Overtime ban

plaguelift · Post by **plaguelift** » 04 Jul 2016, 19:08

We were told this morning by our line manager that there is to be no overtime claimed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. This instruction is apparently from above his position. It wasn't overly bad mail-wise today, but some of us would have had half an hour here or there, so we followed his cut off procedure.
Whilst no one in our office really has an issue with cutting off, a guy in our office was hounded by management about two or three years ago for only wanting to work his time. They had managers out watching him on his round, tested his duty twice and were very nasty and threatening to him. Thankfully they backed off due to the intervention of the Union, but it did place a lot of strain on him.
I wanted to ask you, my learned colleagues if anyone else has been told "no overtime." Is wilful delay not wilful delay when the management tell you to hold mail? Why should we bother our arse doing overtime to get the mail cleared, when management don't care if the public get their mail or not? Just throwing it out there for discussion. Thanks guys and gals. Rant over.

Dorset Plodder · Post by **Dorset Plodder** » 04 Jul 2016, 19:31

You're doing the right thing....Just use the Over running procedure!

I expect your DOMs hoping a few posties will complete their entire duty and not bother to claim overtime....then he's quids in.

We're lucky at present , we have a decent manager (so I suppose they'll get rid of him soon). If we tell him we're finishing on time, or haven't enough time to lapse, he doesn't fly off in a girly fit he just says "OK if you can't do it , you can't do it"! Much less stressful than dealing with some of the Bullying Bullshitting Assholes we've had in the past!

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 04 Jul 2016, 19:33

so who did all the mail that was left/brought back?

plaguelift · Post by **plaguelift** » 04 Jul 2016, 20:07

daveyeff wrote:so who did all the mail that was left/brought back?

Nobody did it. It would have to be done by someone claiming overtime, and there's an overtime ban, so it's waiting for us in the morning. Tuesday is usually light, so I suppose the manager reckons it will all be delivered tomorrow, but there are 3 of us that lapse a full duty on Tuesday's (just over an hour extra delivery each), so it could be tight enough to get everything finished.

Creditshampoo · Post by **Creditshampoo** » 04 Jul 2016, 20:10

plaguelift wrote:
daveyeff wrote:so who did all the mail that was left/brought back?
Nobody did it. It would have to be done by someone claiming overtime, and there's an overtime ban, so it's waiting for us in the morning. Tuesday is usually light, so I suppose the manager reckons it will all be delivered tomorrow, but there are 3 of us that lapse a full duty on Tuesday's (just over an hour extra delivery each), so it could be tight enough to get everything finished.

You lapse an hour extra work?!

plaguelift · Post by **plaguelift** » 04 Jul 2016, 20:22

Creditshampoo wrote:
plaguelift wrote:
daveyeff wrote:so who did all the mail that was left/brought back?
Nobody did it. It would have to be done by someone claiming overtime, and there's an overtime ban, so it's waiting for us in the morning. Tuesday is usually light, so I suppose the manager reckons it will all be delivered tomorrow, but there are 3 of us that lapse a full duty on Tuesday's (just over an hour extra delivery each), so it could be tight enough to get everything finished.
You lapse an hour extra work?!

Yep. I know, shafted, but the more fuss you make, the worse it is. Most of our office lapses 15 minutes. And it's not as if we have light duties that we can lapse more, we would actually have 3 of the more heavy duties.

madmax1 · Post by **madmax1** » 04 Jul 2016, 20:44

plaguelift · Post by **plaguelift** » 04 Jul 2016, 21:00

madmax1 wrote:Better tell the guys who want the overtime to take their torches with them on Thursday. Should be enough mail left by then to see them past 9pm if they want it! Otherwise just let it build up & up til the DOM gets the message.

Yea, we were thinking the same. If management can delay mail (presumably) to keep under budget, then why should we bust ourselves on Thursday just to catch up on everything. I've been in the job over 20 years and I've never been told there's a 3 day overtime ban. It's always been "clear the mail at all costs" and anything else is willful delay. I suppose this is the way things are going to be in the future to cut costs or stay under budget.

Postie45 · Post by **Postie45** » 05 Jul 2016, 06:05

im not sure that RM can refuse willing workers to do OT if otherwise that mail will fail... seems like wilful delay on their part and a possible grievance

Post by **SpacePhoenix** » 05 Jul 2016, 07:15

Postie45 wrote:im not sure that RM can refuse willing workers to do OT if otherwise that mail will fail... seems like wilful delay on their part and a possible grievance

I'd be surprised if any office in the country could clear 100% without using OT

Surreypostie · Post by **Surreypostie** » 05 Jul 2016, 08:42

If we have a carry over of mail to the next day you can be sure we probably won't clear on a tuesday either, tuesday is typically the heaviest days for specials. It is also a short day, my attitude to them banning overtime would be not to do any. I only do a little now and then and am in the fortunate position of not needing to do it so as far as I am concerned they can shove it all.

NewPostieUK · Post by **NewPostieUK** » 05 Jul 2016, 17:55

plaguelift wrote:Overtime Ban.

I'm all for an overtime ban! Every office should do it, even if it's just for a week. They'll be up the creak then. Maybe that's what's needed to get them to admit it's not working, and the office needs hours putting IN not taking out.

plaguelift wrote:We were told this morning by our line manager that there is to be no overtime claimed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

I'd love it, love it if our manager said that. We'd say yes that's fine, and there will be none thurs fri or sat either. Better get your boss on the phone and get some bodies in to get the mail delivered.

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 05 Jul 2016, 18:40

They tried banning overtime in our office and it worked…..for about a day

And then the managers suddenly realised that they actually needed the mail delivered after all! It might have something to do with the USO and quality of service targets. Turns out that they are most important and the managers were just trying to bully and bluff staff into taking out their mail regardless of going over by saying it would be left over the next day.

And because they had told everyone that they wouldn't get paid if they went over - the managers themselves had to work till 5pm delivering the loops themselves! Hope they enjoyed themselves out there! :thumb up

Remember those polling cards? Well, they only wanted to give us a day to get them all delivered. Now that never happened but generally managers like getting all the mail delivered that they have got on that day because otherwise it mounts up for the next day and the day after, and then staff go on sick.

But managers still try to penny pinch anyway that they can. Hiding the overtime sheet is a good place to start. Anyone seen it anywhere?

Postie45 · Post by **Postie45** » 06 Jul 2016, 15:38

postslippete wrote:Hiding the overtime sheet is a good place to start. Anyone seen it anywhere?

How does hiding the overtime sheet work after the 1st time they do it ? I wouldnt do anything again OT until i was paid.

postslippete · Post by **postslippete** » 06 Jul 2016, 17:01

True, and it goes to show that Managers will try every trick in the book to cut back on overtime

When there are enough staff claiming overtime maybe they hope that a few will forget how many hours that they have actually done.