Prep 3 walks and double lapse. 'it's easy'

[JH7]

Hi guys, new on here and just wanted to share my new managers views.
Our office consists of 35-40 posties, 1 manager and 25 duties. For appox 2 years we have been lapsing duties. The first 12 months we lapsed 1 and ever since have lapsed 2 walks. Around 3 months ago a new manager arrived. His first SPEECH began with 'I probably won't be here for long as 'I'm too good for this position'' Great way to introduce yourself.
2 weeks later 'you will now be prepping 3 walks' A month later and after all the moaning from everyone, I'd had enough and told him I wouldn't be doing my lapsing. Generic Royal Mail Corporate speech followed. 'what time did you finish yesterday' (Tuesday, finished 20 mins early) Told him and stated we cannot physically continue to throw in 3 walks, double lapse and then do our own walks and pointed to a 60 yr guy who is really struggling. Reply 'it's easy get on with it' Which I laughed at.
I then replied with 'whats easy is sat in there (his office) and pretending that you have enough phone calls and paperwork to justify your daily hours and 40 grand a year salary AND you seem to leave early everyday' He didn't have a clue what to say back other than leave your lapsing.
We are now slowly reducing lapsing and 3 walk preps. He hasn't spoken to me since and is probably looking for me to misdeliver of make some kind of mistake. Cannot wait. The funniest thing to come out of this is, he now comes out of his office to take empty cages outside as though to make it appear he's earning his wage.
Hope I haven't bored you but just thought I would share our managers views and our daily workload. I found it quite amusing

[digitaljudge]

thats made my day, "Classic"

[pants123]

Thank you for sharing this, just another example of what they are doing to its people in delivery..

[eastie]

How does he know "its easy"
Has he done the walk. probably not
Tell him you want it walk tested
He will soon back off.
Just do the lapsing and then your own walk until an hour before your finish time and ring him up and tell him how many loops you are going to bring back.
He can't do anything until its walk tested

[sjnb6]

who does the walk testing. does this include the prep and if so over how many days is the walk tested

[Dorset Plodder]

Just do the lapsing and then your own walk until an hour before your finish time and ring him up and tell him how many loops you are going to bring back.
He can't do anything until its walk tested

Make sure you follow the correct over running procedure. You might get away with this in your Office Eastiebut it's not the correct procedure. I'm not getting Anal about it but JH7s DOM might. You're meant to tell him "as soon as possible" that you don't think you'll be able to complete your duty within the allocated time. This is normally taken as being in the office, before you go out. Then just "Ask" him what he want to do about it.

Latest develop we've had is: When you tell the DOM you won't be able to complete he asks, "How long does the duty take"? He then works backwards ..... If it takes you 5 hours 40 mins , you should finish at 14.00, I have to "Help" you to get out the door by 08.20 and then you'll be able to complete!

I asked "What happens if it's approaching my finish time and I've still got too much mail to complete? Do I phone the office and tell you I'm bringing some back? NO Once I've "Helped" you to get out on time you've got to finish your duty! IMO that's just BS!

[ThatsNotPlumb]

The Royal Mail are always keen to point out how mail is falling, packets are rising & how things need to evolve.

As a result, someone has to be looking at walks/duties as they'll need to evolve to match the rise/fall in packets/mail.

[eastie]

Just do the lapsing and then your own walk until an hour before your finish time and ring him up and tell him how many loops you are going to bring back.
He can't do anything until its walk tested

Make sure you follow the correct over running procedure. You might get away with this in your Office Eastiebut it's not the correct procedure. I'm not getting Anal about it but JH7s DOM might. You're meant to tell him "as soon as possible" that you don't think you'll be able to complete your duty within the allocated time. This is normally taken as being in the office, before you go out. Then just "Ask" him what he want to do about it.

Latest develop we've had is: When you tell the DOM you won't be able to complete he asks, "How long does the duty take"? He then works backwards ..... If it takes you 5 hours 40 mins , you should finish at 14.00, I have to "Help" you to get out the door by 08.20 and then you'll be able to complete!

I asked "What happens if it's approaching my finish time and I've still got too much mail to complete? Do I phone the office and tell you I'm bringing some back? NO Once I've "Helped" you to get out on time you've got to finish your duty! IMO that's just BS!

I used to tell the DOM before I went out I was cutting off but one day is so different to the next with so many parcels so I leave it as long as possible and he is happy with that because he knows I wont go over

[postslippete]

The only real solution to prevent yourself from taking out any of the lapse on a busy day is simple: work to your time every single day.

Then you can get no comeback whatsoever from a manager when you are simply working the hours that you are being paid for. And you can leave the lapsing plus any other loops or packets that are on your duty as well. If you get any further grief from your manager, just stand your ground, because you will always be in the right.

I have had numerous cases whereby the manager has brushed me off saying 'I think you will be alright today' or that the mail traffic is down. They have even told me to take out the lapsing and then to ring the office if I cannot complete. So guess what? I ring the office and bring back the mail because I cannot complete. Once they know you are not going to be bullied into doing it they will back off. Who cares if everyone else wants to forfeit their breaks just to dash out the office and get on with their work. As long as you work sensibly everyday using the trolleys if necessary, then they will leave you alone. I wanted my round properly walk-tested by a manager coming out with me on delivery but it never happened. What did happen is that eventually a full loop got taken off it and put on someone's else (one of the runners!).

It never creases to amaze me why so many posties just want to make life much harder for themselves....