Will I be sacked?

[zzeezzy]

I've been suspended today.... and manager (fill-in, he's not the office one as he's on holiday) is sending a letter out to me to arrange an interview.

Long story...short. I've been in the job 3 weeks, one day last week I had 3 specials, one of them went missing (it was a letter special delivery).. even though I was sure I attempted to deliver them all. It got found this week by someone else in a RM bag at the collection box point on my HCT route (usually spares are kept in there anyway). Obviously what had happened is I DL'd it and left it in the first bag I do from the collection point.... done the second bag in there and totally forgot about it. They checked through my trolley and found a few letters in some of my bags as well. At a guess these were either some I attempted to deliver and didn't because it was a 'no-access' or the were mis-sorted and I couldn't deliver them as I was on the wrong-street. (May sound weird but as I am still new these kind of mistakes can happen).

I've really struggled with this HCT round.... which they've kept me on for every week apart from one where I was with someone on a shared van round. (Much better).

The training week was really not very good... showed me 3 different ways over 4 days and didn't bother showing me exactly how to sort a round to the frame... which I figured out for myself after sussing out the streets. On the first day after the training week I also had an incident where I brought mail back as I couldn't handle it all and still had a big street left to do at half 4. I left it in the office without telling anyone. But that was dealt with and I got another chance,

Idk what will happen this time... any thoughts welcome. I've really struggled with this job, not really enjoyed it, some door 2 doors have been left over as well.

[clashcityrocker]

Will you be sacked? Possibly.
The Special Delivery should never have been anywhere else except with you. They shouldn't be left in any collection box point.
However as you are new to the job and if you can show your training was deficient, you may have a leg to stand on.
Arguing that this was ignorance as opposed to wilful delay might be your only defence.
Be very humble and apologetic, even if you don't mean it.

Did you join the union? Having someone experienced and better able to argue your case might save you your job.
Good luck.
Don't expect a third chance.

[chrisj]

I think they have been unduly harsh by suspending you... IMHO. You are very new and such a mistake can even be made by an established member of staff...

I can totally understand how using bag drops or swapping bags can result in a letter (Special, Sign for or missort) can be forgotten about. The fact that they found a few missorts or undeliverable in your bag is just to bolster their case; you should just explain that you forgot to endorse them...

I am a big fan of Shared Walk and I also love the FT/PT combo, obviously some do not. Shared walk provides for easy training and some sort of child-minding for new starters and it allows for greater flexibility as only one of the postie need to know the walk fully - I digress.

Having said the above, having an HCT round all to yourself is not exactly a bad thing as you do the same walk day in day out and should allow you to work at your pace and get better...

We all make mistakes but it is tough at the start... I am sorry! They will at least interview you and sanction you one way or the other but then they should provide you with more training and put you on shared walks to get learn more and get confident.

Good luck - hope for the best.

[zzeezzy]

Will you be sacked? Possibly.
The Special Delivery should never have been anywhere else except with you. They shouldn't be left in any collection box point.
However as you are new to the job and if you can show your training was deficient, you may have a leg to stand on.
Arguing that this was ignorance as opposed to wilful delay might be your only defence.
Be very humble and apologetic, even if you don't mean it.

Did you join the union? Having someone experienced and better able to argue your case might save you your job.
Good luck.
Don't expect a third chance.

I never got told in the training I had to keep the special's with me all the time... even when I'm doing multiple bags from the collection point. I done the first part of the crescent (first bag in the collection point... the special delivery was in that one. Then came back to get the second bag and do the second half of the crescent, once I'd done that obviously forgot about it and continued along with the trolley to do the rest of the round).

[osgoody1970]

isn't this typical of royal mail and their training process, not fit for purpose, I've argued this many times, it's obvious this person needs more training, i'm sick of managers who wouldn't know one end of a walk from another suspending people when something goes wrong, get your cwu rep involved asap!!!

[zzeezzy]

I think they have been unduly harsh by suspending you... IMHO. You are very new and such a mistake can even be made by an established member of staff...

I can totally understand how using bag drops or swapping bags can result in a letter (Special, Sign for or missort) can be forgotten about. The fact that they found a few missorts or undeliverable in your bag is just to bolster their case; you should just explain that you forgot to endorse them...

I am a big fan of Shared Walk and I also love the FT/PT combo, obviously some do not. Shared walk provides for easy training and some sort of child-minding for new starters and it allows for greater flexibility as only one of the postie need to know the walk fully - I digress.

Having said the above, having an HCT round all to yourself is not exactly a bad thing as you do the same walk day in day out and should allow you to work at your pace and get better...

We all make mistakes but it is tough at the start... I am sorry! They will at least interview you and sanction you one way or the other but then they should provide you with more training and put you on shared walks to get learn more and get confident.

Good luck - hope for the best.

Thanks for the support, I think it was harsh but I think they want a reason to get rid of me to be honest because I am struggling with the job. The thing that annoys me the most is that another new-starter had a training week on a shared-van walk and then the next week continuued on a shared-van walk. What do I get? Dumped with doing one, if not the hardest HCT routes in the office without being even trained properly. Now they just keep me on it no matter what.

[chrisj]

I think you have a bastard HCT round . If you cannot get all your mail in the HCT then the round is perhaps very big and even complicated with firms and many other things to worry.

We have one in our office and almost everyone avoids that walk. Such an HCT round is only good on a saturday.

I would hazard a guess that they probably do not want to get rid of you - even if you are struggling. You have one advantage - we are getting close to Christmas and with the possibility of a strike looming, I do no think they will want to get rid of someone already in the job.

Well, Union representation or responsible adult (mentor or work place coach), humility, acceptance, training and positivity. And a share-walk will also do nicely...

[FinishOnTime]

Why would a manager not just put a new starter on a shared van delivery? Why do they have to always make life difficult for people? Sometimes I think they like these things to happen cos it gives them something to do. A few forms to fill in to break the monotony of drinking coffee and talking s**t.

[clashcityrocker]

Rather bizarre arguments.
On the one hand virtually every other thread is about how park and loop doesn't work but now every newstart should be trained on one?
A few years back it wasn't even an option and now it is a necessity?

Once he had "lost" the Special Delivery, he became a possible threat to the security of the mail.
Any manager who didn't precautionary suspend him was putting his own job on the line if he let it go, and it happened again.
They don't do that for us.

[Theghost]

Its plain to see proper Training has not been given here,The way the job is now,With so much to do and remember,A full week of training should be given on delivery,Not 3 days as in most offices.

[FinishOnTime]

Shared vans have their drawbacks, and no doubt work better in some offices than in others. But I would have thought one of the positives anywhere is that they provide an ideal training environment. If I was with a new person in a van for instance, I wouldn't let them anywhere near the Specials. Because a) the training appears to be crap and I wouldn't expect a newbie to realise how important they are and b) you're just cutting down on the risks.

Gaffers generally don't give a monkeys about these things though as long as there's a name next to the duty. Unless something goes wrong of course.

[zzeezzy]

Rather bizarre arguments.
On the one hand virtually every other thread is about how park and loop doesn't work but now every newstart should be trained on one?
A few years back it wasn't even an option and now it is a necessity?

Once he had "lost" the Special Delivery, he became a possible threat to the security of the mail.
Any manager who didn't precautionary suspend him was putting his own job on the line if he let it go, and it happened again.
They don't do that for us.

Why didn't they suspend me last week then when it went missing rather than today when it had been found? The docit was left... it has mistakenly been left in the collecion box... but isn't that still classed as being 'safe'?

[chrisj]

mate, do not get too down with comments here - they are entitled to an opinion. You can do some research about people losing specials - I would not have thought it was not an automatic suspension.

I think bringing the bags back and not telling anyone must have been part of the whole issue, Like you said, they might think you are not up to the job - so it might not just be for the special.

However, I disagree because they should try with you, give you better training and time to get better or at least prove that you are perhaps not good enough.

Then it is quite possible that some of your trainers or others might have briefed against you.

Try not to worry too much.

[fishtank]

How do you train a newstart on Park&Loop when the vast majority of our vans only have two seats.
Are we talking about "There's your mail now off you pop" training?

[bedrock]

if i think i know who you are acacia crescent have a private chat with me and we,ll try and sort something out