posties without duty's

[SpacePhoenix]

and still they expect door to doors to go Why oh why cant these be deferred till after christmas.

I reckon the number of D2Ds will greatly increase all around the UK as we get nearer to Xmas

[toonshola]

The mental stress of the situation is something that needs to be urgently addressed.The DOM at our office hasn't once expressed any thanks or gratitude.People are working till 5 and 6pm ,its as though its expected and it will get worse.There is no space,no bands,limited PDAs and still they expect door to doors to go Why oh why cant these be deferred till after christmas.Some people will have serious breakdowns through this.

Your absolutely dead on. I’m someone who tends not to let this job get to me too much but I must admit after the last few weeks I’ve sat down this Sunday and contemplated getting a sick note for stress for the first time in 11 years working here. The thought of what the workload will be these next 5 weeks is making me ill. I’m gunna try going in tomorrow and see how things go. This job can be great at times but when it’s bad it’s horrendous.

[postslippete]

The root of the problem is really the silly (union agreed) 'negotiation' that is meant to take place before you go out as to how much you can take. This very often leads to pressure being put in inexperienced staff, and often on experienced staff on a job that's got heaps of mail and parcels because it becomes increasingly hard to make a sensible judgement about how much you can reasonably do.

Generally assertive senior staff just say what they're going to do and the managers agree. Less assertive and newer staff often feel pressured into taking more than they can manage, or get blagged into taking more by a manager saying 'x much should be easily doable'. Senior and otherwise assertive be staff witnessing this mostly just keep their heads down while this shameful thing is happening, working on the well known RM principle of 'I'm all right, Jack'

Very true and the best thing according to Terry Pullinger is that "you are the Union" so you are basically left to fight your own corner. The CWU have gone into hibernation this winter whilst they get our groundbreaking agreement

[FirstPost]

Just cut off or tell them you will be claiming double duty as OT if they want you to clear, if they dont pay you cut off next time. seems to work for us.

claim double duty?

[HTPostman]

It is exhausting, like others I try not to let it get to me and I’m fairly relaxed about it. Through choice I usually work 6 days a week, so that’s my fault for working my day off, I accept that. But that’s 6 days of constantly going on a different round each day that hasn’t gone for X days. When I hear a duty holder moaning because his round didn’t go on his day off so he has double mail once a week, I feel like asking if he’d like to swap.

Strangely enough it’s customers who wind me up more...you know the kind ‘Martin always gets here 23 minutes before you, Martin knows to deliver my parcels to 7 houses down the road where my aunties dog lives, do you know Martin’s favourite wine because we’d like to get him a bottle, Martin is a real part of the community, why don’t you bother to get your own round like Martin (that last one felt really insulting)’

[Cucumber]

It's pretty bad in ours for this type of thing.
Ex shared vans with 2 x full time staff given all the resources they need and more, including a third person doing their large parcels.
Then you get a 9am start part time member of staff thrown onto shared van duties that haven't gone out for days and have to do one duty (out of the 2, as the second one stays in 3-4 days a week) plus all the tracked for the 2 runs plus all large parcels.
Union says 'that's just the way it is'. Shameful.

[CHUCKYPIG]

Part time reserve here. Yes its a bit s**t. Moved from frame to frame on a manager's whim. But like some of the others say I just stand up for myself. If I want overtime I do it. If I don't want overtime I leave mail in the frame or if I have overestimated what I can do I bring it back. Its a bit of a pain but I'll cope. The worst bit for me was working in the dark but I'm now using my own car to deliver mail so avoiding the dark. I've never worked my day off and I never intend to. Gotta keep some energy in the tank or else will burn out. 5 days a week or royal mail is plenty enough for me :-)

[Cluaran]

Using your own car to deliver mail!!

[CHUCKYPIG]

Using your own car to deliver mail!!

The choice is.... use your own car to deliver mail or delivery mail in the dark. What would you do?

[Parmyarmy25]

Using your own car to deliver mail!!

The choice is.... use your own car to deliver mail or delivery mail in the dark. What would you do?

Catch the bus?

[ddtc]

Part time reserve here. Yes its a bit s**t. Moved from frame to frame on a manager's whim. But like some of the others say I just stand up for myself. If I want overtime I do it. If I don't want overtime I leave mail in the frame or if I have overestimated what I can do I bring it back.

Luckily my office has got to the point where managers don't bother asking why walks are not cleared. Less stress indeed and plus its obvious you can't clear anyway as we get out later and later. What annoys me is I've been practically on one walk since march. Then all of a sudden a senior full timer has gone off his walk and took the one I've been on mostly for xmas. Well there goes another no tip xmas. Fed up of some full timers looking after themselves. Plus when you are a day off cover the regular duty holder always makes sure all the d2ds are in when your on it, leaves so much parcels behind, and literally the least amount of mail possible before they have a day off. So yeah I used to care to clear but the selfishness of some, I can't be asked, they can moan all they like. I feel for you guys who can't face asking a manager, I've been there. Not a good feeling being confronted, but after you stand your ground more than once it gets easier honestly

[xPandabear1992x]

you're telling me.

I do afternoon starts. Whatever. I can cope. I mean, I've told management "if you get me starting in the morning, whatever loop im on will be cleared" instead of you just telling me to start at 12 and just take tracked and some mail. Obviously they weren't about to let that happen.

What I can't cope with is when there's a massive amount of mail and packets and stuff that haven't been sorted. I get in and most of the time my frame is one of 3 that have post and parcels yet to be sorted to varying degrees. What has been sorted has been put in the wrong loop, turned for on the wrong street etc so I now have to go through it all again and sort it properly. Then redis. Then waiting for a van. Then each time a van comes back "it's been reserved for steve's mate dave's mate jim on another sector". So I'm not going out on delivery till at least 2PM.

I normally try and squeeze in an hour overtime each day just to make a dent in it but I always end up bringing stuff back to the office, and I always get snarky comments from managers and stuff relating to the matter. The same managers who can't be arsed sorting the frame properly.

I'm dealing with a ton of horrible stuff in my personal life at the moment, and xmas/covid as well. When I say I'm dealing with it, I'm not. I've just gone past breaking point and now I'm off sick on stress grounds.

[Worn Out Donkey]

The mental stress of the situation is something that needs to be urgently addressed.The DOM at our office hasn't once expressed any thanks or gratitude.People are working till 5 and 6pm ,its as though its expected and it will get worse.There is no space,no bands,limited PDAs and still they expect door to doors to go Why oh why cant these be deferred till after christmas.Some people will have serious breakdowns through this.

Yeah, I found myself getting really stressed out, while picking up a bunch of overtime. Burnt myself out in the end, got super stressed, and it made an almost negligible difference to my take home pay.

Realised it wasn't worth the stress, so now I just do my hours, and go home with some energy left.

I'd urge everybody to make sure they are getting some work life balance and not over do it.

[Cedar_Room]

I’m FT & halfway up the seniority list & still a reserve by choice. A few walks have cropped up but I decided to pass,either I wasn’t keen the duty or working with the person I would be paired up with. I’ve been bounced around the office covering different walks pretty much since April & it genuinely doesn’t bother me. Stick me on a duty with 3-weeks mail if you like,I’ll take a couple of rows out & the tracked...if I have any time left I’ll return to the office to grab some more...if I don’t,I won’t...

[geromethegnome]

a spare in our DO resigned with immediate effect this week, don’t exactly know the ins & outs why but chatting with him in the past I think he just had enough of being thrown about like a rag doll poor bloke, thoroughly decent chap as well, gets me being a spare how frames aren’t looped expecting you how to know how to bundle the loops, no indication as to how or where packets are placed on shelves on the frames, approach a LM about it & they look at you gone out expecting you to know, SO frustrating, then they expect you to complete?