I think I'm done.

[dvbuk55]

female postie,it's a pity you can't put this in a letter and send it to our propaganda rag the courier,but what's the betting it would never be printed

I would if I thought it would do any good. But as you say they wouldn't print it. I wonder if the cwu paper would? Who knows?

Royal Mail know what is going on, they just turn a sly blind eye to it as it suits their purposes at this time.

I know new starts are seen as lazy and work shy, but I was not one of them. I worked hard in my hours but wouldn't generally go over my time (did twice thats all). If Royal Mail wanted to stop the high level of turnover of staff and save themselves a fortune in recruitment etc... Then deal with the problem in DO's indoor element.

Well femalepostie you could email bobgibson who is supposedly heading up the bullying and harassment talks that are supposed to be ongoing - if people are leaving and particularly female posties through work related problems then that is an issue that needs to be addressed.

[cyberheater]

Honestly. I blame the union. They've had years to sort this out and protect our rights but are corrupt themselves. Every delivery office I've ever worked has the union rep on the easiest duties. As long as they have the cushy duties, they don't give a damn. Especially to part timers.

I don't necessarily blame the union for management failings but i do think if the union is genuinely serious about proper representation throughout the structure the days of leaving offices to get on with it should be behind us.

It's far too easy for a manager to blunt the effectiveness of a local rep by undermining their position,removing them from the day to day difficulties of the job is the simplest.

Local democracy can be flawed,part-timers as the minority in an office have very little say,their problems seen as minor,the same for reserves,some reps look after a hardcore of their mates and no-one wants to stand against them.

Accountability from above is non-existent,visits from Area Reps are rare in most offices,above Area Rep is unheard of outside of Branch Offices in too many cases.
It isn't anywhere near good enough to be honest.

Good post Fishtank.

The problem is that the union has allowed management to get away with it and contributed wholesale to developing a culture where management believe they can get away with almost anything.

Sadly. It's a situation that I firmly believe will only get worse. We work in a progressively toxic environment driven by unrealistic targets and management that are too weak to tell the higher ups that the goals are unachievable.

[Bag of d2d]

You may find it quite cathartic femalepostie and you could be doing us poor sods remaining a favour. Email bgibson@cwu.org
Good luck for the future.

[Lincox]

Yes, letter to Bob, and cc to Moya asking her to enter the article in My Royal Mail.

[thefemalepostie]

What I think I will do is give notice tomorrow, see out my last week by keeping my head down as there is bound to be more backlash from managers when I give my letter in.

Then next Sunday sit down and email the cwu and justsayit, and see if I get any response. I will be factual and to the point and take the emotion out of it (thats why I will wait till I have left as feel too emotional at how I have been treated to do it now).

Others already working, and new starts shouldn't have to put up with this sort of behaviour and lies from management.

[TheCobra]

femalepostie, sad to hear of you leaving, I agree with all that you have wrote. It seems nothing new to me, I very nearly left myself at around the same point as you. What seems so sad is that nobody in the Royal Mail management appears to care.

It seems that high turnover is just accepted as 'the nature of this business', rather than listen to people's reasons and try to improve things. Agree totally what you said about they need a good sized handbook for new starters that details everything you need to know, the training is piss poor.

The way they take advantage of new starters seems to be seen as something of a running joke with the old-timers. The thing is, when you are new, your body is still adapting to all the physical demands of the job, so the last thing you need is management bullying you into working your only day-off, which is the only day you get (other than Sunday) to recover physically from the rigours of the job.

Overall it just seems that the attitude of Royal Mail towards its people is stuck somewhere in the 70s, I have had a few different jobs, previously worked in a major bookmaker company, bar work when i was at uni, office work - I have never felt as isolated as I did when I joined Royal Mail. A very hard environment to go into, a very tough physical job and no-one appears to give a s**t!

I'm only still here cos I needed the money, so literally COULDN'T walk out and with time I've settled into it and almost enjoy it now I've learnt to stick up for myself a lot more, something I wasn't prepared for after being treated much more like a respectable human-being at all my previous jobs.

[Bag of d2d]

What I think I will do is give notice tomorrow, see out my last week by keeping my head down as there is bound to be more backlash from managers when I give my letter in.

Then next Sunday sit down and email the cwu and justsayit, and see if I get any response. I will be factual and to the point and take the emotion out of it (thats why I will wait till I have left as feel too emotional at how I have been treated to do it now).

Others already working, and new starts shouldn't have to put up with this sort of behaviour and lies from management.

Yeah go kick ass! The problem with most people I work with is that they moan and groan but ultimately bow their heads and just accept the pain. I refuse to do similar. I've taken out grievances and emailed justsayit and bob. Individually we may be weak but if enough of us do 'kick up' and refuse to be treated like crap then RM cannot ignore all of us.

[worktotime]

Well it is a sad tale sure enough but it is equally true that people have a romantic notion of what being a postperson involves and that sometimes the actualite doesn't live up to the expectation of the new employee and that this is a fast paced workplace with pressure and that just doesn't do for everyone. Oddly enough though the last three new people to leave our office have all been women and the last 5 employed have all been men - make of that what you will.

It wasn't the actual job (I actually enjoyed being out and about) and the pressure is nothing compared to previous jobs. It's all the superfluous crap that came with it from managers. There is no need for the way they treat people. If the training was actually done properly and you were shown how to do things in and out of the office properly it would be better. Managers only tell you what they want you to know and do. If it hadn't been for this site I would of been shafted so many times!

As for women leaving and men staying. My theory (and its only a theory) would be that most women take the part time hours to fit in with kids for extra household money (hubby being main earner). They don't want to put up with the daily shafting and bullying for anything so leave. Men who take on the job normally are the full time earner (so will do all the overtime to make up to full time hours). This is just my opinion so don't blast me for it, but it is certainly true of the postwoman at my DO.

good luck in what you do and to behonest 9yrs on the job and it gets worse every year and the cwu no what is happening in delivery and do nothing to support members , we start (SUMMER WALK COLLAPSEING THIS WEEK BY THE WAY agreed by the area rep by the way ) 2nd week in jan till nov and the amount of b&h inside offices to get it done by the doms by the way most are failed postmen who can not do the job anymore.

[ewancurze]

We have been doing "summer lapsing" since the 27th Dec..a couple of walks in our office are made to take there lapsing every day even though the management know they have not time to complete,the result is that it is returned every day,in some cases the public that live on those lapsed walk go 2/3 days with no mail then get 2 deliverys in a day when a manager finally takes it out..
This surely is not the way forward...

[comeracing]

Our new starts have no idea of putting in overtime,meal breaks etc it's shocking some are scared to put in any overtime ,and most come in hours before there time because of pressure they feel.

So true. In my experience some DOMs are simply corrupt. They tell you nothing that is not in their interest. It's all about budgets and protecting their precious bonus. You start on a short term contract so feel vulnerable if you ask too many awkward questions about entitlements. I too was shocked by the way delivery staff are treated by management in general. I was treated with more respect and was bullied less when I was at school in the 70s. Worst company I have worked for.

all about budgets and protecting ther over inflated bonus how correct and true....

[krussel]

Femalepostie you can hold your head very HIGH and say that you gave it a good go. Ultimately you started at the worse possible time of the year being so near Christmas. I am afraid it is very much a sink or swim environment within RM these days and new recruits get the worse of it. Other staff are sometimes too busy or under pressure to offer much help. There are far easier ways to earn some extra pennies than slogging the streets and taking all the crap that poor trained managers chuck at you.

I wish you well and ask you to only remember the experience next time a friend or relative is slagging off their postie just because there mail arrived a little late, you can tell them how it REALLY is.

Keep smiling.

Kruss.

[Labdog99]

Maybe just print this whole thread and send it to a Newspaper and copy in Moya.

Just a though.

Will "threads" print ?

[Beaker54]

Femalepostie you need to forward /email your grievances to Moya you have nothing to loose I and many others
totally agree with you this company is now run by complete morons who have no idea what the job entails. All
the rounds in our office are one massive slog and gradually the older ones are leaving and the more gullable and easilty influenced younger staff are make to rush round like idiots.

[SpacePhoenix]

Maybe just print this whole thread and send it to a Newspaper and copy in Moya.

Just a though.

Will "threads" print ?

Any thread can be printed, click on the printer icon just to the left of where it says "RULES" and that will bring up a "printer-friendly" version of that page of a thread, just repeat for each page of a thread that you want to print.

[WornOutPosty]

Can't we get a thread going where each person who has been bullied or harassed posts 1 post in it containing what happened and then send the whole lot off to all the big wigs / newspapers? It might get us heard for a change.