What makes the job stressful in your opinion?

[ViperF]

Company trying to do the volume of parcels that other, parcel specific, companies do only without the infrastructure, technology or vehicles to do so

This is spot on. This is what I’ve been saying to my manager for the last two weeks

[Foxel]

Not knowing what I'm doing or where I am working unit I turn up for a shift. Or the shift being changed when I turn up.

Not knowing if I can feasibly go to a toilet. It was a big inconvenience for my partner yesterday.

Being expected to clear whatever I'm given and not knowing when I'll be home. Sure I could just work to time but that's not always easy when you are paired up and everyone else is clearing. Even leaving on time then becomes a stress in its self.

Knowing I'm doing more than one persons work.

Working with a different person and on a new round every couple of days.

It is mostly the uncertainty around these things that stress me. A little planning and consistency would go a long way.

[carlosevenos]

Love the job when outside the office, but for me its being in a job where you have to pretty much explain yourself when you want to work until your time. Like other jobs don't have that.
I don't like that awkwardness and can't say no too often, so I just go over and complete.
Also it seems like most people are quicker than me, despite me being young, and have no idea how they do it. Like why is everyone always rushing when you can't go home early and they keep adding to walks. Like people still not using trollies.

And I really have trouble as always need toilet and nowhere to go, yet no one else seems to have a problem with it.

Also the disregard for covid with lack of mask wearing and windows not being opened.

[Kenfandango]

being in a job where you have to pretty much explain yourself when you want to work until your time. Like other jobs don't have that.
I don't like that awkwardness and can't say no too often, so I just go over and complete.
Also it seems like most people are quicker than me, despite me being young, and have no idea how they do it.

Glad I'm not alone in this. I get that other jobs make you sit about when there's nothing to do, but conversely they don't make going home on time such a hassle. I know the responses will be "just work to time, anything not delivered is a managers problem," but those managers will just make it a postie's problem the next day, and that postie (if not you) will most likely blame you instead of the manager

[DDDJAM36]

Coming back from your day off , , to find double mail and double packets to prep , on a walk you've never been on before , at the busiest time of the year , plus 3 x d2d's to catch up on , add to that all the other hoops to jump through.

[spen]

When a colleague is supposed to be prepping your walk, and all morning you see them taking fag breaks, talking, messing on phone, on Facebook, ticktock, pornhub, doing anything other than prep the walks,, then when you get to your fitting and ask why it's not thrown in, they tell you they havnt had time

[HTPostman]

Other colleagues acting like management.

An increasingly out of touch Union.

No long term plan. Winging things every single day.

Having to faff about in a yard which has 70 vans squeezed into about 40 spaces.

Being sent out early with packets knowing you’ll have to move 7 vans to get to yours.


One of the main ones for me is just the feeling we aren’t adapting with technology. It’s like there’s a stench of outdated practices around the place. A bit like supporting a football club who once had the best stadium and best team in the league but that was 10/20 years ago, and now the place is falling down and the best players are leaving.

I’ve used this example before - Hermes (yeah their final point delivery has a poor reputation) reverse their truck to the depot, everything gets tipped onto conveyor belts, automatically scanned as it works along the belt to the correct round. 3 processes there from truck to van. Royal Mail reverse their truck full of York’s which have already been sorted automatically/manually. Someone pushes a york off the truck, someone unloads the york and scans them, then they get sorted into other yorks/sleeves, then those yorks get emptied as we put them on frames etc, then they go in pouches onto a york, then the york gets pushed again to the van, then sorted into the van. I make that 8 processes, most of them manually which adds a lot of human error. It’s just constant repetition.

[theotherone]

Absolute agree with you HTPostman re the Technology,on the flip side more Tech/Automation the less people you need to do it. So it's getting that balance right between the 2 which will be a major sticking point in the future with these Hubs etc.

[Kenfandango]

As someone who worked in an industry that got increasingly mechanised whilst our factory (due to an aging workforce with a fear of change) stuck to "the way we've always done it"...

Our factory doesn't exist anymore. By the time management realised they needed to catch up, the tech had advanced so much that it was not financially viable to invest in the machines or training required, and we couldn't keep up.

That's a bugbear of mine at RM. We are taught to sort out packets multiple times, and I'm actively discouraged from sorting them straight into the van instead of sorting them onto a York, around a frame, back onto a York, then sorted again into a van. There's a lot of very unnecessary work.
Before I started, I genuinely believed the mail arrived pre-sorted into walks. Sort of blew my mind that the people delivering have to sort it all as well

[Dannysmudge]

The need to rush around just to get duty finished 2 hour over finish time.

I'm part time but my full time partner insisting on taking the full walk and parcels out knowing full well it won't fit in the van and we have no chance of ever completing at a reasonable time.

[eastie]

Getting told to just do tracked items and leave untracked parcels and letters

[crimson king]

Forgetting to just not care anymore...

[Numberone63]

The fact that health and safety has truly gone.
Fire exits constantly blocked. I keep reporting it and trying to something about it.
Mask wearing is just if you feel like it or not now. I’d say not even 50% are wearing then correctly or at all. They do make good neck a chin warmers though.
We’ve not even been told the OFFICIAL stance on masks. Is it on or off. Are we a shop or a pub??????
Oh and our office is on the top 20 worst office list. Don’t we get an award or something??

[HairyHobbit]

The fact that health and safety has truly gone.
Fire exits constantly blocked. I keep reporting it and trying to something about it.
Mask wearing is just if you feel like it or not now. I’d say not even 50% are wearing then correctly or at all. They do make good neck a chin warmers though.
We’ve not even been told the OFFICIAL stance on masks. Is it on or off. Are we a shop or a pub??????
Oh and our office is on the top 20 worst office list. Don’t we get an award or something??

Not had covid or masked mentioned to me by a manager - I’ll wear one once they tell me to. I find it very uncomfortable due to a skin condition on my face but I’ll do it if I have to.

[yellowbelly]

The fact that health and safety has truly gone.
Fire exits constantly blocked. I keep reporting it and trying to something about it.
Mask wearing is just if you feel like it or not now. I’d say not even 50% are wearing then correctly or at all. They do make good neck a chin warmers though.
We’ve not even been told the OFFICIAL stance on masks. Is it on or off. Are we a shop or a pub??????
Oh and our office is on the top 20 worst office list. Don’t we get an award or something??

Not had covid or masked mentioned to me by a manager - I’ll wear one once they tell me to. I find it very uncomfortable due to a skin condition on my face but I’ll do it if I have to.

RM have stated facemasks compulsory again (unless you're exempt/unable to wear one) see post here:

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