Worked over 40 years and feel completely let down.

[rockncurly]

Dear all

I have worked at Royal Mail for over 40 years.
The last year and a half have been like hell and the final straw was in June when I went of Sick with Stress.

It took 11 weeks for a manager to personally contact me and at 13 weeks and the management at my office still are unaware of why and what caused me to be off sick with stress as I have not had any face to face meetings.

Having had no support from any manager at my office i sorted out my own stress counselling for the past 12 weeks this has been a great help. So much for such a big company that prides its self on helping all its staff with mental health support.

I must add this is the most time off for sick in over 40 years, I feel not wanted by this company which I have put most of my life into. At this time I'm not sure when they will be going to help me let me explain why I'm off or give me any support or even find out why and what caused it.

I'm sure this is going on at many offices and many employees are suffering from the incompetence and negligence of a lack of care from many a management team.

I will try to keep my chin up

Yours
A very unhappy angry stressed suffering Postman.

[woody38]

What u have been through this last 2 years is like nothing you have every experienced in your whole career with RM, u don’t realise how it has effected u until the slightest thing triggers something. The problem is and still is most RM managers do not now how to handle stress or anxiety issues. Glad u are betting some support, come back to RM when u are ready let your body mend though first.

[NWpostie]

I learned very early on in my career that you're just a number, once you realise that you'll never be dissapointed ever and that makes it easier to deal with.

[ssdd]

Hi rockncurly. You know it's guys like you I feel sorry for the most. Some of the most senior in the business. You've basically committed your whole life to the service at 40 years!
Whilst I am nowhere near that length of time with RM, I've been with them from quite a few years before privatisation. For me, it started to go wrong when it became a business rather than a service.

However, this last year and a half has been a test on us all. For anyone already struggling, the chaos, uncertainty and fear surrounding not only your working environment, but life itself can be too much to bear. I lost someone to suicide last year, and I know it was due to Covid, and in particular lockdowns.

I worry too, you know, about the future. Life appears to be speeding up with expectations on employees increasing. But we can only do so much. Even machines, if overrun, will break down.

I do wonder about the lack communication. Your DOM is aware you're off with stress but doesn't know the reasons. Is it possible that the DOM is allowing you time and not wanting to place any more pressure on you? Also, how is your relationship with the DOM? Would you feel comfortable calling him/her to enquire about any help? Sorry, a lot of questions I'm throwing at you there. I'm not expecting an answer, just more for consideration...

I don't know if you tried RMs First Class Support service. It may be of some use to you if you haven't. Here's some details:

Directory - available support.pdf

Best of luck to you, and I hope you get the support you need quickly.

[nightcrawler]

I feel your pain rockncurly. I’ve done 30 years, and the last 18 months have been hell. I had some time off last year with stress. Its now getting bad again, where I’m having trouble sleeping. I am seriously thinking of leaving the job soon because I don’t think I can handle another Christmas. Another option I’m looking at is taking a sabbatical of either 6 months or a year.
If you don’t mind me asking did you pay for your stress counselling? I’m assuming it’s not something you can do on the NHS? When I was off with stress last year it was only for 3 weeks, but I never seeked professional help. Maybe that’s something I should do. Then again, will it help in the long term? Let’s face it, this job is only going to get worse

[fb1969]

I have suffered badly with stress at work for the last eighteen months. I had private counselling (paid for by myself) and after having time off sick I went through Feeling First Class. I received a series of weekly sessions of counselling by phone through FFC which helped a bit but didn't provide any solutions, especially not when I was in the RM atmosphere every day. Now that I have had those sessions I was told that I cannot have any more for the time being as that was all that RM allowed.

[priority102]

Well let me tell you. I left recently after nearly 25 years, and I have no hesitation in saying that it is the best decision I have made in many years.

I feel a completely different person, others I know who have left call it "returning to being a normal human being". The place was beyond bearable for me and enough was enough.

You are literally a number, and a number that will be crossed out if you make a slight mistake, and the longer service you've got the more they're gunning to get rid of you. The atmosphere is toxic now, all down to senior management.

To those of you who think Simon and Terry will make it a better place to be…..dream on.

Many places will employ ex posties for their local knowledge, hard work ethic and experience, AND treat you better. Very sad a job that was so high profile and one to be proud to wear the uniform of go so far south.

[Sugar]

Well let me tell you. I left recently after nearly 25 years, and I have no hesitation in saying that it is the best decision I have made in many years.

I feel a completely different person, others I know who have left call it "returning to being a normal human being". The place was beyond bearable for me and enough was enough.

You are literally a number, and a number that will be crossed out if you make a slight mistake, and the longer service you've got the more they're gunning to get rid of you. The atmosphere is toxic now, all down to senior management.

To those of you who think Simon and Terry will make it a better place to be…..dream on.

Many places will employ ex posties for their local knowledge, hard work ethic and experience, AND treat you better. Very sad a job that was so high profile and one to be proud to wear the uniform of go so far south.

I'll echo that, though not quite 25 years service, and it's been the best decision I ever did. Like you Rockncurly it was the mental side of the job with p!ss poor bully boy managers causing a vast majority of it. They don't care about staff, they are incompetent to an unbelievable level that I doubt any of them would survive outside of royal mail and I'd guess 90% of all royal mails issues are purely down to management of all levels being cr@p at what they are paid to do.

As you say keep your chin up and stay strong. I got a new job and it's worlds away from the nasty culture that is in royal mail DO's.

P.S. Simon is you're reading this maybe you should spend some time talking to a bunch of us that left/forced out of royal mail and finding out what really caused us to go. You might actually get the truth and not just the brown nosing tosh that your underling managers feed you.

[PARCELHORSE]

I completely echo all of the comments on this subject. 28 years in and I am going early very soon. It's a complete shambles and bears no resemblance to what I joined in 1994.

The rot started with the van share fiasco and the attendant bullying dished out to try and make it work. Privatisation and the greedy ruthless spivs have totally f****d it as a service and an employer.

Super Simon and his tame CWU buddies really need to get to grass route level and tackle the issues not just have backslapping love ins and spout platitudes at a broken workforce.

It's sad to see a once great institution reduced to this by greed but bollocks I have had enough..sorry for all you folks who have to stay.

[tomtallis]

.

[rockncurly]

Many thanks to everyone who have given me support and guidance to find help. Much more than I have had from my office and its now been 14 weeks now off sick.
Rockncurly

[Post Off]

Sorry for all you've gone through there, rockncurly. Stress might not be a killer, but I know of one fellow who went blind. Not sure if it would have happened anyway, but I don't doubt that stress can lead to all manner of debilitating changes to someone's health.

Last week, someone overheard me wanting to put my notice / resignation in. So that went all round the office. But this job has changed so much that I don't think anyone whose been in the job for good chunk of their time can now cope with it all. I've been in this job for over 33 years and I'm so fooked, it's unreal. For me, it's just work, eat and sleep! I'm not going to be wasting anymore my time trying to cope with it all. I'm done! That's fooking it for me.

Most of the stress, I think, is incurred while trying to get out of the bloody office. Last Christmas, I had 7 bloody door-2-doors. God only knows what sh*t we'll have to put up with this Christmas. And then, you've got a management wanting us to work as a team — what bloody team? Oh, they must mean the one's throwing up their own work in-between throwing up the part-time duties? Basically, they're working for themselves and not contributing one iota to the inward sorting. And what's even funnier is, the one's left behind are working for them. LOL

[cpsteve]

For an easy job far to many people are off with stress poor management is partly to blame we ourselves are to blame as well we make finishing as quickly as poss a reason to be stressed when for the vast majority of us an hour here or there makes no odds.