Revolting reserves!

[arnold cheshire]

reserves get good rurals in our office

[Judgee]

In our place most walk holders are sympathetic to the cr@p modern reserves have to put up with but a few just give it the "Well we've all been there and done it" line but was being a reserve in the good old days as bad as it in the modern postal world ?

Yes it was you were still pushed from pillar to post. Rounds were in general smaller on average but with the old sorting frames you really had little to go on when it came to bagging up. There was also no such thing as walk sequenced mail so throwing a walk up was a bitch and you also rarely got to have Saturdays off! No such thing as trolleys to take the weight of your backs unless you had a town duty and if you needed parcels done you had to beg a driver to take them for you and they weren't keen on helping a reserve. so you ended up walking around in circles with over loaded bags trying work out what went where.

The problems change but being a reserve has and always will be shittier than being on a permanent duty.

But as many point out, "we've all been there and done it" and we all had our turn at putting up with the crap so do your time an stop beating!

[Creditshampoo]

If you don't like the job leave.

Having worked in the real world I appreciate the job.

I have a rolling day off but can change it if I wish. If your manager doesn't let you stand up for yourself, if you're a doormat expect to be walked on

[arnold cheshire]

In our place most walk holders are sympathetic to the cr@p modern reserves have to put up with but a few just give it the "Well we've all been there and done it" line but was being a reserve in the good old days as bad as it in the modern postal world ?

Yes it was you were still pushed from pillar to post. Rounds were in general smaller on average but with the old sorting frames you really had little to go on when it came to bagging up. There was also no such thing as walk sequenced mail and you also rarely got to have Saturdays off! No such thing as trolleys to take the weight of your backs unless you had a town duty and if you needed parcels done you had to beg a driver to take them for you. For those that hate an early start we all started an hour earlier too!

The problems change but being a reserve has and always will be shittier than being on a permanent duty.

But as many point out, "we've all been there and done it" and we all had our turn at putting up with the crap so do your time an stop beating!

there were only one box on a light day two on an heavy day in 1994

[Judgee]

there were only one box on a light day two on an heavy day in 1994

Was 1994 the only time being referred too?

[arnold cheshire]

there were only one box on a light day two on an heavy day in 1994

Was 1994 the only time being referred too?

or even 2000 i dont htink any date was being referred too

[Judgee]

Well I was around at the turn of the century and I'm not sure what office you worked in but in mine a heavy day was 20 bundles which in boxes equates to around 4 to 5 boxes of mech. Which is more than todays rounds but without the truck load of parcels! Wish I'd worked at your office!

[POSTMAN]

Personally not a big fan of the, well I was s**t on so it's your turn brigade,in my day...and all that bollox.Which is why I stated the thread as there is a shed load of it going on.
I'm all for fairness in the workplace,like my office which is fair on the reserves who are our colleagues funny enough and like I said (if applicable) you reps and duty holders should be ashamed of yourselves for letting it go on.

[jogga]

Bout time you reserves started to revolt against the way you are treated,and you reps and duty holders (if applicable)should be ashamed of yourselves for letting it go on.

Couldn't agree more, I'm treated like a second class citizen in my office, dumped from pillar to post, not knowing what walk I'm doing from one day to the next. We're not even allowed to have a Saturday off.

[Judgee]

Personally not a big fan of the, well I was s**t on so it's your turn brigade,in my day...and all that bollox.Which is why I stated the thread as there is a shed load of it going on.
I'm all for fairness in the workplace,like my office which is fair on the reserves who are our colleagues funny enough and like I said (if applicable) you reps and duty holders should be ashamed of yourselves for letting it go on.

So duty holders should be sh@t on again?

Saturdays should be evenly distributed definitely. But as for being moved from pillar to post well someone has to do it, there will always be walks needing to be covered so why is it wrong to let the new guys have their turn?

[arnold cheshire]

Bout time you reserves started to revolt against the way you are treated,and you reps and duty holders (if applicable)should be ashamed of yourselves for letting it go on.

Couldn't agree more, I'm treated like a second class citizen in my office, dumped from pillar to post, not knowing what walk I'm doing from one day to the next. We're not even allowed to have a Saturday off.

everyone in our office knows what wallington weeks they can take off even reserves maybe this is the way forward for reserves

[chrisj]

Personally not a big fan of the, well I was s**t on so it's your turn brigade,in my day...and all that bollox.Which is why I stated the thread as there is a shed load of it going on.
I'm all for fairness in the workplace,like my office which is fair on the reserves who are our colleagues funny enough and like I said (if applicable) you reps and duty holders should be ashamed of yourselves for letting it go on.

I know all offices are not the same and all that... However, the job is a whole lot different these days. Resourcing to workload, staff shortages, longer walks and P&L makes the job of being a Reserve a lot more difficult than it used to be. That is a fact for a lot of offices.

As for the idea that one needs to work a certain amount of time to get the perks then one has to wonder what some people take from this forum. Time has changed: we now have folks of less than 3 years having walks and folks of about 10 years or more being Reserves - it is no longer a question of serving time - that only works for those that have been with RM for a very long time.

Postman, I have to admit that it is not always a bad life; some of us do not even care much about Saturdays off but it will be nice to have them (even without the following Monday) and doing different walks is not always that bad - some are good, some are bad. It is the lack of security and inability to plan (which can now be a daily issue) that is so draining. You can come and not know what you are doing until very late; if walkholders are not going to be moved then it is the Reserves that cop it - simple thing like a driver paired with a non-driver going off sick; one can easily be moved from a cushty walk to a hard one or having to work with so many different people can also be draining and requires a lot of patience and diplomacy.

Anyway, how can Reserves revolt on their own when as you can see some of our colleagues are positively (or should that be negatively) antagonistic towards Reserves.

[chrisj]

reserves get good rurals in our office

This is a strangely funny comment!

Come on! How many Rural duties do you have and how many Reserves and how often do the Reserves cover the Rural duties...

[arnold cheshire]

reserves get good rurals in our office

This is a strangely funny comment!

Come on! How many Rural duties do you have and how many Reserves and how often do the Reserves cover the Rural duties...

why is it funny ?its true they do the driving rurals about 6 to 10 years service dont have their own duties they are better off than me they get their rota week set in stone too

[trythat]

reserves get good rurals in our office

This is a strangely funny comment!

Come on! How many Rural duties do you have and how many Reserves and how often do the Reserves cover the Rural duties...

As someone else said we do wallington weeks and reserves are treated the same as duty holders, I don't understand why if you are an rota day off, why reserves don't get Saturdays and long weekends the same as duty holders, perhaps reps need to put more pressure on DOMs to get these things done.

We have quite a few rural duties and reserves do these just the same as reserves do town duties. As an office we have always done this, so perhaps all the reps just accept this as the norm and make sure new DOMs accept it as well.