I'm not ready !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its approaching way too fast for me this year and I just don't seem to be getting anywhere with my preparations. I'm way behind with my pre christmas clean and I still need to find a pressie for my nephew, I've still got some pressies to wrap and we have no decorations up yet. I don't know whats the matter with me this year I just dont seem to be on the ball. I left it very late to start my pre christmas clean and then started with manflu so I haven't got as far as I'd hoped with that. So far we've managed to do the kitchen/diner, hallway and living room but the rest of the house still needs doing.
I was later than usual starting my christmas shopping, I ususally start really early but this year I didn't and then when I did start the snow interfered and I lost a couple of weeks. Plus I've ordered some things online and they haven't been delivered yet despite being expected at the end of november and beginning of december. One of the things I ordered was a dvd for my niece in scotland so even when it comes it still needs posting up to scotland so I'm thinking it probably won't get to her before christmas now. Luckily she has other pressies from us to unwrap.
I'm really dissapointed with royal mail at the moment I know the snow and ice was really bad and they were advised by local police not to go out delivering in this area for over a week but even now they are back at work we are only getting little bits of mail. I know christmas is a busy time and the business is under pressure to make profits so hiring lots of extra staff to clear the backlog probably isn't an option but I'm sure they could organise things better and get the post out.
In the last ten years or so company has just gone down hill and to be honest I blame the goverment I used to work for post office counters and for years it was a lovely place to work and the business made a profit. Then the goverment started talking about privatising it and it became all about cost cutting to make more profit. The royal mail group is a public limited company with the shares held by the goverment
Nearly all the work the post office does is for goverment owned or run business such as royal mail dvla, national savings bank, department works and pensions, who all were expected to make savings on costs year on year so it was a hard thing for the post office to make more profit year on year. Each time the post office tendered for a contract for doing work for these business they had to accept lower and lower rates for them but yet were still expected to make more profit from the year before.How did they do that???? cutting costs. It became a terrible place to work and eventually I left as I couldnt stand working there any longer.
Royal mail are in the same boat, they have to tender for contracts for delivering the bills from major companies who want them to do the job cheaper and cheaper each time, while still having the goverment wanting them to make more profit. Unlike all the other mail delivering companies though royal mail still have to provide a service that delivers to every home in the country, even on routes that arent profitable and that the private companies that are stealing royal mails more lucrative contracts wont touch. Its more than a little unfair but then thats the goverment for you and it doesnt seem to matter which goverment is in power because they are all the same.
It's no wonder the post is in such a state as the companies cant afford to run themselves properly and hire proper staff with proper training. They don't seem to have time or money to vet people properly or put security measures in place that stop people thieveing. I know not everyone who works for royal mail are bad at their job or thieves but the good ones who the company have managed to hang onto can't do everything and if they're anything like me and my colleagues were, they're so overworked, underpressure and sick of being treated badly they have lost respect for their job and don't enjoy it anymore.
I also think both businesses are very badly run and the people hired to take charge and run both the post office and royal mail in the last decade have been idiots who have no idea how to run a business. Especially one held so tightly by the goverment, they only seem to think of cutting wages, costs and selling assests as a way to make money. Its always quick fixes but no plan for the long term.
One year when we were in talks about our annual pay rise we were told by the new royal mail group boss Adam Crozier that due to the financial climate and the state of the business we should accept a 1% pay rise and be happy about it. He said we should follow his example as he wasn't taking a pay rise at all. He had come from his former job at the FA to the royal mail group for the same salary with no increase and wasn't taking an annual pay rise. How generous of him considering he was the highest paid boss we'd ever had and he was only doing the job 3 days a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He did manage to make a profit for royal mail for a few years as he changed working practices and sold off lots of things but eventually the company was back to making losses and he never even managed to get the post office back in profit, despite him shutting loads of the branches and losing loads of staff, inventing a new job description for new staff that meant they were paid less than exisiting staff and all but freezing our pay rises every year.
Its no wonder my post hasn't arrived really is it.!!
OOh sorry about that blogettes I went off on my soap box there didn't I. There I was writing my little blog about being unready for christmas and all of a sudden I went off on a tangent about the working practices of royal mail and the post office. I bet none of you were prepared for that were you, no me neither so sorry but even after leaving the company a few years ago it still annoys me the mess that has been made of both business that have been great service providers for years and now are a bit of an embarrasement.
