Snail Mail

[Chevy Rick]

Just gone 5:50 pm and I hear someone at the front door.  Guess who?  Only the postie.  Can it be today's late post or tomorrow's early post?  My postie was Chinese - I did wonder if she had taken a detour!  

I ordered a part for my Glide today from Barnaby Wilde down in Honiton.  The nice lady said she would get it in the post straight away so I will get it first thing tomorrow.  I was therefore planning to work on the bike all day but if today's delivery is anything to go by, my plans seem likely to be scuppered.

Not the first hiccup.  I sent a book to BoopoopadoopGal about three months ago and it only arrived a week ago.  Granted I made a small mistake in the address but it wasn't rocket science to work out where it should have gone as there is only one address like this in the area.  My mistake was putting Road rather than Avenue.  Having had this three months time lapse she decided to go and buy a copy for herself and also buy me a replacement copy as well.  Now we have three copies between us!

No disrespect to the posties on here but I am well cheesed off.

[Manky Monkey]

Sorry Rick. 



(I'm a Postie).
In our defence, it's not the Posties being lazy or deliberately disruptive, although it's us that bears the brunt of the public's anger. It's down to management who can't manage, pushing through "improvements" that make things 10 times worse than they were before.
In Basingstoke, Hants,where I work, they recently got rid of one in six deliveries, spreading them out among the rest of us. They now seem amazed that it takes us longer to complete our rounds. Today I finished delivering an hour & a half after the official end of my shift. I'm willing to stay out there & carry on, (claiming the overtime when I get back), but many other Posties have other commitments & just can't work beyond their normal finishing time. So the mail goes back to the depot & has to go out the next day -which then delays the next day's mail etc, etc.
I don't personally agree with the threatened strike -I can't afford to sit at home unpaid & I think it'll be a very bad move for the business, but when the managers are pushing more & more work onto us & threatening, harrassing & downright bullying people to get the job done, despite it being blindingly obvious that it's not physically possible in the time we're given, I can understand why Posties have decided enough is enough. 

[Stephen Mac]

all posties stick to your guns if yous strike good on you cause british workers have had the backside ripped out them for long enough the wages are a joke when you compare them with inflation and taxes maybe we should do the same as french blockades when they get p      d at there governent yes it affects us all but it works if a national inc strike make the goverment wake up i hate politics but i had to say it sorry if ive offended any one 

[tony b]

my postman is from poland ,when i try to speak to him ,he cant understand a bloody word,how the hell can he read the address then,numpty.

[Stephen Mac]

totally agree with you tb british jobs for british workers and everyone is wondering how there is no jobs mmmm

[JayJay]

Is action going on at the moment?  I sent a letter to my Mum first class on Tuesday and she still hasn't had it!  I wanted it to be a surprise but in the end I have told her I have sent her something because I thought it must be there somewhere.  It appears not.

In regards to foreign workers, someone else made a comment the other day about foreign posties being able to read the addresses properly and having some local knowledge.  Trouble is, you get classed as racist if you even say you are not happy with the number of foreign workers within the country when that is not the case at all.  I get the argument about foreign seasonal workers for crop picking etc because you get lots of British youngsters going to other countries to see the world and earn some money that way too but I cannot understand why so many foreign workers are in shops and in call centres (jobs that people want to do and that don't need specialist skills).  I am getting fed up of struggling to understand people when I am trying to complete basic tasks like shopping and paying bills.  Also if unemployment is at its highest for ages why does a foreign person even get a chance at a job before a British person - I know of people who are desperate for a job - any job - and they would definitely take a job at Tescos, Poundshop, Primark etc if they got the chance.  Surely these workers cannot be costing less to employ than a British person or am I being naive here?  I am getting to the point where I don't want to frequent shops where I hear more foreign accents than British ones.  It just makes me wonder what is happening to this country and our esteemed () government 

British people seem to have become browbeaten and seem to take everything lying down - maybe we do need to be more like the French and stand up for our rights more - British first and then fill surplus jobs with other workers - I am okay with that as that is fair enough.

I am going now - perhaps to start a revolution but more likely to have some soup!

JJ 

[BikerGran]

I think a lot of the foreign workers are prepared to work for less than the British workers cos they don't have cracking great mortgages etc, I know that was heppening with truck drivers in this area.

[Manky Monkey]

No Polish workers at our Post Office depot, but literally half my customers are foreigners. Trying to get them to understand they have to sign for a parcel can be a nightmare sometimes. I have to say though, that of them all, the Polish are the most courteous, well mannered, well educated & friendly. Some other nationalities can be unbelievably ignorant or even downright hostile. You're a guest in my country -at least make the effort to be polite to those who are paying your benefits.
Yes, JJ, there are one or two day strikes going on at various depots around the country at the moment. We're to be balloted in the next week or so about a National strike. I really hope it doesn't happen. It'll cause chaos, take months to recover from, hand custom to our competitors, lose us all much needed wages as well as turning the general public against us -& probably achieve absolutely nothing. From past experience, the management will still bring in whatever changes they want anyway.
We had a National strike about 15 years ago, which I worked through as I'd just taken out a new mortgage & couldn't afford to lose the money. There were still a couple of Posties who wouldn't talk to me because of it up to just a few years ago. It's not worth the hassle of strike breaking.
The offices that are on strike are protesting about the increased workload & high pressure working environment that my office brought in recently. We're already working that system so doesn't seem much point striking about it now. I worked an hour past the end of my shift again today, just to complete my delivery. Yes, I claim the overtime for it, but that isn't the point. We can't physically do as much work as they insist we can in the time we're given. Last year I was delivering 6 bags of mail a day. Now it's often up to 10.
It all started going downhill when they decided we're no longer a service, we're a business.
Pass the soup JJ. 

[renegade53]

when i worked on the buses some guy went out in a car to time the route and said it could be done in x amount of time. trouble was he did it outside of the rush hour come the rush hour it went to pot. others would tear around to keep on time, breaking speed limits. me i kept to speed limits slowed down for each of the 70 yes 70 speed humps that you had to over on that particular route. when i was told to speed up i asked who's license would get the points if i was nicked. continued going at the speed limit ended up with the one behind catching up and going past.
 i think we only walked out once when i was there, this was due to a fitter being accused of something. he was actually on holiday in southern ireland at the time. it started to spread round the depots as drivers came in and asked what was going on. that lasted about 8 hours.
our postie is a yank usually turns up about 12 now, it used to be about 10

[Manky Monkey]

I'm still delivering at 2.30 -3pm.

[Chevy Rick]

Well i didn't hold my breath today in the hope of my small parcel arriving and yes the postie did come, down our road at 7.00 pm and returned down the other side of the road after dark, what ever. I live in hope for tomorrow.

[ByzMax]

The postal service has to be a business and not a service, times have moved on (Email etc)

However high pressure working enviroments and ever increasing workloads don't make for happy staff.

Best thing to do is work to rule.

You still get paid your basic and some of the post gets delivered. The management then become aware of what is required to meet the demand.

Many years ago when I worked on the railways the work to rule reime was used fairly often. Got them off our backs every time.... 

[Manky Monkey]

Wish we could Byz, but there's always people who'll ignore it & still rush round like lunatics cos they're desperate not to be there a minute longer than they have to be, (usually the younger lads). Heavy handed management & disorganised union equals unhappy Posties.