lisa8739 wrote:im full time and sometimes look around and think is the extra work really worth it ,is the grass greener ??????
I'm quite lucky whereby I can afford to work my 25 hours without worrying about money. I would say that if you're the same then part time is better (in my opinion). I can come in and have my round prepped for me if I want or if I fancy a bit of overtime I can do it myself.
It is nice to come in and do some prepping and so on but it's also nice to turn up, tie up and get out, having as little to do with the managers / bullies as possible. It all comes down to circumstance but I wouldn't go full time myself - I let someone else do the extra.
I'm part time on 20 hours. I like the job itself (even though we get booted around all over the place in the office and no week is the same), but the contract is s**t because I'm over three years service now with no sign of full time, yet I am working over 40 hours a week when in work and happy to do so. Come the rest week or holidays its take home pay of £180 which is ridiculous, the part time contract in my case is not a genuine one in reality.
I'm one who needs a 'good week' of money for the family cost of living, and feel very aggrieved that the contract when I joined RM is being used now as a tool in my case (and others) to keep costs down, the '20 hours' thing bears no relation to what is happening on the ground and 20 hours jobs don't exist. The office would probably fall apart if we stuck to our 20 hours, but I know what some might reply at this point!
redneck wrote:I'm part time on 20 hours. I like the job itself (even though we get booted around all over the place in the office and no week is the same), but the contract is s**t because I'm over three years service now with no sign of full time, yet I am working over 40 hours a week when in work and happy to do so. Come the rest week or holidays its take home pay of £180 which is ridiculous, the part time contract in my case is not a genuine one in reality.
I'm one who needs a 'good week' of money for the family cost of living, and feel very aggrieved that the contract when I joined RM is being used now as a tool in my case (and others) to keep costs down, the '20 hours' thing bears no relation to what is happening on the ground and 20 hours jobs don't exist. The office would probably fall apart if we stuck to our 20 hours, but I know what some might reply at this point!
I agree with what you're saying, what it needs is a co-ordinated response from workers and the union.
If the majority of people said no to the overtime, then they would be stuffed, they'd need more workers or to give out some better contracts with more guaranteed hours. The union really needs to fight this one and get more people on permananet half-decent contracts. Even 28-30 hours would be a massive help to a lot of people.
The problem is that RM have divided and ruled the workforce up well with the P/T - F/T mix, our interests are quite often different even though we mostly do the same job. I'm in the union, and our rep is not useless, but he has to satisfy a workforce on various contracts which is difficult. Localised action has to be co-ordinated through the union, but there is no sign of the union rep encouraging this as a next step. The status quo remains.
All the bosses would need to do is use more temporary contact peeps to cover the shortfall. It's a more likely scenario than peeps being made up to full time, and the temp guys know they're more readily 'disposable' if they don't take all the crap the boss dishes out. Win/win for the boss. Or am I missing something glaringly obvious?
I would not mind betting that many more post- delivery methods full time staff would be more willing to reduce their hours by a day and let eager part timers get an increase in their contracts to an extra day, in as much as the job is like Xmas everyday now and it wears us all down.
Pre revision I did a 5-day week with just 4.5 hours contracted per day, often extended to 6 or so with o/t, sometimes it was a slog but by and large it was doable. Post revision I do a 3-day week with 7.5 hour contracted days, but by the time I've dragged myself round to the finish with o/t I'm done for and have no great desire to work an extra day for more pay... I'd rather find another PT job for extra pay/hours than work more hours in a job I hate these days.
Speaking to posties in our DO many p/t staff have stayed p/t by choice. The tax credits they receive convince them to work only their 25 hours, to work any more would have no financial benefit. The tax credits they receive due to their personal situation effectively gives them a full-time wage.
"Everybody has a plan.. until they get punched in the face" - Mike Tyson
