Strange Notations From a Laborious Life

Well the sands of 2011 are running out of the hour glass and we are getting closer to the ultimate events of the year which signal that 2012 is almost upon us.
The busiest time of year for us at Australia Post is of course Christmas although the decline of mail volumes over the last ten years or so has made the December rush a little more comfortable than it use to be.
I can remember my first years of service at AP when the mail used to practically overwhelm the building at this time of year and there was barely a clear spot on the floor as all extra space was taken up by bins and trolleys of letters and parcels waiting in line to be sorted.
The funny thing about those days is how flustered folks would get. There was nearly always a drama in the two weeks leading into Christmas and I have witnessed arguments and fist fights in that period. Things tended to go a little haywire!
It’s not so bad nowadays and as I said the mail volumes have fallen away so it is not nearly as busy but it will be interesting to see how the mail officers handle the extra pressure of the festive season.
There has been accumulation of stress among the staff and I think there is going to be a huge sigh of relief at the end of the day on the 23rd of December when we knock off for the Christmas break. We have all had enough of the place for 2011.
One can only guess how much more anxiety the manager can cause with frequent visits onto the workfloor and his uncanny knack of rubbing the workforce the wrong way.
I won’t say much more about Australia Post’s management system or the people who are chosen to fill management positions as I received through the mail on Friday a booklet entitled, “Our Ethics: The way we do things at Australia Post”.
Needless to say there is a good chance I have broken the rules in regards to AP’s ethics and page 20 of the booklet seems to confirm it.
Chapter 8.2 is in regard to public comments and social media. Part b),paragraph 3, seems to indicate my folly. I won’t quote it word for word as God only knows if that is breaching etiquette as well but it basically says that I may not make public comment that will hurt AP’s reputation or commercial interests, etc, etc, so on and so forth.
So I will hold my fire on management performance from here on but I certainly won’t stop recording my observations of events at my very unique workplace.
I had a sick day on Friday and wish I could have another one today as it looks like the heavy rain we have had over the last week has cleared and it will be a pleasant day.
My rain gauge overflowed on Friday night which gives some indication of how wet it was. My mother’s 70th birthday party was held here on Saturday night and my pergola where we intended to seat most of the party guests, leaks when the rain get really heavy.
Luckily, despite continuing showers, the rain wasn’t nearly as heavy on Saturday evening as it had been the night before and all those gathered on my back deck stayed dry and my mother, I think, had a lovely time.
So, I look forward to the coming week with some trepidation as I really have had enough of work for the year but I don’t have much choice but to continue on the best I can and try to maintain good humour. I hope my workmates can manage the same. Bye for now.