Xmas Radical rethink required.

[priority102]

Managers are paid large salaries to run offices to an efficiency that produces the figures the directorship and shareholders require, but the reality is that in many cases they are miles away from those figures. If a manager's office is failing then their job is on the line, so a bit of creative accounting here and there keeps their bum on the seat, and those above (like Simon) are oblivious and think all is rosy in the garden.

The only way out of this mess for the humble postie (who is just an 8 digit number in terms of appreciation), is to leave - it ain't gonna change!

[no1postie]

the biggest most ridiculous, final straw on duty failures, is not having oversize packet drivers that we always had for christmas pressure. despite the online shopping revolution extra sacans etc and covid. everyday posties stand back in amazement to show off their rammed corsa vans at the depo and say f#ck£4g hell, look at that lot !

[ihatedogs]

The fact that we have created and sustained a management culture where not one single person has the balls to stand up and tell their superiors the truth is shameful in this day and age.

I know of one DOM who stood up to his boss recently by refusing to declare his office clear every day.
Was almost immediately moved sideways.

[claretandblue]

It's the same every year, they just try and wing it, get through each day and hopefully clear the office by Christmas eve.

[SpacePhoenix]

the biggest most ridiculous, final straw on duty failures, is not having oversize packet drivers that we always had for christmas pressure. despite the online shopping revolution extra sacans etc and covid. everyday posties stand back in amazement to show off their rammed corsa vans at the depo and say f#ck£4g hell, look at that lot !

Not enough vans or drivers?

[deltaforce]

Not enough office budget to run a effective Christmas Pressure combined with high sick levels and you have the perfect storm ……for the second year running!

[priority102]

I know of one DOM who stood up to his boss recently by refusing to declare his office clear every day.
Was almost immediately moved sideways.
[/quote]

Exactly as per my post earlier.

[Hyrrokkin]

Cannot disagree with any of that .. the knee-jerk reaction from the top brass is just plain embarrassing .. and yet they still remain oblivious to the full extent of the problem because the middle management from DOM's upwards have consistently hidden the truth from their bosses and simply told them what they want to hear .. the fact that senior management haven't made the effort to find out for themselves what the reality was in the delivery offices is no excuse .. the article that has appeared on the BBC News website today is still just a watered down version of what we're experiencing, I would suggest, in every single delivery office up and down the country.

The Bosses know exactly what is going on - they always have...they choose to do nothing

Good post. Unfortunately even if management wanted to, they can’t get out of this mess now. We could revert to pre revision rounds, but you can’t just magic up vans, more postmen etc. It’s too late to recruit any now bearing in mind any new starter will take time to get up to speed. The best bet is probably to entice some ex posties from Mail centres back into delivery just for a few weeks but let’s be honest, how many would offer? They’d have to be offered incentives which then pees off more of the workforce.

This has been coming for months. I just feel like things will boil over soon - all it’s going to take is another stupid letter from Simon, a rambling video from Terry or a ‘posties cancel Christmas’ story from one of the gutter press. Then watch the fallout.

Not a chance in hell that would ever happen - no one in their right mind would go to DO from MC during Christmas

[smartecosse]

Customers couldn’t give two hoots who delivered there parcels/letters as long as they get them. The customers are not your friends and neither is management.
Look after yourself and health.

[HTPostman]

Not a chance in hell that would ever happen - no one in their right mind would go to DO from MC during Christmas

That’s why I say they’d have to offer incentives which would then annoy the rest of us already on the delivery side.

Personally I didn’t enjoy my 2 days in a Mail centre and much prefer delivery BUT....if I was offered a £300 bonus or given 3 extra weeks of annual leave in return for working in a mail centre up to Christmas Eve I would.

Won’t happen I know.

[goneaway]

It seems that RM management have lost sight of what's been happening in the "peak" season, not recognising that the peak period for demand has been extended year on year, but still, resources are not really extended until the end of November (and this year, there was skimping on dedicated packet duties and recruitment, until the sudden knee jerk in early December, when there was a sudden realisation there weren't enough vans to deal with the 33% increase in parcel volume from pre-Covid). Instead, the company was distracted by an obsession at all costs to introduce unrealistic revisions across the board, to appease shareholders, which in most cases only came into force right at the busiest time of year. The original vision to make each delivery "fairer" just turned into how to make each delivery "bigger", to cut hours paid out across the board - a cost-cutting exercise, at a time the company needed to expand resources to take full advantage of the rise in demand for parcels. Can ANYONE step forward and say that their delivery was reduced in size or duration, because too much housing expansion has been added onto their duty over the years, to make it fairer? If anyone can honestly say that has happened with their duty, I'll eat my Christmas jumper!

The whole nature of the pre-Christmas period has changed in the last few years. Up till a few years ago, there was just Christmas to worry about, until the UK suddenly imported "Black Friday" from the States. When that started, the special deals were only available on Black Friday itself (the last Friday in November, the day after Thanksgiving in the US) and even then, it was mainly just in high street shops, with a separate "Cyber Monday" three days later for online bargains. Now, Cyber Monday seems to have largely melted away, and "Black Friday" has expanded from one day to the whole month of November, judging by all the retailers' promotional emails in my email inbox this year. The management of this company seem to have been oblivious to the way the retail winds have been blowing, and have allowed an already faltering reputation among the general public to go right down the pan in the last few months, by failing to adapt.

[goneaway]

the biggest most ridiculous, final straw on duty failures, is not having oversize packet drivers that we always had for christmas pressure. despite the online shopping revolution extra sacans etc and covid. everyday posties stand back in amazement to show off their rammed corsa vans at the depo and say f#ck£4g hell, look at that lot !

One of the posties at one of our local Delivery Offices was expected to take out a van that could only be started with a screwdriver! You can't make this stuff up! Not only his bags but all his own "overweights", as not enough dedicated parcel runs in that office this year.

[Mr Rush]

the middle management from DOM's upwards have consistently hidden the truth from their bosses and simply told them what they want to hear

On re-reading this I can't help but have the fall of Afghanistan come to mind. They had a ghost army that only existed on paper, we had a fleet.

[HTPostman]

the biggest most ridiculous, final straw on duty failures, is not having oversize packet drivers that we always had for christmas pressure. despite the online shopping revolution extra sacans etc and covid. everyday posties stand back in amazement to show off their rammed corsa vans at the depo and say f#ck£4g hell, look at that lot !

Not only his bags but all his own "overweights", as not enough dedicated parcel runs in that office this year.

Same here, the way it was sold to us was your round would be made bigger but anything above shoebox size would go with a packet driver.

We are an office of about 100 rounds and hired 10 new starters as packet drivers to do the afternoon shift. All well and good, only management (yes that word again) decided to keep messing with their days off, changing them at short notice, generally treating them like an irritation just like they do with all new starters (and most employees, to be honest).

These drivers start at 1pm but vans aren’t available while 2.30pm at the earliest so they are heading out sometimes as late as 4pm to the sticks in the dark with only the useless RON or whatever it’s called as navigation. Finish time is 6pm but they’ve been pressured to stay out until 8pm.

Surprise surprise, SEVEN have quit because they’ve realised what a shambles it is and they can easily earn 25 hours basic elsewhere.

Then 2 of our 3 LAT drivers have gone off sick, 1 of them because he kept being given cutoffs to do on the way out even though he again was getting back at 8pm.

So those 3 remaining packet drivers are instead pretty much doing LATs between them and they look fed up. Meanwhile the large packets are given back to us and we are told leave letters, just ensure tracked are done.

We are advertising for new packet drivers, and you can guarantee they’ll be given Tuesdays off unless there’s a bank holiday elsewhere. And so it continues.

Shambolic and disgraceful management from everyone from Simon right down to line management.

[Mick100]

Been doing the job thirty years start on time take a break finish on time,if they have made rounds impossible to finish thats their problem
We don't get paid enough to stress out