the Mount Pleasant bulletin for 3rd December.

[anna]

Hello all - we will be back on 14th January so happy Xmas and New Year despite tired arms and sore feet...

RM MAKES KILLING BY KILLING JOBS
Amazing isn't it, despite the 30.5% drop in RM’s 6-month profits announced 19 Nov (for April-Sept), due to “transformation costs” to “just” £116m (but revenues=£4.4BN and operating profit, £342m!), shares immediately rose 5.6% to 480p!
Why? It's no mystery: 3,000 jobs gone in 6 months! No wonder we're struggling! Ms Greede's “efficiency drive” saved £200m over the last 3 yrs and she wants £500m more savings to be made by 2018, on our backs. It's really time to call a halt!

BLACK FRIDAY?
Packets galore, stacking up on the floor... we could wax un-lyrical at the wobbly mountains which we have to jump over... Worse for deliveries, which in some offices had door-to-dustbin added! Given the overloading and understaffing everywhere, forget Black Friday – we've got Black (cyber) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday... Black Everyday.

WELCOME TO THE MOUNT
We welcome the 350 casuals that will be helping us sorting the mess in HMP (this week?)! Hey, don't be surprised... this chaos isn't just at Xmas, it's like this all year round! And do we think RM will finally see sense and keep on as many of you as we need, in proper full-time permanent jobs? Not really. The day RM does, we'll start believing in Santa... unless we force the miracle – by using our collective feet!

EVERYWHERE THE SAME MESS
And by the way, we read on RMC that every mail centre and DO in the country could do with more permanent workers! No question about it! Since the many closures, RM keeps diverting the heavy workload from one place to another, like a hot potato – specially at Xmas... Let's make sure it's the bosses who burn their fingers, not us!
PS: some bosses (even the top dog!) here have hot fingers already – from staying behind to sort when late shift has left (on time!)! But do they really know how?

DRIVERS WANTED
Re that drivers' resign in January: isn't this a chance to make sure our mates keep their jobs and that any extra drivers taken on during this busy period, get to stay permanently (full-time!) in HMP, where they're so much needed? And that the part-timers who drive FT during Xmas also get FT if they want it?

MANAGERS' MUSICAL CHAIRS
Of course, one consequence of the office closures is that there are too many RM managers for the positions left... So RM's now playing divide to rule, opposing young managers with University degrees against senior managers. Too bad! As for us, we prefer the ones who actually know something – but they're precisely the ones whom RM wouldn't make up to manager!

GAG GADGET
Oh dear, now the finger scans are slowing down the entire process... some packets have codes that can't be read by the device, and when it gets busy, they're so impractical that even managers have asked us to stop using them! Well, at least they admit their mistake... but for how long?

PROMOTING COFFEE BREAKS?
By the way, thanks for the £1 coffee voucher for “getting manual scanning off to a great start”!! Mighty generous, especially since the “great start” is finished already. Giving us the break time to drink a nice cuppa coffee might be an idea...

FUTURE GAG GADGET
We had a good laugh when we heard Moya Greede had announced that in the future, RM will invest in driverless vans and drones to deliver mail... They want to extend their “vision of progress” (i.e., utter chaos) to our streets and neighbourhoods! RM in private hands=inhuman hazard!

WHAT ABOUT THE CIRCUS?
That pat-ethic Romec elephant is playing, at the same time, manager, medical adviser and call centre agent... But when it comes to our health, we need to make sure he respects our REAL doctors' prescriptions and sick certificates! If he fancies another profession, we've plenty of suggestions...

OLD STORY, NEW STORY?
So what's new on the Romec/Cofely/RM front? After Cofely got cold feet on the deal, we head RM may buy back Romec as soon as April next year? Well, that'd make sense. We used to be RM and the only reason Romec was split off was to cut our T&Cs. But what needed to be fought for then, still needs to be fought for today!

...AND PEACE CAME TO US
A couple of weeks ago, on night shift, we had a good breath of fresh air when the Buzzy Bee went to suck nectar from other flowers... that is, on day shift (sorry mates!). It would have been great if it weren't for his favourite buzzy cronies left on nights, all of them still OPGs, but with managerial dreams. We wonder which “nectar” they drink?!

[rainbowwarrior72]

Merry Christmas and a fab 2016

[baldrick]

Thanks for the news on MP during 2015 anna. Hope you have a good Xmas and New Year. I look forward to the bulletins in 2016, though I doubt that it will be happy for my former colleagues at the Mount.

[britwrit]

The most ironically named mail centre ever.

[music4essex]

Thanks Ana ,Merry xmas , best wishes for new Year love your bullitens , they make me LOL

Essex Mum

[SpacePhoenix]

Scanning of all parcels is here to stay, companies sending stuff expect to be able to track every parcel they send every step of the way no matter which courier they've used

[Budfrog]

Ah the Mount ... I'll bet they are still signing for a couple of MailRail duties ;)

[anna]

Thanks for good wishes!