Struggling. Feel like I'm getting shafted , opinions? :(

[Queeg500]

Two of us have been placed on what I would describe as support duties over xmas, the other guy does 4 walks of large parcels. My duty involves 3 walks of parcels, collections from boxes and POs as well as dropping at city's central depot, then large regs or regs any HCT walk can't make, I do all the HCT drop boxes and sometimes an additional walk - so I can be doing 4 walks plus all my other stuff. We share a van on an ealries/lates basis and are both contracted for 5 hours. I do the early shift 7-12, he does 12-5.

I do the late as overtime on my counterparts day off and it takes me 1:45! on a Tuesday to complete his parcels (and that's not rushing) My duty takes 5 hours or more on a Tuesday... Obviously the way we work is not balanced as the late guy is sometimes finishing over 3 hours early and I'm regularly booking overtime. As we share the same van, when I'm late back the late guy sits there doing nothing until I'm finished (although he's been using his own car to do stuff recently).

I spoke to the manager about it today after going 1.5 hours over again, he told me that both duties are balanced and fair, I told him it takes me 2 hours (I was being generous) to do the late walk, I pointed out the OT I had booked recently and that the late shift had booked no OT, his response was 'well I've given him half of an extra walk today, you can ask him to do the rest of yours if you want' - nice palm off, great management. I asked the late guy how he felt about the balance of the workload and he said he thought it was fair, despite him regularly leaving 2-3 hours early, he declined to do extras I had left, hence me booking 1.5 hours overtime again.

Just seems completely stupid and a senseless waste of resources when I'm booking regular OT and hes finishing hours early or sitting there idle. Problem is the manager insists the duties are fair, the late guy obviously likes his easy number and is angling so as not to get any additional work - to be fair to him tho he doesn't see what I have to do every day and perhaps assumes I'm being lazy - hence the need for a manager to properly reassess the 2 duties.

Thinking of speaking to the union rep about it on Monday, either that or just taking my breaks and sticking to the speed limits, taking my own sweet time and counting all that overtime on payday... or maybe even just cutting off when I need to.... I'm done with feeling pressured into risking getting caught speeding and skipping my break when the extra capacity I'm struggling with could be reasonably processed by somebody else within their contracted hours.

[krussel]

Sadly this goes on all the time. I used to be out working till 1.30pm every sat on a rural when the guy working a few roads away used to be going back at 9.45am.

It drove me nuts, I complained to managers and CWU and I never got it balanced. That's one thing the revision fixed I guess as we are all screwed now.

Yes speak to your rep and say your no longer prepared to work extra. Finish on time and go home leaving the manager to sort it out.

[dvbuk55]

Just work to your time, either he does the excess or they get someone else to do it.

[Queeg500]

It's so frustrating isn't it?! It's always kind of implied that the reason you are late is that you're slow or inefficient too. I've only been with the company 11 months (so I'm ignorant of anything pre-revision) and I've never had anything other than a couple minor problems that I've sorted myself, I just kept my head down and got on with things.

Will definitely speak to my rep next week, knowing him I fully expect him to repeat the above advice

Not sure why I was so naive, I know full well what people are like in the workplace but I thought either the manager would find it in the companies interest to balance things out or my colleague, who I actually like as a person and have always got along well with, would have had the decency to admit he was finishing so early and take some of the extra work on.

I really don't mind the extra overtime but I'm absolutely done with trying in vain to get the van back for 12, I'll run it by my rep but I'm thinking will just do things by the book 100%... the second anyone moans about me coming back late or booking OT I will just cut off every day from then.

[Queeg500]

Just work to your time, either he does the excess or they get someone else to do it.

Logistically speaking, there is no way my manager could do extra parcels when he's busy watching movies on his laptop.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

what the other guy has in his duty or how long it takes him is not really much of your concern, you should not be comparing your duty to his or be asking for work to be taken off yours and added to his duty, your not management so whether the two dutys are balanced or not is not for you to decide or to complain about HOWEVER

you do have the right to complain about your duty, and in fact would be quite right to do so, if that ended up moving some of the work to the other duty then so be it, just stick to complaining about yours and not compare it to other dutys, you need to point out that the duty cannot be completed in the time allocated and to inform the DOM of this at the earliest opportunity it becomes clear you cant complete in time each day. the you can either hoover up the over time and count the cash or cut off at the end of your contracted hours, you need to expect to be working to your time every day, a fair workload for you is one that you can complete in your contracted time thats what you should be pushing for, if someone else is finishing early thats the managers issue not yours,

[dvbuk55]

Just work to your time, either he does the excess or they get someone else to do it.

Logistically speaking, there is no way my manager could do extra parcels when he's busy watching movies on his laptop.

That's not really your concern. If the inequality is there don't feed it. Just tell the manager whilst he's watching Debbie Does Dallas IV you're finishing at 12 every day. Your colleague seems a really nice guy letting you do all the work

[eastie]

swap duties with him every other day

[krussel]

It's so frustrating isn't it?! It's always kind of implied that the reason you are late is that you're slow or inefficient too.

Years ago I was on a heavy duty and was pretty much the last out of the office every day. We used to have a yearly repick and I choose another and instantly became one of the first out.

Duties are unbalanced. its not always the number of calls but the actual call rates and packets etc. Hang in there and things will swing around one day.

[OnAFlyer]

You need to cut off. While ever you're finishing it off the work is getting done so the manager won't give a monkeys. He will when he has cut offs to deal with every day though.

[themailman]

something similar in our DO.

3 duties in the same area. 2 very hard, 1 very easy.

despite numerous complaints, nothing done to even them out.

UNTIL!

One day manager spotted the van belonging to the 'easy' duty holder parked up outside his house an hour before his finish time

[dvbuk55]

something similar in our DO.

3 duties in the same area. 2 very hard, 1 very easy.

despite numerous complaints, nothing done to even them out.

UNTIL!

One day manager spotted the van belonging to the 'easy' duty holder parked up outside his house an hour before his finish time

We had one once who would go home and park his van in his garage and close the door - he resigned before they sacked him. IMHO anybody who does that deserves to be binned.

[ted_e_bear]

We used to have a yearly repick and I choose another and instantly became one of the first out.

Duties are unbalanced. its not always the number of calls but the actual call rates and packets etc. Hang in there and things will swing around one day.

Wish we had a yearly re pick it would be an excellent way to get some movement on equalising duties - If they did it on reverse seniority every other year !

[Queeg500]

swap duties with him every other day

Funny enough the guy who does the late asked me about this several times before we started the new duty and I agreed, but of course he changed his mind... for some reason

Thanks for the replies, I'm going to see how it pans out next week. I will just work at a reasonable pace and will not be worrying about how late I come back or how long I keep the late guy waiting, or how unevenly the work is distributed, none of it is my problem. I'll just enjoy the extra money.