over.

[TeeferTiger]

P*ss up and brewery springs to mind at Christmas. It's as if RM have never experienced Christmas before and it's a whole new event and they wing it.

You'll be overworked more than usual, there'll be mountains of parcels and packets sitting in Yorks because they've buggered something up and the queues in the enquiry office will be miles long.

[post_bitch]

its torture try looking at your packets and letters and trippling it

[fishtank]

..and i can't see the CSS machines reading Auntie Maybel's scribbles so if you're used to sequenced mail...get un-used to it.

[oypostie]

As you would expect from a company with centuries of Christmases to learn from and a planning team that have been working on Christmas all year.....

It will be chaos They never seem to learn anything from the previous year

[post_bitch]

get into the xmas spririt - slave boy

[clashcityrocker]

..and i can't see the CSS machines reading Auntie Maybel's scribbles so if you're used to sequenced mail...get un-used to it.

But the new iSLMs mean we should be getting more direct trays and less buddy trays...

[noggin1969]

Christmas will take

[DGP1]

You will become knackered and grumpy

I don't think I could become more grumpy but i will give it a go this Christmas

[Grinder64]

I'm really looking forward to attempting to accomodate the 5 lots of D2D into my regular Xmas workload, on an RM2000 with mostly double-slots. I expect to be telling my lino that stuff will be coming back to the office at cut-off time on a daily basis & look forward to seeing our DOM acquire even more grey hair...

[happymackem]

I'm really looking forward to attempting to accomodate the 5 lots of D2D into my regular Xmas workload, on an RM2000 with mostly double-slots. I expect to be telling my lino that stuff will be coming back to the office at cut-off time on a daily basis & look forward to seeing our DOM acquire even more grey hair...

here here mate let the barstewards flog themselves cos i aint
Baa Humbug!