Sure we can

[norbert]

I'm sorry but I think PJ has been on too many motivational / NLP courses .

To be fair a career awaits - it's a lucrative business - the country runs on B/S - a lot of stuff isn't really real .

You don't get this Planet Courier " Brave New World " when you shove a round peg into a square hole - you just get the worst of both cultures .

All this we are team & there's no I ( there's two in idiot though ) in team is sugar to swallow sh** with .

This Lady was a rising star with A4e until she came over as a cross between Marjorie Dawes from Little Britain's Fat Fighters and Pauline from The League of Gentlemen on telly . Maybe PJ is wasted as a postman in RM .

[peejay14]

I'm afraid, clashcityrocker, that if I attempt to try and give as serious a reply to your mind boggling post there, then I will only insult your intelligence. You have studied a lot more history than I have, and so your future is more influenced by the past than mine is.

Nobody is going to die, you are extremely politically minded, I am not pro-slavery, we'll never work on December 25 again, I am defending my right to prove myself at work by simply working because that should be enough (a right that both company management and union are attacking), and as for the little girl - I would call the Police.

We are fantastically different types of Postie. I am forward looking, due to a dearth of historical background knowledge, which makes me optimistic. You spend more time looking back than I do, have a depth of historical insight, but are holding back the plans of the company.

We have strong reasons to criticise one another.

I am more of a postie than you, but that is not an insult, you are more involved in the politics and are emotionally tied to the company which makes you a more complete postie than me, I am simply someone who delivers mail and is concerned with exceeding what is expected of me without putting my decisions into an historical context (not that I easily could anyway if I had to).

I could go on comparing and contrasting, but I think that most people will be able to draw their own conclusions, and I know that most on here will lean towards your perspective. I find the contempt for RM from some on here quite alarming

We're from different schools, and you must have spent longer in yours than I did, particularly history class.

[axeman]

Could think of another phrase that would be more apt than 'i'm more of a postie than you' but you wouldn't like it peejay thats for sure

[BELIAL]

Jesus that is scary
I Am a clone. I am untainted by inconvenient knowledge or wider awareness. I am a more desirable unit of production given my total ignorance

[norbert]

Jesus that is scary
I Am a clone. I am untainted by inconvenient knowledge or wider awareness. I am a more desirable unit of production given my total ignorance

Stepford Postmen eh ? - to be fair RM must love all this .

I associate clones be it blue or white shirts , with Animal House management - corruption usually goes hand in hand with it . :lfo had a few ? clones in RM . No wonder RM has problems .

Still shouldn't take on myself to get involved with " matters that are of no concern to myself " & show such alarming contempt for RM - the Hooper report was critical about lack of leadership and failure to take staff with them .

As Ernie Shoe said we should all be walking arm in arm out of the gate and forgo O/T

[peejay14]

No wonder RM has problems.

Sure it has problems, but not with me.

Royal Mail may like my approach to my job, but that still doesn't mean that I will get to keep my job, for which like all posties I have to work very hard.

I may be ignorant of significant past issues involving the company and the union movement as you say, but today's issues will not be resolved purely by applying lessons from the past. I doubt if a large proportion of all those who went on strike are as aware of such issues and their relevance as you are.

Doesn't the phrase 'modernisation' suggest that the company is trying to move on from what has, or hasn't, worked in the past? That my approach to the job may be well suited to what the company management has in mind for the job in the future, is the point that I tried to make a few posts ago, and again I would ask if I can be rightly and roundly criticised for taking such an approach? It's not that I choose company over union, it's just that I want to get on in my job, and although I may be in a small minority on this board by refusing to strike, I am just one of millions of people around the world doing what we think is in the best interests of the company we want to work for, withstanding the guidance of the union while we have confidence in the company.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Doesn't the phrase 'modernisation' suggest that the company is trying to move on from what has, or hasn't, worked in the past?

Superficially yes - Dig a little deeper and you will find that its not.

Modernisation should improve the service we give to the public. Has it. http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/we_dont_ ... trike.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - check the Give the Public a service - Yep that's Royal Mails job and guess how they do that section of the article at the link.

Modernisation should improve and reduce the processes items go through. Will Walk Sequencing do that - no its been added as another stage in the process and will mean later deliveries ergo a reduction in service.

The only thing that Modernisation means to Royal Mail is savings and reduction of costs. There is nothing wrong in that if the overall process is to improve the service we provide - Please point out any improvements you have seen I would be most interested in debating them.

[Tman]

Will Walk Sequencing do that - no its been added as another stage in the process and will mean later deliveries ergo a reduction in service.

It's "supposed" to take out the final manual handling/sorting stage, so it hasn't added another stage at all (in theory). In reality, there's far too many ex-postie managers in RM at all levels, and all they know is what they've experienced over X number of years. Too many of them still see RM as a manual operation with the occasional unwanted help of some daft machines, and plan and implement on that basis.

"You know where you are with two hundred posties and some DBFs" as one so eloquently said some years back.

The only thing that Modernisation means to Royal Mail is savings and reduction of costs. There is nothing wrong in that if the overall process is to improve the service we provide

But it isn't there for that. It's to reduce staff costs by reducing the (unreliable and expensive) human element in an ever-tighter market. Whether that is good for Joe Public or morally right is not the point, but one of the the main advantages RM has over it's so-called competitors is an advanced network of automation, and the CSSs will be part of that.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

It's "supposed" to take out the final manual handling/sorting stage, so it hasn't added another stage at all (in theory). In reality, there's far too many ex-postie managers in RM at all levels, and all they know is what they've experienced over X number of years. Too many of them still see RM as a manual operation with the occasional unwanted help of some daft machines, and plan and implement on that basis.

That, to a DO postie makes no sense as even if they do sequence the mail and we don't manually sort it into the frame, we still have to merge all the flats, packets, and unmeched mail, (this is called Desktop merging) and will help save very little time if any at all.

We will still have to manually sort so it may be in theory a reduction in processes, in real life and in practice its an addition.

Of course if the real plans, as some suspect is a delivery based on the "Dutch Model" then perhaps it will. Can you imagine possibly 3 deliveries to one house in one day -

Delivery 1 - WSM/Meched Mail
Delivery 2 - Unmeched, Flats and small packets.
Delivery 3 - Large Packets

[norbert]

It's "supposed" to take out the final manual handling/sorting stage, so it hasn't added another stage at all (in theory). In reality, there's far too many ex-postie managers in RM at all levels, and all they know is what they've experienced over X number of years. Too many of them still see RM as a manual operation with the occasional unwanted help of some daft machines, and plan and implement on that basis.

That, to a DO postie makes no sense as even if they do sequence the mail and we don't manually sort it into the frame, we still have to merge all the flats, packets, and unmeched mail, (this is called Desktop merging) and will help save very little time if any at all.

We will still have to manually sort so it may be in theory a reduction in processes, in real life and in practice its an addition.

Of course if the real plans, as some suspect is a delivery based on the "Dutch Model" then perhaps it will. Can you imagine possibly 3 deliveries to one house in one day -

Delivery 1 - WSM/Meched Mail
Delivery 2 - Unmeched, Flats and small packets.
Delivery 3 - Large Packets

The Dutch plan is "adapted" to the UK - make of that what you will - You are right about the usual corporate superficiality about " modernisation " , Tman does have a point about some RM managers - RM is all they've known since they were cadets and tend to be negative .

RM have planning managers but don't really do planning unless it's for disasters .

[peejay14]

" RM have planning managers but don't really do planning unless it's for disasters. "

Norbert, I hope you are wrong.


" Superficially yes - Dig a little deeper and you will find that its not. "

TrueBlueTerrier, I respect your opinion.


" One of the main advantages RM has over it's so-called competitors is an advanced network of automation, and the CSSs will be part of that. "

Tman, I hope you are right.


Some on here think that I am a DOM, but really I am just an over-eager postie, yet not over-eager to do whatever my DOM tells me, instead over-eager to help improve the service. My posts are more about principals than practise, I believe in my principals and feel that scope for working by them is hampered just now, and so I came on here to put them to the test. I haven't been in the job long enough to be telling others how they should be doing their jobs, and this, added to my 'pie-in-the-sky' thinking, leaves most serious members of this board with little else to do than chew my posts up and spit them out.

I am not offering ways to overcome the sticking points at the negotiating table, I am essentially trying to offer a rationale for choosing an alternative form of action to the one taken in October.

I naively thought that I could bring some balance to this board from the perspective of the neutral member. I have been taught a few lessons in what it means to be a postie, and I am questioning myself more at the minute than I am those who made an effort to reply to me.

For a little while, I don't think that I'll be posting as much as I have been over the last two months (for three things, I have my new year wedding to organise, we've a 2nd child on the way, and we'll be moving house soon to accommodate), but I'll pop in now and again to add my tuppence worth. (Going by my exchange-rate, the board may or may not lose out on about 50k in every post )

I've been called many things on here, but I've always been honest and earnest in my assertions. I apply myself at work in this way too. I am no-body's fool except my own. I threw a bit of a spanner in the works on here, because I realised that it needed it, and so did I (probably more the latter than the former). I won't be throwing a spanner in the works at the office, because it's my realisation that the company doesn't need that just now.

If this board is a fair reflection of feelings amongst us blueshirts, then what we are lacking is proper leadership, and I was not saying that in my earliest posts; that olive-branch of support for my strongest of critics is testament to the strength of your arguments. Keep up the good work

I'll finish this post before it gets customarily too long, by saying that after a meeting with my DOM this morning, I have slightly earlier starts to look forward to over christmas to cope with an addition to my walk, and I have agreed to work on my day off. It's all part of the plan.

BRING IT ON !

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Congratulations on the Wedding and the future arrival as well.

[Stormproof]

I'll finish this post before it gets customarily too long

Bit late for that

[krussel]

Bye for now Peejay i hope your 2nd xmas with the company goes well.

Wedding, moving house and a new baby next year your going to be run of your feet.

Buddy you wont have the energy for any more of those late night posts on here.


Catch you later mate

[clashcityrocker]

Congratulations peejay, that is good news. (The wedding and the baby I mean , not the fact you will not be posting so often)