A very masculine environment.....

[Woody Guthrie]

When I started in Royal Mail it was a sausage fest, a very masculine environment which to be fair was pretty toxic for the few female staff we had. We had around 60 staff back then and about 55 were male.

Now our office is much larger (maybe 130+) and I'd say about 50+ female.

I just wondered how people think their office has improved for female staff, my office is certainly a better place to work for men with a lot less confrontation, both verbal and physical but I just wondered if others felt the same.

Also as a related point over the 14 years or so I've been posting on here this is probably about as sparse for female contributors I've seen it, if the business is employing more female staff why are we not seeing it reflected here? Are we getting something wrong?

[comeracing]

I work at a small office probobly more females on the payrole than males,no problem with any male members,and no problem with 90 % of the female staff,just the 10% who are back stabbers dont do the job as it should be and who've been there 5 minutes and know it all.

[Alexei]

We often joke in the office that when the manager employs females he is trying to be progressive. We have one long term female that is PHG. She often admits she couldn't do a delivery and was lucky she got the opportunity for PHG when she did. Other than that, we've had a maximum of around four females in an office of around 40-50 staff at one time, but over the course of my time in RM (15y) there has probably been around 10 official RM employee's all in. There's been some agency and of course there have been female reserve managers, but very few posties.

I don't know the exact reasons why they quit, I think it might be a combination of rubbish working conditions, toxic masculinity and finding something better, it would certainly be sexist of me to make the easy inference and say they are not suited to the job, but it's a noticeable pattern as there seems to be a much higher turnover with the fairer sex.

[DGH]

My office has certainly been improved by female staff, as you say, Woody, it's a more restrained and far less 'laddish' place (it's still pretty laddish, but not as toxically so).

So far as relative performance is concerned, there doesn't seem to be much difference, despite the claim of some male staff that 'the girls get all the easy routes' (this is easily disprovable as its demonstrably untrue and it's very amusing to point it out as it tends to infuriate those who make the claim in the first place).

If I had to pick ten staff who I'd like to be paired with on a shared walk or who I'd want prepping a walk for me, probably four of them would be female, which is proportionate to their representation. If I had to pick ten staff to definitely avoid being paired with or having prep my walk, all but one would be male . . .

Turnover amongst female staff might be slightly higher but to be honest I'd say that might be just more perception than reality.

We haven't had too many female managers but in the 20-odd years I've been here, three of the ten best have been female, which is good going considering the sheer turnover of managers and that only five have been women in that time (only one an ex-postie).

[Celgar]

I think female managers are more capable as communication skills are the number one prerequisite for the job.
As regards banter and such like the office I work in wouldn't currently be suitable for most female staff to work in. I won't elaborate further on the issue.

[Dorset Plodder]

I think female managers are more capable as communication skills are the number one prerequisite for the job.
As regards banter and such like the office I work in wouldn't currently be suitable for most female staff to work in. I won't elaborate further on the issue.

I'd agree with you there Celgar. When I first joined I had a Female DOM (that sounds pervy) and a Female Area Manager. Both very good at their jobs. As you say they're better at communication

We've now got an approv 60/40 split Boys/Girls. I can't see it really being a problem. We have Gobshites of both sexes, we have Shite Posties of both sexes, and we have Very Good Posties of both sexes.

Some General Points:

I feel Female Staff tend to be more easily "persuaded" to take Lapsing, Not Cut Off etc.

They are less willing to "Rock the Boat" and will often take far too much work out. Causing themselves Stress.

Perhaps there's less Female Posters on RMC as they seem to prefer other Social Networking Apps? Plus they like to post photos (I've got Daughters)!

I'd like to see a Higher Proportion of Female DOMS (again sounds pervy), as I despair at the Dire Standard of some Male DOMs. They really do need to communicate with the staff, and often seem incapable of holding a logical conversation without recourse to quoting traffic figures and prep times as the answer to any problem! Some even resort to shouting, and arguing, with staff on the shop floor .... very unprofessional

[postslippete]

True

I've noticed a sharp increase in female postal workers and I've also seen quite a few of them quit. One in particularly was part-time who I used to work with from time to time. She was an excellent worker but she needed to be finished at a certain time so that she could pick the kids up from school. I have to say that Royal Mail were not very accommodating towards her by placing her on different shifts in different sections often with the mail/packets not even ready in the frame and yet the managers just expected her to race round and get everything done, when they could have at least taken a few loops off to help her out.

The weird thing is that Royal Mail recruit these workers who have childcare to deal with and then make it difficult for them when they are employed. Why?

There isn't that many female managers at our depot and I often wonder if its because theres too much testosterone and bad BO in the managers office??

[Dorset Plodder]

The weird thing is that Royal Mail recruit these workers who have childcare to deal with and then make it difficult for them when they are employed. Why?

Same goes for Part Timers. They recruit them on a 35 hr Contract ... put them on a MASSIVE 38 hr Duty that ALWAYS needs an hour or two OT ...... and then Kick Off when the PTer only wants to work his 35 hrs!

DOM: "But this is a Full Time Duty .... I need to get everything taken out"
Postie: "Well I'm only on a 35 hr contract.... I've got to pick the kids up"

[POSTMAN]

50%of our Board are female
32%of our senior managers are women
2,600 women were hired into new operational grades
19% of our workforce overall

Our Corporate Responsibility report for 2019-20