Over worked for the sake of others easy living

[rogerrogue]

Hi guys, newbie to the forum but been a RM working for 3 years now.

Anyway..

My job..
I work for the brand direct side (RMSS) of RM, and the teams are somewhat small
and my duty is a relief driver (cover driver) among two other relief drivers, the shifts can vary from morning, afternoon or night work.

I know all the routes within the depot very well, which as you will see will merge into the problem.

The shift arrangements for the following week are told to you several days before the end of the current week (normally Thursday or Friday)

The Problem

For a long while now the shifts that I've been told I'm doing don't often stay that way which means I have to change with very little notice with the sacrifice of my own personal life & time, I understood this when I applied for the job but the extent it's came to is I can no longer arrange my own life outside of work, as the supervisors often won't know what shift to put me on or they change it at very last minute which results in me having to cancel my plans or effectively lose my job.

A key factor is I know all of the routes within the depot very well which means there is no duty I cannot do but the shift changes are too severe, going from mornings one week, nights the next week, mornings again, then an afternoon shift.. you get the idea

The way the management land these sort of shift changes on me is only just within the rules of the "12 hours rest period between shifts" usually they will alter the route slightly so it just fits within these guidelines but the problem is the amount of different shift time changes that I have to adjust my sleeping pattern to with very little time to do (normally 1 day) with stress of them messing me around and dumping extra work loads on me is taking it's toll, the job I used to enjoy now makes me feel stressed and exhausted inside and outside of work, I literally feel like either the stress from messing me around, extra work loads daily or the fatigue of the job will get the best of me pretty soon and signing off work sick.

The extra stress my job brings in to my own life is that because of these shift changes, and very little time to adjust to shift times and sleeping patterns I literally have a close to zero personal life. Because I'm changing times week in week out by time I get home I fall asleep within the hour because of exhaustion which means I don't really have time to release stress, see my family or any usual things we all do.

The basic way of saying how my job feels at the moment is braking my back for the sake of other peoples jobs becoming easier, or to suit a problem that shouldn't be there in the first place...

The problem at the end of the long story is I feel at the end of the line with this job, I do really like it when things are in place and organized and stay that way, but this has been the current situation for the past year or so now and it's taking its toll. Often when I bring it up and sit down and have a chat with them the responses are "You're young, you don't need as much rest" "It's the job you're doing, do it or leave" "No sorry can't do nothing for you" "You don't need that much sleep" from supervisors

I feel like going off sick with stress/exhaustion or just completely losing my temper here..

What's the best solution of dealing with this

[motch]

Definetely do not lose your temper, probably get sacked for it if you flip out and hit someone say.

Changing shifts all the time is not good for your health long term. I think nightshift workers say, on average live a few years less than the average for example.

The young need more sleep on average and are not so good at getting up early than the oldies, so their arguement doesn't hold water there.

Hopefully someone here can give some good advice as it sounds a bit s**t for you at the moment.

[123456]

roger i am assuming your a chap..you need 2 things to benefit you in royal mail,and that is tits and tears.for this to succeed you first need 2 things and that is tits and er tears.hope you get some joy.

[music4essex]

[quote]you need 2 things to benefit you in royal mail,and that is tits and tears.for this to succeed you first need 2 things and that is tits and er tears.hope you get some joy.

Explain to me why you think this happens as 5 women in my Office all long term employees in the last 3 yrs have left because of the stress of the job, yes they had tears plenty of it , same with me , I was actually brave enough to stand up to RM management , the quote is derogatry to women working in RM , being as I have managed 25yrs and was told by a male employee i would not last a week when i started , funny he left

Essex mum

[TrueBlueTerrier]

roger i am assuming your a chap..you need 2 things to benefit you in royal mail,and that is tits and tears.for this to succeed you first need 2 things and that is tits and er tears.hope you get some joy.

with a statement like that all you are missing is the tears.

You may have witnessed this in your office, but its unfair to extrapolate it to all offices, all managers and all female colleagues.

[123456]

calm down...

[clashcityrocker]

roger i am assuming your a chap..you need 2 things to benefit you in royal mail,and that is tits and tears.for this to succeed you first need 2 things and that is tits and er tears.hope you get some joy.

with a statement like that all you are missing is the tears.

He might have man-boobs.

[123456]

ladies and gentlemen we have the tears..at least reply to the original thread or find something else to do..my god....

[thehappyones]

well personally if its that bad ,I would be going sick and asking for a referral to ATOS(yes ATOS) and explain it all to them(this is all about keeping your self safe from getting sacked)keep it all official and above board and having a paper trail.
Also go to your doctor and explain

Have you spoke to anyone from the union
If your having no joy with your line manager then go higher,this is also true of IR reps ,keep going higher until you feel you are getting some joy with your problem

Hope you get some respite with it all and keep us informed please with whats happening

Whats with you people this guy is looking for help and nobody has offered anything!!!