Life as a spare

EdRush · Post by **EdRush** » 23 Nov 2018, 15:24

Just sharing my thoughts during the heaviest week(s) of the year so far

All summer long I was sent out to various neighbouring DO's, learning a different walk nearly every day. Even though my DO was run on a skeleton crew, with walks which I could have been learning, being lapsed. I counted 5 neighbouring DO's in total, all wasted experience which could have been invested and saved for when it is needed the most.

Back at my DO the proverbial s**t hit the fan early last week, on the heaviest weeks of the year, someone went sick on a duty in a complex city centre, and guess who they choose to cover? A spare with no experience of the duty, even though I've been with the DO for 2 YEARS! Of course as mistakes creep in the customer will complain, the management will be quick to blame and eager to reprimand.

This is just another tale of shortsighted management. The business is inefficient and seems to be running into the ground, steadily losing goodwill from customers and employees alike

What a waste

south London postie · Post by **south London postie** » 23 Nov 2018, 15:47

I saw something the other day about - if you take out the election stuff - post has fallen by almost 3% in each of the last three years. That's pretty catastrophic.

At the same time we see high street stores closing so we know where the future of this business is, and it probably isn't not delivering parcels people have paid to have delivered. Who pays £4-£5 postage to have to go to a delivery office and queue up for goodness knows how long at this time of year ... not sustainable when companies like DPD, and several others, offer a whole range of delivery options over any number of days (deliver to this neighbour on this day in this one-hour time slot, etc).

You can play charlie big potatoes all you like but unless we make some effort, inc. prioritising parcels, then the future is rubbish.

south London postie · Post by **south London postie** » 23 Nov 2018, 15:50

oh sorry, wrong thread

All the best!

joewyan · Post by **joewyan** » 23 Nov 2018, 22:56

EdRush wrote:Just sharing my thoughts during the heaviest week(s) of the year so far

All summer long I was sent out to various neighbouring DO's, learning a different walk nearly every day. Even though my DO was run on a skeleton crew, with walks which I could have been learning, being lapsed. I counted 5 neighbouring DO's in total, all wasted experience which could have been invested and saved for when it is needed the most.

Back at my DO the proverbial s**t hit the fan early last week, on the heaviest weeks of the year, someone went sick on a duty in a complex city centre, and guess who they choose to cover? A spare with no experience of the duty, even though I've been with the DO for 2 YEARS! Of course as mistakes creep in the customer will complain, the management will be quick to blame and eager to reprimand.

This is just another tale of shortsighted management. The business is inefficient and seems to be running into the ground, steadily losing goodwill from customers and employees alike

What a waste

That is life as a spare. At the end of the day you have a finish time and if you can’t get it done by then make you you follow the cutting off procedure and take it back. Unless it’s a rural delivery then most urban jobs aren’t too difficult unless the frame isn’t up to scratch.

jd9442 · Post by **jd9442** » 24 Nov 2018, 00:21

When you’re sent out to all these other offices, do you arrive at your own office first each morning, have them transport you to the other office, then get transported back to your own office in time for your contracted finishing time? Start doing it, they’ll stop sending you out