How hard is the job

[goingpostal]

i think to do the job correctly then the answer is no it's not an easy job, in this day and age not only are you responsible for people's mail, birthday cards, credit cards and many other important things you also have to have eye's in the back of your head to be on the look out for johnny opportunity thief who see's either you or your bag as an easy target.

when i started in 1989 i felt proud to work for this firm, people had respect for you and classed you as one of the good honest government workers, a person they could trust and also talk to, and many occassions talk to you about private stuff, i had a women speak to me the other day and told me she had found out her husband had been having an affair and was asking me for advice, then she proceeded to say "i've actually known you longer than i've been married to this bloke" stop and think about this kind of thing, some of you who have been on the same rounds for years have seen people children grow up, seen people's high's and low's and been a friend to these people, with the exception of a hairdresser how many other jobs could you do which you could have this kind of relationship with so many people day in and day out.

But back to the point, you have royal mail employing any tom dick and harry many of them can't speak english and most of them haven't got time to stop and speak to people, the time's i hear people say "oh that bloke on your delivery, i saw him quickly rode past" these are the people who think and try and make the job easy by not speaking to anyone a good case of "get thrown in, get out, get done, get home"

stop and think you may be the only person these people see and a friendly "hello how are you" never hurt anyone and one day you might be the same

to do the job right requires concentration, skill and sometime a bit of common sense and most of all you need to be a good communicator.

scanning items at tesco is an easier job and you don't hear people giving them grief

i love my job is just the pratt's running it i hate

[The Sarge]

I don't think that BBC drama series 'Sorted' helped,
showing posties going out with a handful of mail. Nor that C4 programme
which depicted postal workers as thieves.
I think that the majority of the public still understand that
it is not an easy job, and most people would not want to get up
in the middle of the night to carry heavy bags of mail in all weathers.

Yes I have to agree with that, the other week I found a £20 pund not on the floor near some delivery boxes in a block of oap flats I deliver to, I pushed a 739 through all of the 40 boxes that are in there saying I found it and if it was anyone of theres, 1 woman was waiting for me the next morning and said she dropped it whilst getting the key out of her purse for her box so gave it to her, She tried to give me £10 but I refused, she then gave me a bottle of pop as it was a warm day.

Get yer picture in 'The Courier' for that one mate! Seriously, respect, you did a good thing. Be proud to be a Postie.

[kinmad4it]

Excellent points there. Especially about being a part of people lives and communicating with everyone on your walk.

Would just like to point out one flaw.

scanning items at tesco is an easier job and you don't hear people giving them grief

The missis used to do that years and would vehemently argue the opposite with you about that one. You ever seen the grief they get when some underage chav prat wants to buy booze and gets refused.

Anyway, don't wanna detract from your good points, just wanted to redress the balance about checkout workers.

[duffer 61]

When i first started on the walks it was a big shock,reserve a very hard job.Once i signed for my own then life was a piece of piss.Now things have changed and every day i expect to finish at 1pm.I agree with you POSTMAN,the job has turned on it's head because now if i walk in and it is heavy ,i'm well pleased.Some days don't get out until 11am,that doesn't leave long for a delivery.

[axeman]

to spedley....... i think your posts are a little 'look at me i can whizz around and ...' lets all not forget that 'others read these forums' and are lets say putting 2x2 together making 8 we do not need to tell these arseho**s whats going down they are quite imaginative themselves as they then tend to think everyones the same we don't need any extra hassle from screws at the present , we don't need to draw attention to ourselves. we also have guys who run around the jobs as most offices do but slowly they are learning that it's not wise to broadcast this to the outside world ....get my drift however it's your right to post whatever you wish . try not to get upset at any remarks that are thrown your way

[madelin4]

For a girll it is very demanding.. I myself cope well, i have my own duty , if i was a reserve i prob cudnt manage to well at all..... the job is very demanding and very tiring. The most pressure has to be in the office and getting out in time. If the mail is heavy when u have a signed for duty one can normally work round this to make it less heavy, if a reserve is harder to do that if you dont know the walk to well...

[Wild Cat]

I think the public perception of the job stems from the days when postman were paid to work from 6am to 1.20pm and finished their duty at 9.30 and did half a walk on docket and still got to the pub by 12.00.

I have been in the job for 6 and a half years and when I first started this practice was common place,and the public were well aware of it as at the time the idiots used to go around boasting to their friends about the situation.

Once this perception is in the public mind it will take a very long time to change their view,an example being the labour party and the winter of discontent (the dead left unburied and rubbish piled up in the streets)which was used by the tories for 20 years afterwards to attack them.

When I speak to customers I tell them how much work we have to do and that the job has changed since dumb and dumber took over,and they are shocked.

I think the best thing we can do is to keep talking to the public and get the message through.

[coppertop]

It is as hard as you want it to be Ican understand that people do struggle , but I just go in do my bit then go home . Not interested in internal politics of any sort . I will not help out at all cos they just take advantage of you and yes it is a lot harder for leave reserves going from job to job, and from this point I think these bloody sequencing machines would help a little.

[wolfie citizen smith]

Stress is a strange thing and reading all your threads suggests (even though i'm no doctor) that there are a lot of posties unknowingly suffering from it on a daily basis.
Just remember you all have a start and finish time, within that time
Nearly all are required to sort mail on a daily basis, how long that takes is upto how much volume of arrivals come into the unit daily.
All are required to prep there mail on a daily basis, how long that takes is upto how much volume of mail each individual round has (there is no agreement on prep time).
All are required to deliver upto 3 D2D items per week at 20% per day (use the working day to fold 20% into the prep frame).
All are given 40 minutes meal relief (i strongly recommend this is used)
All are required to pack there pouch's (1st bag max 16 kg) this does not mean it has to be 16 kg (remember less is best) and include your water proofs as part of the weight and priority services.
Put all remaining pouches out for the drivers to (a) either put in your box(s) or (b) bag meets. Remember to label bags daily as the volume of mail will differ daily so your bag meeting points will change, also remember take old label off as too many labels could confuse the drivers.
All who use cylces are required to perform a daily safety check (i strongly recommend all do this)
Once this is all done you may then be able to determing if you will be able to complete the delivery, if not explain this to your manager and inform them that you will of cause try though.
Nearly all are reqiured to cycle out to there round with there (1st bag only) remember your health 'n' safety is the most important thing to you and your families.
Start your delivery taking heed of last H&S statement.
If a toilet break is required while on delivery, use the designated agreed place (if reserve check walk log)
If unable to finish return to the unit and explain in a rational manner.
If you then get a hostile approuch from your manager. Use the grievance procedure or bullying & harassment procedure.

To answer the original thread of how hard is your job, the answer is simple (very). My reason why is because everything we do is time consumming.

[stokes11eg]

Stress is a strange thing and reading all your threads suggests (even though i'm no doctor) that there are a lot of posties unknowingly suffering from it on a daily basis.
Just remember you all have a start and finish time, within that time
Nearly all are required to sort mail on a daily basis, how long that takes is upto how much volume of arrivals come into the unit daily.
All are required to prep there mail on a daily basis, how long that takes is upto how much volume of mail each individual round has (there is no agreement on prep time).
All are required to deliver upto 3 D2D items per week at 20% per day (use the working day to fold 20% into the prep frame).
All are given 40 minutes meal relief (i strongly recommend this is used)
All are required to pack there pouch's (1st bag max 16 kg) this does not mean it has to be 16 kg (remember less is best) and include your water proofs as part of the weight and priority services.
Put all remaining pouches out for the drivers to (a) either put in your box(s) or (b) bag meets. Remember to label bags daily as the volume of mail will differ daily so your bag meeting points will change, also remember take old label off as too many labels could confuse the drivers.
All who use cylces are required to perform a daily safety check (i strongly recommend all do this) The job was always HARD, but in the past it was enjoyable, and, mostly acheivable,even the bad days had a certain challenge to them, and you felt it was a job well done. now of course. we are expected to do the impossible at all times,and then some more.
Stress of course makes everything seem so much harder.I bet you 99% of posties would be assessed as clinically depressed.

it was a job well done. now of course, we are wxpected to do the impossible at all times, work in
Once this is all done you may then be able to determing if you will be able to complete the delivery, if not explain this to your manager and inform them that you will of cause try though.
Nearly all are reqiured to cycle out to there round with there (1st bag only) remember your health 'n' safety is the most important thing to you and your families.
Start your delivery taking heed of last H&S statement.
If a toilet break is required while on delivery, use the designated agreed place (if reserve check walk log)
If unable to finish return to the unit and explain in a rational manner.
If you then get a hostile approuch from your manager. Use the grievance procedure or bullying & harassment procedure.

To answer the original thread of how hard is your job, the answer is simple (very). My reason why is because everything we do is time consumming.

[uprising95]

its far from easy were i come from
it used to be lol

i wouldn't carry any bags
we got them horrible trolleys that always collapse
you must have them the blue things with rock solid tyres

[TeeferTiger]

I often get asked by people on the other side of the street if they can have their mail. Obviously the answer is no but when I tell them it is in another bag they don't understand.

I also worked in the locker for a week and one woman came in asking if I her letter had come, "it was in a brown envelope". The total lack of quantity is amazing and it's no wonder people think we do an easy job.

But, on the other hand I think it is an easy job. That doesn't mean it only deserves £1 per hour but that you can teach someone most of it in a day. They would make many mistakes and take twice as long but to define, it is a 'simple' job. I find the hardest bit is keeping concentration between houses and not delivering mail into an address you should have missed out.

I had a guy on the phone asking if I'd seen a letter for him as it had been posted last week first class and still hadn't arrived.

I tried to point out to him that we have approx 92k items come in every day and if his letter wasn't sent tracked, how does he expect me to find it? (Not my exact words but you get the gist). He said he wasn't interested in how many items we have in, he just wanted to know where his letter was. Eejit.

[NWpostie]

It is as hard as you want it to be Ican understand that people do struggle , but I just go in do my bit then go home . Not interested in internal politics of any sort . I will not help out at all cos they just take advantage of you and yes it is a lot harder for leave reserves going from job to job, and from this point I think these bloody sequencing machines would help a little

I think so too ! the many times that I have come in on a missort run, I see posties with bags loaded and leaving the Offices at 8am using their cars, when the official departure time is 8.30am or til last letter is sorted, this could only have been done by arriving at 5am instead of 6am official start time and coming back at 11am 12 pm finished and done off home, no wonder the Management wanted 10% saving from our Unit.

Rod, Back, Make comes to mind

With Walk sequencing machines, it would be pointless coming in early as there is no mail to sort until the van comes in with the trays, your start time should coincide withe the Van arriving, tray off and box it, bag up and leave Office, only then you can accurately measure Workload and times.

So I am in favour of these walk sequencing machines, apprarently its all proven technology and is used in USA,Canada and some Europeean Countries.


I remember staying in a Hostel in USA which happens to look back onto a US post Delivery Office, they are doing just that, unloading trayed boxes of letter, all dropped off the back of a long trailer with these big super HGV trucks, probably the way to go here, as one Postie said to me, compared to them our working practice is considered archiac.