Being driven to insanity by bullying & unscrupulous management

[BELIAL]

We are one ,the collective is supreme,there will be no dissent that goes unpunished. I am 23 of 49 and I will fill in my have "your say" survey as I am told to.

[Fatboyslim]

Play them at their own game...

You are NOT insured to use your own vehicle. Point blank refuse. If you get asked/told to go to another office. You cannot by right refuse. As at the bottom of your 318 it will say "Unless otherwise directed" . Or something like that. Demand transport, taxi, bus/train fares etc. When you get to the other office. Take ALL breaks you are entitled to. Nothing less. Then cut off, return to foreign DO. To allow travel back to your parent DO in your duty time. Not theirs.

I think you will find your workload on any working day will be considerably shorter doing this. They will only tolerate this for so long.

AND, I personally think you need to go speak to a medical professional (no not your DOM). If you are brave enough to put your thoughts in writing on here. No job is worth that.

Good luck.

[BELIAL]

Resistance is fertile

[BarnsleyLackey]

Good afternoon,

I am writing this as a final attempt at sorting out what has become an unbearable mental strain. Before i start yet another ramble in the vain hope i will find some resolution to the problems which are now effectively ruining my life. I have been a postman for the last seven years,all seven of these years i have been treated appallingly by the managers at my place of work.These managers laugh and joke about me with smiles on there faces while undermining me and rubbishing me no matter what the level of my performance.

When i began all those years ago i was told i had to work my way up to get a decent role within the depot i work. Well seven horribly mentally damaging years later ,I find myself at my lowest ebb ever. If im being honest ive even thought about taking my own life (but would never be able to do such a thing even though my life feels worthless after every shift i do).

I am bounced about on a daily basis to all the various delivery offices within a 30 mile radius of where i live/work. I am then threatened with wilful delay when i say i cannot complete a duty I have never done before in an area i am unfamiliar with and with zero help or assistance given by said managers. I often have no contact numbers for managers at the places Im working at so have little way of telling them i can complete etc. Also if ive never worked a duty before I find it unrealistic that I should be able to gauge it on the only day i ll probablevery work it.

The day normally begins with an argument and ends with one. I will arrive at work to see me unassigned to a duty and listed as spare. At my place seniority takes second place to managers favourites and whatever makes it easier for them. My own complaints fall on deaf ears and even though the majority of my colleagues at postman level are very sympathetic of my plight and virtually all concede i am treated terribly,it just makes me feel even worse. Especially when im then told by my work mates that they'd never go to another office and not to take any crap from management-I just feel most turn a blind eye and that its easier for management to really mess around a few people than do something fairly which would entail more effort for them and ruffle a few more peoples feathers.

The argument will begin something like this.
manager-we need you to go to another office

me-Im not insured to drive and more senior than loads of people? can you not send them as its only fair its shared out.

manager-you are insured to drive stop being awkward we are sending you.

me-im not using my own car then.

they'll then pay me a taxi to go but by the time i get there im way behind and unable to complete as its a new area and no prep work has been done. I believe the managers also tell them im willing to do o/t to complete which is a complete fabrication and brings me full circle to the argument when i bring mail back and am threatened with wilful delay.

Im going to share some more of my issues in due course as there are plenty. REALLY sorry for this unpunctuated mess of a mail but am at my wits end over this and its seriously affecting my mental well being.

Any advice assistance would be gratefully received.

Yours sincerely desperate postie x

What a depressing carry on. I haven't signed in in a while, and this was the first post I read; you have my sympathies. I'm sure you've had a lot of good advice from the people on here, but ultimately, it comes down to you. Do the job properly, as you've been advised. And bear in mind, once you tell them you won't complete and stuff needs to be left - leave it, and wilful delay isn't an issue. I had the same crap from a cowboy that was in our office: a real tattooed Billy Bad@ss. It didn't take much to chew him out, being as simple as he is. But you've got to remember, working in the culture you're in, the target is already on your back, so everything needs to be done to the letter. If it isn't, they'll jump on you.
Leaving a job isn't always so simple, so if you are determined to slog on, then try and use the advice on here, keep your thoughts to yourself (RM management aren't above having a pet Judas) and hopefully things will lighten. Be honest with yourself in whether you can see it working out for you at RM. If you don't think it will, and going on what you've written, then you need to get out as soon as you can. When you get to the point where the only happy time you have is when you're asleep, then you need to do something fast.

Good luck.

[CPTNemoUK]

Play them at their own game...

You are NOT insured to use your own vehicle. Point blank refuse. If you get asked/told to go to another office. You cannot by right refuse. As at the bottom of your 318 it will say "Unless otherwise directed" . Or something like that. Demand transport, taxi, bus/train fares etc. When you get to the other office. Take ALL breaks you are entitled to. Nothing less. Then cut off, return to foreign DO. To allow travel back to your parent DO in your duty time. Not theirs.

I think you will find your workload on any working day will be considerably shorter doing this. They will only tolerate this for so long.
.

I started doing this. Not been sent to another office for over 2 years now. Do kind of miss it now because it was a really easy day.

[bustedflush]

Well, it's when I see posts like the OP here that I almost feel guilty at getting out through IHR myself. I could be quite forceful so those sort of requests were tried on me a few times then seldom thereafter by managers, but I still used to try and balance it by conceding a few times so as not be seen as totally uncooperative and argumentative. It was a balancing act being a reserve and I was in what many of you may call a 'decent' DO although there were one or two managers posted there that would try those bullying tactic on some weaker people.

As a reserve for my whole four years it wasn't so much the physical side but the stress that was the killer (although I later discovered I was physically unable to meet the demands of the walking) and that is the memory I've unfortunately retained with most prominence from my time there. I didn't mind being put on a new round at short notice when paired with the regular that would guide me, but being pushed on to a new one and on my own 'going in blind' I always felt was unfair and unacceptable and I let them know that, so in my time I only ever did it the once. I wanted to have a realistic chance of finishing on time as is my right, and the aforementioned scenario would almost certainly nullify that.

The OP is pretty depressing as it seems like they are getting what I would view as a 'bad day' almost every day, or at least far too frequently. It's become apparent by contact with those I once worked with that people are leaving rapidly, very few of the new intake can cope or last long and more and more work is being packed in to shrinking hours thus increasing stress. Walks have been removed/changed and lapsing increased so even the traditional 'easier summer' where the posties can either slow down and recover a bit or have some early finishes appears to be a thing of the past.

The life of a reserve alas is generally sh*t and in most offices the time spent as a reserve is counted in decades rather than years it seems; okay, an exaggeration but it's years before most can earn the comfort zone of their own duty and even then it's likely to be 'el bastardo' that nobody else wants!

It's easy to proffer glib advice to the OP along the lines of "Just leave!" or "Look for another job!" but you don't know their circumstances, i.e. school finishing hours needed or wage requirements etc. I think the important point here is WHY should they feel they want to leave? Surely that should be addressed and the issues in the workplace too?

The saddest thing is that even as a 'good' leaver I have flashbacks to the worst days years later, so I am certain that if this situation perpetuates for somebody clearly in a worse position than I ever was that the mental torment may continue far after they leave, however they leave.

[Matt123]

I am in the same situtation, when i tell the management i may not complete because of whatever reason I get all the uselly crap and sarcastic remarks from them and then next day brought into the office with some sort of conduct counciling or whatever they wanna throw at me.
I also have them following me around the streets writing stuff Down and their are the threats of wilful delay,bad performance and often they uselly crap of " he can do it- why cant you " .
For the last 4 months i just write everything down on a note app eg
-What Time I started
-What Time I left office
-Was the walk prepared
-Comments to and from maneger
Everything ...even notes on how you was feeling

Go to the doctor and explain the situation tell him how you feel and tell him you need Time off for stress

I was even thinking of calling my local newspaper and reporting on this wave of bullying in the royal mail
It is serious and its not how the job should be , these manegers and the manegers above them are passing their stress down and we are at the bottom of the run
They pass the stress to us ..
we go home late felling low and they go home a hour or so early with an empty office and a smile on their face.
The job aint worth the stress
Get all the facts on what you are contracted to do and just do that .
Just work your hours , you could just do whatever they want but just work your hours and take your break .
What's the worst that can happen.
They cannot sack you for doing your job.
Good luck mate your not alone .

[Brandy]

I hope RM and their bullying ,lying so called managers are bloody proud of themselves how they treat their posties! As I have said before and will say yet again what goes around comes around and I wouldnt want to be in their shoes when when it comes a calling,and it will............

[Borusa1976]

This is true - we even get it from some Angard lot - who come in and acts like they are mini-managers - we have one in our office that thinks she is just there to do the incoming scanning - and likes to throw a tantum if she is asked to do parcel sorting or anything else. Hardly no respect given to some of the full or contract workers....

Sometimes you just got to think that the job just isn't worth it.