Thoughts after 10 weeks

[Caesar]

Having done manual outdoor work for most of my working life, I've found this job to be not too bad physically. The first few weeks where pretty hard on my legs and left me tired in the evenings but I feel fine now.
I had been wearing RM footwear for the first 6 weeks without any problems but then my left foot started hurting so I wore my own footwear and all is well again.
My week of training didn't really prepare me for what was to come. I did feel that once I was on my own, I was left to sort out my own problems. This meant that I had to learn pretty fast and after a couple of weeks I was doing my loops faster.
I've been lucky in that I've been on the same walk for 9 of my 10 weeks but I've also experienced a few loops from other walks by doing O/T.
I've worked with a few different partners and none of them have ever taken a break.
When I started my main concern was speeding up and didn't even think about breaks. I don't eat or drink during my shift so never felt the need to sit down for half an hour.
I've also been working my rest day for the past 5 weeks and regularly do 40+ hrs.
I usually start up to 15 min before my start time. This 15 min is the extra time I give myself in case of traffic delays travelling to the DO. I know that I could just sit in the canteen until my start time but this would just make my day seem longer.
The biggest pressure for me is getting out of the DO at a decent time. If we are late leaving it often means that we have to do 1 pm specials out of sequence which adds time to our shift.
I've not had any problems claiming O/T as long as I remember to inform my manager.

[Yamr1]

Starting 15 minutes early every day.

That's giving the company a extra 75 minutes every week.

If all the p/t do that in your office it will cause extra lapsing and every 6 month no arguments to get some p/t hours made up.

[Caesar]

Starting 15 minutes early every day.

That's giving the company a extra 75 minutes every week.

If all the p/t do that in your office it will cause extra lapsing and every 6 month no arguments to get some p/t hours made up.

I still have to get my head around this. Would this mean that ghosting would have the opposite affect ? In the past I've been asked to do a couple of extra loops for a set amount of O/T that is always on the generous side.

[tommyrep]

Starting 15 minutes early every day.

That's giving the company a extra 75 minutes every week.

If all the p/t do that in your office it will cause extra lapsing and every 6 month no arguments to get some p/t hours made up.

It’s the same trap all new starts basically fall into, unfortunately it normally turns out to be an expectation in the long term.

[gand]

Starting 15 minutes early every day.

That's giving the company a extra 75 minutes every week.

If all the p/t do that in your office it will cause extra lapsing and every 6 month no arguments to get some p/t hours made up.

I still have to get my head around this. Would this mean that ghosting would have the opposite affect ? In the past I've been asked to do a couple of extra loops for a set amount of O/T that is always on the generous side.

What's hard to get your head around, your working 75 minutes for free every week, and making the person who doesn't work 75 minutes free every week look less productive.

[norris9]

What's hard to get your head around, your working 75 minutes for free every week, and making the person who doesn't work 75 minutes free every week look less productive.

Surely management should see things for how they are. Not use it against someone else when someone comes in early.


For me the job is exhausting...I don't notice it so much on the round...I notice it when I am away from work, at home, going to bed early, pain when walking, muscles tightness. It is potentially enough to put me off the job in future as it really does affect life outside of work. I just hope the tiredness/aches become less.

[Postie45]

Surely management should see things for how they are. Not use it against someone else when someone comes in early.
.

youve been at RM long enough to know what *should* be the case, is NOT the case. This is why posties have issues on these forums, by coming in early working through breaks. The area managers look at time sheets of when people return to office, they wont know what breaks youve had, and when youve actually come in. All they see is a lot of posties finishing early or about on time and they then can "advise" the DOMs on how many hours theyre wasting. The area manager will also look at the resourcing calendar, see that volumes are going to drop over the summer and therefore "know" that these posties currently finishing on time (or early) will have spare time in the lighter period and therefore give you lapsing.

[Caesar]

What's hard to get your head around, your working 75 minutes for free every week, and making the person who doesn't work 75 minutes free every week look less productive.

No need to worry about making others look less productive, you should see how long it takes me to prep my walk lol

[Newbie001]

Always find it funny all the part-timers that start 15-30 min early. Can't speak for full-timers.
Especially when on rare occasion usually when busy they decide to go and sit with the part-timers that start on time. You then have managers come looking for them because they're not at the frame working for free. But they still don't get it. Crazy.

[norris9]

Surely management should see things for how they are. Not use it against someone else when someone comes in early.
.

youve been at RM long enough to know what *should* be the case, is NOT the case. This is why posties have issues on these forums, by coming in early working through breaks. The area managers look at time sheets of when people return to office, they wont know what breaks youve had, and when youve actually come in. All they see is a lot of posties finishing early or about on time and they then can "advise" the DOMs on how many hours theyre wasting. The area manager will also look at the resourcing calendar, see that volumes are going to drop over the summer and therefore "know" that these posties currently finishing on time (or early) will have spare time in the lighter period and therefore give you lapsing.

Well, if a manager ever has that conversation with me it's easy to argue my point. If they tell me to take a break, then I will, but on the busy days I'll leave a bag behind....

I am pretty sure most Posties do not take their break when out on their round, they prefer to finish early and at least in my depot, 80-90% of the time you can leave early if you finish early. I am pretty sure the managers know this is how most Postie's work.

As long as there is flexibility and some give and take - I don't mind. So far it's been ok.

On the busy days I finish on time or a bit late, but with no break. On the lighter days I finish 15-45 mins early. So it kind of balances itself out to my contracted hours.

I guess it depends on how flexible and understanding and reasonable your own managers are.....if they are not reasonable then you need to fight your corner, if the managers don't listen and want to continue overworking you....then why would you stay?

[steve1873]

What's hard to get your head around, your working 75 minutes for free every week, and making the person who doesn't work 75 minutes free every week look less productive.

No need to worry about making others look less productive, you should see how long it takes me to prep my walk lol

Let's add that up. 15 minutes every day. That is 75 minutes per week. ~3600 minutes per year or 60 hours!

That means you are basically giving Royal Mail over £700 of free labour per year!

Are Royal Mail a charity?

You also state you don't take a break. Again there is another 30 minutes per day. Or 120 hours per year. That is another £1400 per year you are gifting to this company!

[steve1873]

Surely management should see things for how they are. Not use it against someone else when someone comes in early.
.

youve been at RM long enough to know what *should* be the case, is NOT the case. This is why posties have issues on these forums, by coming in early working through breaks. The area managers look at time sheets of when people return to office, they wont know what breaks youve had, and when youve actually come in. All they see is a lot of posties finishing early or about on time and they then can "advise" the DOMs on how many hours theyre wasting. The area manager will also look at the resourcing calendar, see that volumes are going to drop over the summer and therefore "know" that these posties currently finishing on time (or early) will have spare time in the lighter period and therefore give you lapsing.

Well, if a manager ever has that conversation with me it's easy to argue my point. If they tell me to take a break, then I will, but on the busy days I'll leave a bag behind....

I am pretty sure most Posties do not take their break when out on their round, they prefer to finish early and at least in my depot, 80-90% of the time you can leave early if you finish early. I am pretty sure the managers know this is how most Postie's work.

As long as there is flexibility and some give and take - I don't mind. So far it's been ok.

On the busy days I finish on time or a bit late, but with no break. On the lighter days I finish 15-45 mins early. So it kind of balances itself out to my contracted hours.

I guess it depends on how flexible and understanding and reasonable your own managers are.....if they are not reasonable then you need to fight your corner, if the managers don't listen and want to continue overworking you....then why would you stay?

I doubt it balances out to your contracted hours.

Let's say for example you work 5 hours per day over 5 days. That is a 25 hour contract but with 2 and a half hours of that as your meal relief entitlement.

So you are saying that no matter what, not taking in to account overtime, you would only work 22.5 hours per week?

Come on people, we have to work smarter. PDA actual are monitoring us. Take your breaks and if it leads to there being too much work left in remaining time then have the conversation with management and let them manage!

[norris9]

I doubt it balances out to your contracted hours.

Let's say for example you work 5 hours per day over 5 days. That is a 25 hour contract but with 2 and a half hours of that as your meal relief entitlement.

So you are saying that no matter what, not taking in to account overtime, you would only work 22.5 hours per week?

Come on people, we have to work smarter. PDA actual are monitoring us. Take your breaks and if it leads to there being too much work left in remaining time then have the conversation with management and let them manage!

I am not sure what you are saying.

1. If you are asking if I work to the specific hours of my contract by the exact minute - then no, of course I don't.

2. If you are stating I must be working well over my time.....then cheers for calling me a liar.

[steve1873]

I doubt it balances out to your contracted hours.

Let's say for example you work 5 hours per day over 5 days. That is a 25 hour contract but with 2 and a half hours of that as your meal relief entitlement.

So you are saying that no matter what, not taking in to account overtime, you would only work 22.5 hours per week?

Come on people, we have to work smarter. PDA actual are monitoring us. Take your breaks and if it leads to there being too much work left in remaining time then have the conversation with management and let them manage!

I am not sure what you are saying.

1. If you are asking if I work to the specific hours of my contract by the exact minute - then no, of course I don't.

2. If you are stating I must be working well over my time.....then cheers for calling me a liar.

You state you more or less work your contracted hours! But I assume by "contracted hours" you are meaning your gross hours. Your actual net working hours include a 30 minute meal relief if your attendance is between 5 and 7 hours.

I'm not calling you a liar at all. I am asking you to re-evaluate your calculations based on the information I have provided.

[Scama_bug]

On the busy days I finish on time or a bit late, but with no break. On the lighter days I finish 15-45 mins early. So it kind of balances itself out to my contracted hours

That really makes no sense, if on a busy day you finish on time you could get paid for 30 minutes overtime which was suppose to be your break.

I really don't get it why people are so desperate to finish on time or 10 minutes before without taking their break.

I always get to work with people that are telling me we have to finish by 1pm because I have something to do, we will finish when we finish, i take my break and if we finish by 1 is all good.