Ended up in tears today cos I'm stressing :-((((

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 30 Jan 2018, 20:12

Christmas 2017 was the busiest one I have seen in my twenty years working for RM in terms of parcels & packets. It will get busier year on year as more people switch from shops on the high Street to the internet.

Charliecat · Post by **Charliecat** » 11 Feb 2018, 09:43

MissKazzyB wrote:
Charliecat wrote:Misskazzyb are you still doing the job? Your post sounds just like me! I started 2 weeks ago and wonder if I've made a huge mistake. My feet and legs and fingers hurt bad. My coach has no patience and I end up jogging the round as he says I'm too slow. I forget a parcel and have to run back down a street to post as I'm too scared to tell him I forgot. I left my pda on a bin and had to go back. I am not sure what to do if a parcel won't scan as my coach rolls his eyes and tells me he's already told me . Therefor I'm afraid to ask again! I make mistakes if I can't find flats in old buildings and probably post wrong letters all because I dopn't want to take them back because he'll moan and say he's shown me the flats twice. Little does he realise all the old Victorian mansions look the same when you have to concentrate on everything else. I am hoping to get a round with someone who doesn't push me so hard or one by myself so I can take care and do it right as right now I have not even got time to fiddle putting my pen back In my pocket and I haven't got a pda holder so that's a fiddle and I have no bags and have to use plastic boxes so the parcels aren't contained . Aargh just hoping there's light at the end

Hi Chariecatt

I’m pleased to say that yes I am still in the job & actually loving it at the moment :-)) Don’t know how long I’ll feel like this but fingers crossed this feeling will stay with me. Don’t get me wrong I have had bad days & was so close to taking all the mail back to the office over the Christmas period & telling them to stick their job where the sun don’t shine lol (Christmas Pressure) I was cutting off as I had to always leave on time (contracted hours) & the volume of parcels/Mail was a joke & I was being asked why I couldn’t complete every day....Umm I think the reason I’m bringing it back is because it’s Christmas & we wee overloaded. If they needed all delivered then why didn’t they get up & help....I could go on but I won’t bore you all all....I’m sure you get the gist of it all. Anyway a colleague persuaded me to stick with it & get over the Christmas period & see how I feel then. Sure enough I done just that & am now completing every day & finishing an hour or so before my contracted hours & it feels so good.
We are all slow when we first start but believe me u do get faster. Read all my posts & you’ll get abit of an insight into my journey so far with RM.

After reading your post, I think you should speak to your trainer in question about how you feel but judging by what you’ve said, he won’t care about what you say so I’d talk to the Dom & tell him basically what you’ve told us on here. As others have stated, he gets paid to do a job to train people & he’s definitely not doing that at all. Don’t know how he got d job of training people. You shouldn’t be made to feel like your being slow & cant ask him things or frightened to ask him anything. That’s outrageous.
Your legs & feet will definitely hurt but it’s gets easier. As I said read my posts, I’m sure they’re help you.

Good luck & feel free to pm me if you like
Xx

Great that you are still doing the job

I have just completed 4th week. Still not finishing til an hour over my time. I have to walk about 15 to 20 mins to even start. That's 30 mins already to add on. I still don't take a break. I still find it painful tying up to start. Only as its not done in the order on the frame. I also struggle sorting parcels out . My round is incredibly long too. I am on same one next week too. Just a bit worried when I get to grips with it they'll move me and the whole process starts again! I will persevere though. We aren't allowed to bring stuff back and when I stress and say I can't finish on time I get a strange look as if to say why not? They also get me to do a street off another round too...as if I haven't got enough already! I can't understand why they don't give the extra street to someone who finishes before their time? I am going to put that to them on Monday.

Postie45 · Post by **Postie45** » 11 Feb 2018, 11:00

Charliecat wrote:
Great that you are still doing the job :thumbup
I have just completed 4th week. Still not finishing til an hour over my time. I have to walk about 15 to 20 mins to even start. That's 30 mins already to add on. I still don't take a break. I still find it painful tying up to start. Only as its not done in the order on the frame. I also struggle sorting parcels out . My round is incredibly long too. I am on same one next week too. Just a bit worried when I get to grips with it they'll move me and the whole process starts again! I will persevere though. We aren't allowed to bring stuff back and when I stress and say I can't finish on time I get a strange look as if to say why not? They also get me to do a street off another round too...as if I haven't got enough already! I can't understand why they don't give the extra street to someone who finishes before their time? I am going to put that to them on Monday.

whats this extra street ? is it lapsing ? Do you have a union rep in your office ?

Acca Dacca · Post by **Acca Dacca** » 11 Feb 2018, 11:07

Charliecat wrote:
MissKazzyB wrote:
Charliecat wrote:Misskazzyb are you still doing the job? Your post sounds just like me! I started 2 weeks ago and wonder if I've made a huge mistake. My feet and legs and fingers hurt bad. My coach has no patience and I end up jogging the round as he says I'm too slow. I forget a parcel and have to run back down a street to post as I'm too scared to tell him I forgot. I left my pda on a bin and had to go back. I am not sure what to do if a parcel won't scan as my coach rolls his eyes and tells me he's already told me . Therefor I'm afraid to ask again! I make mistakes if I can't find flats in old buildings and probably post wrong letters all because I dopn't want to take them back because he'll moan and say he's shown me the flats twice. Little does he realise all the old Victorian mansions look the same when you have to concentrate on everything else. I am hoping to get a round with someone who doesn't push me so hard or one by myself so I can take care and do it right as right now I have not even got time to fiddle putting my pen back In my pocket and I haven't got a pda holder so that's a fiddle and I have no bags and have to use plastic boxes so the parcels aren't contained . Aargh just hoping there's light at the end

Hi Chariecatt

I’m pleased to say that yes I am still in the job & actually loving it at the moment :-)) Don’t know how long I’ll feel like this but fingers crossed this feeling will stay with me. Don’t get me wrong I have had bad days & was so close to taking all the mail back to the office over the Christmas period & telling them to stick their job where the sun don’t shine lol (Christmas Pressure) I was cutting off as I had to always leave on time (contracted hours) & the volume of parcels/Mail was a joke & I was being asked why I couldn’t complete every day....Umm I think the reason I’m bringing it back is because it’s Christmas & we wee overloaded. If they needed all delivered then why didn’t they get up & help....I could go on but I won’t bore you all all....I’m sure you get the gist of it all. Anyway a colleague persuaded me to stick with it & get over the Christmas period & see how I feel then. Sure enough I done just that & am now completing every day & finishing an hour or so before my contracted hours & it feels so good.
We are all slow when we first start but believe me u do get faster. Read all my posts & you’ll get abit of an insight into my journey so far with RM.

After reading your post, I think you should speak to your trainer in question about how you feel but judging by what you’ve said, he won’t care about what you say so I’d talk to the Dom & tell him basically what you’ve told us on here. As others have stated, he gets paid to do a job to train people & he’s definitely not doing that at all. Don’t know how he got d job of training people. You shouldn’t be made to feel like your being slow & cant ask him things or frightened to ask him anything. That’s outrageous.
Your legs & feet will definitely hurt but it’s gets easier. As I said read my posts, I’m sure they’re help you.

Good luck & feel free to pm me if you like
Xx
Great that you are still doing the job
I have just completed 4th week. Still not finishing til an hour over my time. I have to walk about 15 to 20 mins to even start. That's 30 mins already to add on. I still don't take a break. I still find it painful tying up to start. Only as its not done in the order on the frame. I also struggle sorting parcels out . My round is incredibly long too. I am on same one next week too. Just a bit worried when I get to grips with it they'll move me and the whole process starts again! I will persevere though. We aren't allowed to bring stuff back and when I stress and say I can't finish on time I get a strange look as if to say why not? They also get me to do a street off another round too...as if I haven't got enough already! I can't understand why they don't give the extra street to someone who finishes before their time? I am going to put that to them on Monday.

Everyone is allowed to bring stuff back if you follow the process

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 11 Feb 2018, 11:31

Postie45 wrote:
Charliecat wrote:
Great that you are still doing the job
I have just completed 4th week. Still not finishing til an hour over my time. I have to walk about 15 to 20 mins to even start. That's 30 mins already to add on. I still don't take a break. I still find it painful tying up to start. Only as its not done in the order on the frame. I also struggle sorting parcels out . My round is incredibly long too. I am on same one next week too. Just a bit worried when I get to grips with it they'll move me and the whole process starts again! I will persevere though. We aren't allowed to bring stuff back and when I stress and say I can't finish on time I get a strange look as if to say why not? They also get me to do a street off another round too...as if I haven't got enough already! I can't understand why they don't give the extra street to someone who finishes before their time? I am going to put that to them on Monday.

whats this extra street ? is it lapsing ? Do you have a union rep in your office ?

The extra street you are doing is called 'absorption' . The 'absorption' system was introduced quite a long time ago when RM decided that we were finishing before the end of our duty times. Arguably a lot of us were not but that's by the by. Within RM there is no standardisation as far as running of offices goes. Apparently until fairly recently some offices were still not following RM directives and were not absorbing walks every day whereas a lot of DOs were. In our DO as part of the last revision we added our DOUBLE absorptions into the walks so we now sort that mail as well. In addition we dropped two walks and added those delivery points to the remaining walks. The idea being to this plan is that we cannot give any more hours back to RM.
Four weeks isn't probably enough time for you to get fully up to speed on your walk especially if you have more named than numbered addresses. Others on this forum likely won't believe how your office is run but it is a fairly commonplace situation in RM. I would check your walk log to see the 15 minutes either way of your start point is listed. I would enquire about the order of the frame not matching how it can be delivered as well. The frame should be in the order of delivery. As they appear to be acting a bit like ****holes I would make sure you take your twenty minutes break when you want to have a sit down. When you start doing this job it does seem really hard but if you persevere it gets better eventually.

Seymour Buts · Post by **Seymour Buts** » 11 Feb 2018, 11:54

We don't lapse in our office, any extra work taken is optional and is paid overtime regardless of how busy a day it is or what time we finish. I still find it mad how nothing in standardised between offices. Still, probably for the best in this case!

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 11 Feb 2018, 12:06

Lapsing is when your office doesn't have enough staff to deliver all the walks. Lapsing usually means one walk is fully prepped into the frame and the redirections are completed but other than the special delivery and the tracked items nothing is delivered.
Absorption is when the DOM actually organises the staffing levels so there is no one to do one or more walks. Those walks are then divided into hopefully equal pieces and are delivered by the remaining delivery staff.

Post by **97gaz** » 11 Feb 2018, 16:10

WOBBLY · Post by **WOBBLY** » 12 Feb 2018, 16:06

Celgar wrote:Lapsing is when your office doesn't have enough staff to deliver all the walks. Lapsing usually means one walk is fully prepped into the frame and the redirections are completed but other than the special delivery and the tracked items nothing is delivered.
Absorption is when the DOM actually organises the staffing levels so there is no one to do one or more walks. Those walks are then divided into hopefully equal pieces and are delivered by the remaining delivery staff.

Who told you all that tripe?

Absorbing and lapsing are one and the same thing!! They lapse a walk, you absorb some of it into your workload!

97gaz has explained how it SHOULD work! Sadly like he says most DIMs are bowing to pressure from above to save money hence resourcing to budget rather than resourcing to workload!
If I don't have time, no matter what the reason for putting on lapsing, I tell management I don't have time and say "what would you like me to do?" If they're adamant I should have time then I use the cut off procedure!

fishtank · Post by **fishtank** » 12 Feb 2018, 16:11

Absorbing and lapsing are one and the same thing!!

No they're not.
If you read the Pay and Modernisation Agreement 2007 you'll see there are different enablers and guidelines for both.

Post by **Brandy** » 12 Feb 2018, 19:54

postietom wrote:We don't lapse in our office, any extra work taken is optional and is paid overtime regardless of how busy a day it is or what time we finish. I still find it mad how nothing in standardised between offices. Still, probably for the best in this case!

You must have a good manager,who isnt greedy just thinking how much bonus they can get by pushing their posties to do unrealistic targets. If I had had a manager like that then most likely I would still be with RM.

WOBBLY · Post by **WOBBLY** » 13 Feb 2018, 15:02

fishtank wrote:
Absorbing and lapsing are one and the same thing!!
No they're not.
If you read the Pay and Modernisation Agreement 2007 you'll see there are different enablers and guidelines for both.

I stand corrected then! End result is still the same, if you have time you can if not it's "what would you like me to do boss?"

Charliecat · Post by **Charliecat** » 13 Feb 2018, 19:14

So can someone explain the cut off procedure please. It doesn't seem that people do it where I am. Or it's frowned on. Oh and I finished before my time today . Not many parcels so I think it's the parcels that slow me down.

Jpro747 · Post by **Jpro747** » 13 Feb 2018, 21:23

We all work for royal mail and the same procedures apply throughout every office.

Download and read the PDF in this topic. https://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communi ... 36&t=18563

Post by **Brandy** » 13 Feb 2018, 21:41

Charliecat wrote:So can someone explain the cut off procedure please. It doesn't seem that people do it where I am. Or it's frowned on. Oh and I finished before my time today . Not many parcels so I think it's the parcels that slow me down.

All I used to get when I told managers I either couldnt complete or couldnt take my lapsing was why why why,you are not up to the job,so and so can do it,there is no mail today,what time did you finish yesterday etc etc. You posties as I did work your bloody socks off,I really hope you all get a good deal,but somehow I doubt it.