Greedy Posties

[themailman]

There is a culture in my office amongst a few of the 20+ years service folks that they have done their fair share of the work in the past and its now time to get something back from the company. Complain about EVERYTHING, demand help when it's not needed (so they can go for a smoke etc), go berserk if someone else gets help before them (regardless if it's needed), don't bother putting their holiday sheet in on time then throw a hissy fit and end up getting 3 weeks during the school holidays cos 'they've already booked something'. etc etc etc. They look down their nose at the rest of us, and openly mock any new starting staff as they see them as grunts/mules who will in no time be doing part of their job for them.

Festive rant over

[tonytucker]

There is a culture in my office amongst a few of the 20+ years service folks that they have done their fair share of the work in the past and its now time to get something back from the company. Complain about EVERYTHING, demand help when it's not needed (so they can go for a smoke etc), go berserk if someone else gets help before them (regardless if it's needed), don't bother putting their holiday sheet in on time then throw a hissy fit and end up getting 3 weeks during the school holidays cos 'they've already booked something'. etc etc etc. They look down their nose at the rest of us, and openly mock any new starting staff as they see them as grunts/mules who will in no time be doing part of their job for them.

Festive rant over

Yeah it's called seniority pal

[Lounge Lizard]

Ive had other jobs,,,,,bus driving for nearly 20 years being 1,,,,and I remember 1 year they gave us a £10 m&s gift card and another year a £5 coin but that was it in the 20 years.

I came here and then it was stamps and £100 jees I couldn't believe it.......granted now £200 cos them rip of shares years back but I`m more than happy with that.

The mrs works in a school....shes never got a bonus....not many jobs pay an xmas bonus,,,,,but yeah lads in the office moan that were badly done to.....my personal believe is we do well at xmas

Your Mrs works in a school.
Which would she prefer, thirteen weeks holiday a year OR a £200 Christmas bonus, 50 First Class stamps and out in all weathers ?

[Darwinsdad]

There is a culture in my office amongst a few of the 20+ years service folks that they have done their fair share of the work in the past and its now time to get something back from the company. Complain about EVERYTHING, demand help when it's not needed (so they can go for a smoke etc), go berserk if someone else gets help before them (regardless if it's needed), don't bother putting their holiday sheet in on time then throw a hissy fit and end up getting 3 weeks during the school holidays cos 'they've already booked something'. etc etc etc. They look down their nose at the rest of us, and openly mock any new starting staff as they see them as grunts/mules who will in no time be doing part of their job for them.

Festive rant over

Yeah it's called seniority pal

The last sentence is seniority, the rest beforehand is taking the p*ss

[Surreypostie]

RM is basically a decent firm, it is difficult to get the sack if you are ill or make a genuine mistake. The Terms and conditions are not bad, bloody good in comparison to some of our competitors. We don't have to like however, the direction the company is now taking. A 2 tier workforce, those of us lucky enough to be fulltime and on permanant contracts and the new guys, shafted daily, no security at all, we all do the same job. When one of us leaves we are replaced by one of them, putting more pressure on the former. Nobody complains for the sake of it, it is because there have been many changes over the years, not many are a benefit to the customer, not the people we deliver to anyway. Everything is for the benefit of the shareholder now and I really don't get it. If I buy shares in RM, I get the shares, the people I buy them off get the money and a middle man get the commission for the transaction, RM get f*** all out of it. Later if I sell those shares, I get the money, someone else now owns the shares, another middleman get a cut from the sale and again RM get f*** all out of it. Personally, I don't give a damn about the shareholders, I do give a damn about the public we serve. That is why the majority of us moan.

[Judgee]

Just two or three examples will do. Won't take you long to post.

It's all relative to the individual TMan. I would consider any job with better working conditions a better job than working for RM, even if the pay was worse. Some people would consider a job with higher wages but similar or worse working conditions better. I worked at warehouses that were great and treated you well but the pay was lower or contracts temporary. RM was one of the best jobs around when I started, it's not now. Wages elsewhere have caught up with RM and if the living wage become law it will be even closer, making less physically demanding jobs even more appealing. There are also jobs with more sociable hours, at least for me as I can appreciate RMs hours may be better for people with kids.

So three examples a of a better job for me would not necessarily be three better jobs for you. If you really want to find better examples for yourself see a careers adviser. If you are happy at RM and seriously think it's the best job out there for you personally then good luck to you!

Before you ask, I am still there for several reasons. Firstly I am too knackered to bother looking for something else, I am not in a financial position to leave and go look for something else and I am desperately hoping for VR which will give me the chance to go retrain!

[themailman]

There is a culture in my office amongst a few of the 20+ years service folks that they have done their fair share of the work in the past and its now time to get something back from the company. Complain about EVERYTHING, demand help when it's not needed (so they can go for a smoke etc), go berserk if someone else gets help before them (regardless if it's needed), don't bother putting their holiday sheet in on time then throw a hissy fit and end up getting 3 weeks during the school holidays cos 'they've already booked something'. etc etc etc. They look down their nose at the rest of us, and openly mock any new starting staff as they see them as grunts/mules who will in no time be doing part of their job for them.

Festive rant over

Yeah it's called seniority pal

funny that, there's also a few of us who are also 20+ years in the job who don't behave that way. Explain that one if you can.

[Chewster]

It is a good company to work for overall. I've had a LOT of jobs in my relatively short life and this is BY FAR the best one. However, with the majority of us on part time contracts with no full time contract in sight, it is easy to be frustrated. I've been here two years and this month I've done more work than anybody in the office (honestly not an exaggeration) yet there's still no full time contract in sight. Very frustrating and unfair I'd say, but aside from that, it's a very good place to work.

And yes, bullying is rampant in certain offices up and down the country, but you can say that about any job. I've worked in factories where I've been treated relatively well (as well as a factory worker is treated anyway) but I know plenty of other factory workers who must have anal prolapse with how hard they get shafted daily. It's all relative, and on the whole RM is a good company to work for.

As others have said, stand up to the bullying! We now live in an age where the workers DO hold all the power, you get yourself a witness (shouldn't be hard) and take it higher and you will get what you deserve. There are laws in this country that are meant to protect the workers, but they can only protect the workers if you follow the right paths, sitting around and moaning about how much of an arse your boss is will get nothing done.

And for those of you who moan about wanting manageable workloads, if the work needs done, then the work needs done! You have the right to work to your time, use it if you don't want to be out there all day, rather than expecting there to miraculously be less mail and parcels to be delivered.

Having said all that, I DO fear for the future of RM with the talk of cutbacks etc, but time will tell what it means for us.

[Kings Norton]

There is a culture in my office amongst a few of the 20+ years service folks that they have done their fair share of the work in the past and its now time to get something back from the company. Complain about EVERYTHING, demand help when it's not needed (so they can go for a smoke etc), go berserk if someone else gets help before them (regardless if it's needed), don't bother putting their holiday sheet in on time then throw a hissy fit and end up getting 3 weeks during the school holidays cos 'they've already booked something'. etc etc etc. They look down their nose at the rest of us, and openly mock any new starting staff as they see them as grunts/mules who will in no time be doing part of their job for them.

Festive rant over

Yeah it's called seniority pal

Same in my office the old timers 20 years plus service think they rule the roost and the D.O.Ms should bow down to them they look down on new starters rather than help them saying things like "He/She won't last two minutes here" get packets and rows took of them on busy days but still finish early, moan about how heavy their walks are to come off the IPS, get every holiday week thy want, throw a wobbler for the best van best PDA. RM should stop this seniority thing.

[DB1100]

There is a culture in my office amongst a few of the 20+ years service folks that they have done their fair share of the work in the past and its now time to get something back from the company. Complain about EVERYTHING, demand help when it's not needed (so they can go for a smoke etc), go berserk if someone else gets help before them (regardless if it's needed), don't bother putting their holiday sheet in on time then throw a hissy fit and end up getting 3 weeks during the school holidays cos 'they've already booked something'. etc etc etc. They look down their nose at the rest of us, and openly mock any new starting staff as they see them as grunts/mules who will in no time be doing part of their job for them.

Festive rant over

Yeah it's called seniority pal

Same in my office the old timers 20 years plus service think they rule the roost and the D.O.Ms should bow down to them they look down on new starters rather than help them saying things like "He/She won't last two minutes here" get packets and rows took of them on busy days but still finish early, moan about how heavy their walks are to come off the IPS, get every holiday week thy want, throw a wobbler for the best van best PDA. RM should stop this seniority thing.

Seniority has it's place,but IMHO it would be a good move to change walks every 3 month's,that would do away with all the moaning about ,short walk's long walks etc

[fishtank]

I put in a fair day's work and receive a fair day's pay, I'm neither grateful or ungrateful, it's a contract of employment not an act of charity on either part.

[Dorset Plodder]

Seniority has it's place,but IMHO it would be a good move to change walks every 3 month's,that would do away with all the moaning about ,short walk's long walks etc

I agree that some system of rotation would be a good step forward in trying to establish a culture of "Equality" within the Delivery Offices. I understand that some DOs used to operate a system where 4 Posties rotated around the Duties in their "Team" on a weekly basis. Within a short time they had evened out all the "Over-sized Duties" by simply getting work moved to the "Under-sized Duties", so each Team Member was doing roughly the same amount of work. The incentive was that no-one wanted to get lumbered with that "Monster Duty" every 3 weeks!

Under the current system some of the "Old Mafia" have been on the same duty for the last 15 years FFS! It's just human nature that they have no interest in seeing duties evened out because of the "I'm alright Jack Stuff You" attitude that pervades Royal mail. The same people think that they're the hard done by ones, with the longest duties and the hardest workload. At the same time resisting all attempts to monitor mail levels (to their duty), starting and finishing times (often not even signing out) and the Unions entreaties to "Work Properly"!

Within Royal Mail it seems that a lot of "Genuine" Posties are Bullied & Harassed by Incompetent Managers, when they are "Working Properly" and doing their job as best they can. On the other-hand there's a lot of Senior Posties (NOT ALL) who basically take the piss and abuse the system on a daily basis. They get away with it because they have Managers who are perhaps Young & Inexperienced, or who may not have the gumption to sort them out!

Wouldn't it be interesting if those Piss Taking Posties ended up getting some of those Bullying Managers? That would certainly make an entertaining background conversation to the IPS, as they clashed over workloads!

[slinder123]

There is a culture in my office amongst a few of the 20+ years service folks that they have done their fair share of the work in the past and its now time to get something back from the company. Complain about EVERYTHING, demand help when it's not needed (so they can go for a smoke etc), go berserk if someone else gets help before them (regardless if it's needed), don't bother putting their holiday sheet in on time then throw a hissy fit and end up getting 3 weeks during the school holidays cos 'they've already booked something'. etc etc etc. They look down their nose at the rest of us, and openly mock any new starting staff as they see them as grunts/mules who will in no time be doing part of their job for them.

Festive rant over

Yeah it's called seniority pal

its called lazy bstds down our way the sooner seniority goes the better for all

[Judgee]

If seniority goes it would not benefit all, just those fresh in from the world who would then have it a lot easier than those that came before them and had already done plenty of grafting!

Not getting into an argument over that. Just do your time and seniority WILL benefit ALL... if they can last that long! Although the benefits of seniority are already diminishing fast!

[Tman]

Just two or three examples will do. Won't take you long to post.

So three examples a of a better job for me would not necessarily be three better jobs for you. !

So there's one, working in a warehouse. Whether or not that would really be "better" depends on the particular firm or employer, whether you like being in one enclosed location all the time, etc as you say, so another two?