Clocking in and out???

[chrisj]

How can a part-timers go home an hour early? I do understand that you are not in P&P yet. However, if the part-timers arrive at the time they are supposed to arrive, do their D2D on the same day, prep, bag up and deliver; they cannot have that many minutes left.

Most of the 24 hours guys in my office come in from induction thinking all they have to do is bag up but that never happens: at least there is some missorts do, packets to prep, kill offs and redirections to do and that is if they are lucky that almost all the work has been thrown for them. The 30 hours runner can save minutes and light days might result in saving time but that goes for the FT staff as well.

Part-timers on 30 hours will do either a 5.30, 6 or 6.30-hour day and they are entitled to 30 minutes break. So where is the time to finish an hour early unless you have an office with less than 3.30 hours delivery span or you folks do not get much mail.

The other issue is that perhaps some of your drivers are quite nice or generous. There are some drivers that will not take multiple packets as long as each packet is less than the allowed size and possibly weight.

I work in an office with at 2 official rural duties: the folks rarely ever complain or go over; regardless... We are now in P&L and all postmen take their own packets and the rurals don't get much more than anyone else. The only addition is that some of them have to deliver more letters and of course, there is the rural side but some of the rural properties don't even get mail for more than 3 days in the week.

[fishtank]

How can a part-timers go home an hour early?.

If there is one thing that's constant in Royal Mail it's that no two offices are the same.
Part-timers might finish first in one office depending on how things are done there and in another the full-timers might.
In my office part-timers work full days so some might finish early depending on the delivery but most don't because most of the office doesn't,the part-timers are usually paired with full-timers anyway.
Rurals finish at the same time as town walks because although they have longer deliveries they have less indoor work and leave earlier.

[bigcol]

How can a part-timers go home an hour early?.

Wrong question. The right question is how can FTs go home 2 hours early.



There is a huge variation in the time it takes for my walk. One day it can take 2 hours, the next 4 hours. If there is nothing to do when you get back to the office, you go home.

[chrisj]

I am sorry bigcool, we must be doing different jobs.

Again, how can there be 2 hours difference in delivery times on the same round. If you took a 1/6 of your d2d, that is about 1/6 of your normal time. And surely, you have to walk round even if there is no mail to deliver for some properties.

Are you seriously saying that in some days you can have a 50% call rate?

It goes to show that some office need to modernise and be more efficient. There should never be a situation where you get a free 2 hours and I find it hard to believe that some offices have part-timers regularly getting at least 5 hours pay for nothing every week... Not in my office.

BTW, early finish time does not always mean that the postie has not worked his hours (FT or PT). We have serious problems with bullying managers deliberately not comparing like with like. X finishes on time, so what is Y's problem? despite the fact that X comes in at least 45-60 minutes early. Some people in my office has refused to acknowledge the later start times and yet they want to claim OT over contractual hours; but managers says NO!

IPS is the diference btw PT and FT and time spent on IPS does vary and some FT regularly abscond from sorting on the IPS and they make a real mess of things by chucking things everywhere...

[Pinky 1]

Anyway, if i could come back onto topic for a moment, when i started here our DO had a clocking-in machine and card racks on the wall near the entry door.
They were no longer being used, but we must have had them at some time. By the way, i'm an old fart

[bigcol]

I am sorry bigcool, we must be doing different jobs.

Again, how can there be 2 hours difference in delivery times on the same round. If you took a 1/6 of your d2d, that is about 1/6 of your normal time. And surely, you have to walk round even if there is no mail to deliver for some properties.

Are you seriously saying that in some days you can have a 50% call rate?

One day a loop will require a trolley with two bags, the next I'll have one bundle. No trolley means I can walk along the path along the front of the houses, that's one third the distance.

One day I'll have 3 packet bags and 3 trays of sequence, the next a half of each.

One day I'll have a quarter mile round trip up a lane to the house, next they'll have no mail.

Huge variation is possible.

[S6 Stroller]

Well someone clocking for someone else will automatically be gross misconduct and a fraudulent act.

I am for clocking in and out = totally. It can even be done through the PDA - everyone will have a dedicated PDA with the ability to clock in and out. And it must be docked at the end of the shift.

People coming in early are the scourge of the job!

I would be totally in favour of clocking in and out machines. End of. As for people clocking out for colleagues, let them. They'll get caught out pretty quickly and be fired. Tough.

The reason I highlighted the last bit is that people saying this gets on my f*cking nerves. A lot of people come in early so they can enjoy their indoor work and not be rushing round like bloody idiots. It doesn't mean I leave any earlier. It's my choice. I don't do any more work through coming in early and I don't save RM any money by coming in early. You should change your statement to 'People getting out early are the scourge of the job!'

[Lincox]

You have made a case for not coming in early. Nobody should have to rush around doing indoor work in order to get out on time. This signifies that the workload is too heavy and by coming in early to make sure you are not rushing around only assists managers who bully individuals who do come in at the correct time but are unable to get out and complete within duty hours.

[S6 Stroller]

You have made a case for not coming in early. Nobody should have to rush around doing indoor work in order to get out on time. This signifies that the workload is too heavy and by coming in early to make sure you are not rushing around only assists managers who bully individuals who do come in at the correct time but are unable to get out and complete within duty hours.

Did I say the workload is too heavy? Nope. Did I say that people rush to get out on time? Yes. That doesn't follow the workload is too heavy, it means we work in a pressurised environment where a certain amount of rushing is par for the course. If I choose to come in early to ease that pressure and give myself time to go for another cig or a coffee etc that's up to me. It has no bearing on anybody else's work habits or performance. Certain people go over, certain people never do. Duty size, stride length, attitude, competence and physical fitness all play a part in whether someone goes over their hours. Those factors are far more likely to lead to them being 'bullied' by a manager than the fact that I come in 15 mins early and occasionally smile. F*ck's sake.

[clashcityrocker]

It has no bearing on anybody else's work habits or performance.
.. than the fact that I come in 15 mins early and occasionally smile. F*ck's sake.

Yes it does have a bearing on everyone else's work habits and performance.
You occasionally smile. Your manager smiles a whole lot more.
For every four early starters like you,he gets 1 hour of free work.
This makes your office look more efficient than it is.
Having an unrealistic baseline makes for an unrealistic revision.
That affects everyone in your office.

[S6 Stroller]

It has no bearing on anybody else's work habits or performance.
.. than the fact that I come in 15 mins early and occasionally smile. F*ck's sake.

Yes it does have a bearing on everyone else's work habits and performance.
You occasionally smile. Your manager smiles a whole lot more.
For every four early starters like you,he gets 1 hour of free work.
This makes your office look more efficient than it is.
Having an unrealistic baseline makes for an unrealistic revision.
That affects everyone in your office.

With respect, I can only think you are being deliberately obtuse. I'm not doing any more work than I'm supposed to. I don't leave the office any earlier than I would do if I came in on time, therefore I don't finish any earlier. All they are getting out of me is my presence on the premises for 15 mins longer, which helps me enjoy the job more. I win. Maybe Royal Mail do too because they have a happy member of staff. Stop trying to make my position something that it isn't. I know the people you are talking about and that isn't me.

[clashcityrocker]

So you do 15 minutes free work every day?
28 people like you = 1 full time job.
You know the people I am talking about? It's people like you.
One of us is obtuse. And it isn't me.

[Lincox]

A happy member of staff that occasionally smiles

[chrisj]

I am sorry to say that it is not about enjoying your job more. It is actually about competency! In effect, you are not competent to do the job in the allocated time...

The problem is that managers do not always compare like with like. If someone covers your duty and then struggles, the manager will simply say that 'you' can do the job and finishes in time so why cant the other. But you are spending more time doing the job...

I have had such an issue for the last 3 weeks. I am covering for a full-time staff that comes in really early. And I want to come in on my time and I just cannot get the job done on most days because it is a slightly larger round and this full-time staff does not even do IPS but preps just a little bit for his partner who also comes in really early.

I now get rushed by his partner and managers just for wanting to do my time. The manager has conveniently forgotten that as a Reserve, I do most round in the office and I only have issues with just about 3 of them because of the set-up FT/larger round.

Do your time!

[suz67]

So you do 15 minutes free work every day?
28 people like you = 1 full time job.
You know the people I am talking about? It's people like you.
One of us is obtuse. And it isn't me.

oh so very very true