Testing of rounds

[deltaforce]

Yes most of us have done a multitude of duties before we got our own. That is part of learning the job, but the public prefer a regular postie, someone they know . That’s part of what separates us from the rest.

[Zicomurphy]

A completely outlandish suggestion, but why is it necessary to attach a postie to a duty permanently?(save for those with physically specific reasons)
A flexible, highly trained (stop laughing) workforce is one that can do any duty in the office. Why not move everyone on to the frame to your right after a week, permanent rotation, no more arguments about inequality of rounds, reserves getting stiffed etc. etc.

In my previous employ, you were paid an enhanced rate for every extra machine you could operate, the enthusiasm for learning was unsurprisingly high amongst all employees. In RM you have some who have only delivered to the same patch for decades, well that's fine but they are not as skilled as those who know 20 or 30 + deliveries and maybe that should be reflected in the pay rate. I'm sure the intransigence of a few would alter if the opportunity to earn a few extra shekels per hour were on offer.


...and no I haven't thought it through....

I don’t think you can say doing different walks equals learning different skills. Whichever walk you do you will basically be doing the same things. The only new thing to learn is where the delivery points are which, from what I can remember from my days as a reserve, isn’t really that hard. It will also mean losing the positives that come from knowing a walk inside out. Being able to deliver a parcel that’s missing a house number because you know all the names on a walk, knowing which neighbour will take a parcel when someone isn’t at home, knowing the best way to bag a walk up etc.

[PJ101]

You wouldn't need complete flexibility. But you could put a grouping of 5 walks together. They would then rota delivery within a team. No one in the team would be allowed to finish before the last member. This would then provide some balance for example a couple of hilly walks with a packet delivery, with a couple of flat walks. You would allow number 1 to pick the first group, number 2 the second group etc. This would ensure that it would be everyone's interest to ensure the groups and walks were equal across the office. It would ensure at least 5 + reserves had experience of any specialist duties. Only issue is non drivers.

[Woody Guthrie]

There's no gain in any of that for Royal Mail and certainly no gain for us.

Flexibility doesn't necessarily improve productivity or efficiency, structure does. Lack of structure also doesn't help with stress and anxiety. Flexibility is a management buzzword, be careful what you wish for.

Most of the duties in our office are pretty much equal inside a reasonable tolerance given that not everyone works at the same pace or does the job in the same way. It's virtually impossible to accurately time a duty because no two days and no two mail profiles are the same and even if you use the same test subject there's no way to ensure he/she works at the same pace two days in a row.

People finishing early is not particularly an issue with an inbalance in the outdoor workload but more to do with when they start, whether they take their breaks, how many corners they cut outdoors and what they are getting away with indoors.

If you started everyone at the same time on the street and you could guarantee they all did the job properly the vast majority of the duties in your office would finish on or around the same time.

[PJ101]

The benefit to us is that it makes it in everyone's interest to agree balanced walks and takes away the vested interest in an individual walk. Also instead of slogging up a hill everyday you have some balance with driving duties and flatter walks. Also if a walk is too long then everyone in the team will know it and change will be made faster. Are rest day covers and reserves more stressed than duty holders? I think benefits would accrue to RM the more we work as teams and less as individuals.
I think the CWU would also benefit as colleagues will unite better when there are in smaller teams. At the moment injustices are targeted at individuals and the silo mentality generated by walk ownership allows it to happen. Its much more difficult to replace a FT with a PT if you try to do it to a small team than sneaking it office wide.
Its just an idea but I don't the think the current system works perfectly and I know that the 'revisions' coming up will be more difficult because of the current ownership that individuals feel.

[PJ101]

The point about finishing at the same time is precisely to remove the pressure to start early, cut corners, rush etc. If you are going to finish at the same time as the rest of the team then you may as well come in on time and do the job correctly. As far as I know this is both RM and CWU policy. I'm always confused as to whether job and finish is allowed or not. I'm happy either way but I do not like to see it being selectively applied. Can we agree it locally?

[Woody Guthrie]

Both the union and the business pretend to be against job and finish but the reality is that both of them are aware that finishing time whether it's trying to get done on time or score a little extra is the only incentive to work at any kind of half decent pace.

Team working has been tried before, they called it star burst and it was an abject failure because everybody soon tired of digging the slow guy out so we all just slowed to the slowest pace.

[PJ101]

Then why is it policy if both RM and CWU are against it?
Why cant we vote on it locally?

[Acca Dacca]

Yeah good idea, get fellow colleagues to decide who or what gets more work added to them

What could possibly go wrong?

Worried mate?
I tell you what could go right. The people with p*** easy rounds might do their fair share, and lets face it, it couldn't get more wrong than the current joke of massively unequal delivery spans between rounds in most DO's up and down the country
[/quote]

No im not worried but you have completely missed my point - that its not fair on the reserves to be put in that position

[fatmike]

I think it is difficult to please everybody. You could create an entire office of equal walks, and some people will still finish much later than others - they will still believe they have the hardest walks. We are lucky that we don't really have any 'runners' at our office, but there are some that just get on with the job, whilst a small minority take a cigarette break every 30 minutes and somehow take 3 hours to prep one delivery. You have some people who are older and maybe struggle with joint pain. Others that are younger and able to work faster. Some do 90 minutes IPS, whilst others maybe prep two deliveries, or sometimes only one (it is probably fair that those who do the most indoor work have a smaller delivery - and I say that as somebody who doesn't sort!). It is very challenging to create an equal environment.

That being said, there are some obvious differences between a lot of walks, More could be done to try and make things more 'equal'. You probably need to ask reserves and floaters that have covered a lot of walks, and may not have their own biases.

[sorefeet17]

I think what needs to happen is to take office Managers out of the process, if someone is finishing consistently early then more should be lumped on that round, as it stands in our office the hours that get taken out yearly are spread over every route regardless of what times people finish so there is no change between easy and hard routes.
Office managers protect mates and runners routes, maybe the union should use the pda data to force those posties to pay for not doing the job correctly?

[97gaz]

I think what needs to happen is to take office Managers out of the process, if someone is finishing consistently early then more should be lumped on that round...

When I was a float there were two duties I knew quite well. One of them always finished an hour after his time and the other always finished an hour before his time. If I got the choice I would always pick the one who finished an hour late.

[sorefeet17]

I think what needs to happen is to take office Managers out of the process, if someone is finishing consistently early then more should be lumped on that round...

When I was a float there were two duties I knew quite well. One of them always finished an hour after his time and the other always finished an hour before his time. If I got the choice I would always pick the one who finished an hour late.

Well I get where you are coming from but at least the late one is not giving ammunition for top brass to take hours out of office. Is the late one able to claim OT on those extra hours?

[97gaz]

I think what needs to happen is to take office Managers out of the process, if someone is finishing consistently early then more should be lumped on that round...

When I was a float there were two duties I knew quite well. One of them always finished an hour after his time and the other always finished an hour before his time. If I got the choice I would always pick the one who finished an hour late.

Well I get where you are coming from but at least the late one is not giving ammunition for top brass to take hours out of office. Is the late one able to claim OT on those extra hours?

What I meant was that people work at different paces and with a different mindset. The round that finishes an hour late is easily do-able in the time set. The guy that gets finished early comes in on his time and just cracks on every morning. If he's thrown in everything available he'll go and split down the mech trays. He's a sociable guy but doesn't spend all morning jabbering to his mates or showing people memes on his phone. And when he gets out he doesn't hang around or spend ages talking to the customers. There's no way I or anyone else in the office can do his round on time. It would be grossly unfair to lump work on him and make extra work for all the reserves that do that round while they can finish an hour early on the late round.

They're both good friends of mine and I don't particularly think either of them is taking the piss. They just both have a different way of doing things.

[Cucumber]

I think what needs to happen is to take office Managers out of the process, if someone is finishing consistently early then more should be lumped on that round, as it stands in our office the hours that get taken out yearly are spread over every route regardless of what times people finish so there is no change between easy and hard routes.
Office managers protect mates and runners routes, maybe the union should use the pda data to force those posties to pay for not doing the job correctly?

The last 3 revisions at ours have been at the behest of area managers who have noticed people finishing 1hr plus early each day. Not just a few times a week, every single day. It's ALWAYS the duties that have 2 full time staff in a pairing as they are given far more indoor and outdoor resources. Instead of evening out the workload, or giving these duties the new housing estates to deliver, a full revision takes place and hours taken out. Revision is overseen by local rep and management and the people that 'caused' the revision argue for certain 'local agreements' which basically means 'leave my duty as it is and dump the extra work on others'. Wait a few years and repeat.