SpacePhoenix wrote:I would have thought DOs would be better off trying to clear as many poll cards as possible as you're probably going to get hammered by parcels on Tuesday
That I am afraid would show how naive you are about working in a Delivery Office, or perhaps uninformed would be a better description. You cannot deliver 100% of anything to 100% of addresses, even something as light as a polling card, when the plan is set at around 80-85% call rates. The managers in DO know this, the posties in Deliveries know this, nobody else appears to grasp this. That's why the overrunning procedure is out of date and no longer fit for purpose.
The top managers want clear offices and in Mail Centers that's easy you call in extra resources. In delivery offices extra resources mean more work by the same manpower levels you have every day, no more manpower means managers under pressure to get the job done, which inevitably means active management pressure on Posties by poorly resourced, badly trained people who lack any leadership skills. This in turn leads to either daily questioning of abilities and commitment of those that can't/don't work over , or questioning of overtime claims for those that do. Even worse it means that those who just want an easy life with no confrontation are probably working overtime for free.
Might not sound much working an extra 15-20% when your in an MC but on a 4.5 hr delivery its an extra hours work when you take into account fatigue, but then add 30 minutes extra indoor work and on a 6 hour day your doing 7.5 hours or 10hrs on a FT duty.
In an MC 20% more work comes in than you have resources = its passed to the Delivery Offices. I honestly believe that a lot of Managers and OPGs from MCs would support delivery colleagues better if they experienced a week on Delivery. I also believe the reverse is also true.