Strange Notations From a Laborious Life

 It’s been a bit of a different week for me. Our regular supervisor has been off for the week so we have had one of the smo’s from night shift fill in. Unfortunately for us Australia Post doesn’t seek to promote people with ability so we get replacement people who have no idea and makes for  some situations that are more stressful than they usually are or should be. This fellow in particular is a funny one. He can be quite friendly to your face or to anyone who may give him a hard time but to others he is an arrogant dickhead and this worsens when he is under a little pressure. There are a few of these guys at the mail centre. All ambition and no talent and for the most part they are trying to tell people with decades of experience what to do when they don’t know what to do themselves. Sticky!
 I suppose it’s a bit too much of me to complain. I could always put my hand up and volunteer for higher duties and “show em how it’s done!” but I won’t do it. There is a number of reasons for this. Lack of ambition, fear of doing a worse job than those I’m trying to show up but most of all it’s because some of the things Australia Post ask their supervisors to do leave a bad taste in my mouth and I really don’t want to have to do things I find distasteful to people I have worked with for a long time. Maybe I am just a coward. It is easier to whinge about things after all. Ha ha.
 It seems that there is no training for these wannabe supervisors in how to deal with staff and for some reason they seem to think they can talk to people however they want. Well we soon put a stop to any upstart who tries to be disrespectful! Rarely do they learn their lessons unfortunately. It’s like Dirty Harry Callahan says. “A good man knows his limitations”. Of course in that particular movie the quote was meant in a sarcastic way and that is the same way it should be meant when describing our wannabe supervisors.
 The most damning indictment on the way Australia Post promotes it staff is the fact that one can recognize a number of people in the ranks who could do the job far better than those who are acting in higher postions yet they won’t put their hands up. Why aren’t the best people applying? That’s one for Australia Post to answer.

  We finally got an answer on a question that has been hanging over our heads at the mail centre for 3 years now. The parcels that we sort were due to be moved out of our building to the old Phillip Delivery Centre and all mail staff, sorters, night sorters, posties were to be consolidated under one roof at the mail centre whilst all parcels would be sorted out of Phillip. It was a crazy idea and one that even the lowliest mail officer could see wasn’t going to work for a myriad of reasons, the fact that they couldn’t even get trucks into Phillip the most obvious.
 Now it was common knowledge 2 years ago that the local government here in Canberra wouldn’t let Australia Post make the necessary changes to driveways etc at Phillip and the local business’s around the Phillip Delivery Centre had protested against AP’s plans. All the while our great manager, the boy wonder was pushing on, pulling posties out of Phillip, establishing them in the ever increasing crush at our workplace and eventually closing the operation at Phillip with the intent of reopening it when the parcels were ready to go in there.
 During the week we get the word. Phillip is not viable as the money isn’t available to fix it up to the standard it needs to be in order to host the parcel operation. Yeah right! Someone in a fit of common sense finally saw the stupidity of the plan! We even had a visit from the State Manager of Australia Post which is almost unheard of and it makes me wonder whether or not he came down to physically inspect the disaster that has been created and put the final nail in the coffin of the Phillip Parcel Centre.
 It’s appalling management and would be hilarious except for the fact that these fools are playing with our livelihoods. They knew 2 years ago that it wasn’t going to fly yet they kept pushing a bad position and tried to pretend to the staff it was still going to happen when most people could see otherwise. Scandalous!
 These fools would still have no idea how disdainfully we think of them.
 Of course there still is a transparent plan to install a special team to sort the parcels at CMC. Afterall they have already appointed a manager and a MPC 2 to positions at the Parcel Centre. Unfortunately they don’t actually have Parcel Centre to go to!
 Trying to run 2 operations under one roof is never successful in a mail sorting environment and hopefully common sense will get another outing and the parcels will remain as they are now. We have new Area Manger who seems to have a little bit more going for him than the usual hacks and with luck he will see the correct way forward. It’s a chance for AP to put in place a proper mail service in Canberra although I won’t be holding my breath that they will get it right. I would laugh loud and long if the posties ended up back at Phillip.
 Of course I could get into tremendous trouble and even lose my job if it ever came out that I was trashing the management on a public blog but I am confident my readership will protect me. Won’t you?!
 The other interesting thing about work this week is the fact that for the first time in about 5 years I did 2 days of day shift! It was a little bit different. Working with Asian women all day who like to tell you what to do and trying to figure out their idiosycrantic methods of sharing the work certainly made a change. It was nice to be home a little bit earlier but it was even nicer to be back to my normal 2pm start on Thursday.
 So, all in all an interesting week with some hard work thrown in. Looking forward to getting back to normal on Monday.