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I need a Mentor?

FwdUbbmScanScanScan

FwdUbbmScanScanScan

Member
I am an RcA and have so many questions but when I ask management and peers I get the run around and maybe 15 different answers. I am so unsure of myself all the time working at my PO. Management seems to find the smallest things to complain about. I'm finding myself overwhelmed and extremely anxious. The regulars always tell me that I am doing a great job but I dont feel I am. Is there anyone who can take time to guide me through policies and procedures as an RCA because the rules change frequently and seem so very different then if you are a regular carrier.. Please help I want this career to work out.
 
Trebehom said:
I am an RcA and have so many questions but when I ask management and peers I get the run around and maybe 15 different answers. I am so unsure of myself all the time working at my PO. Management seems to find the smallest things to complain about. I'm finding myself overwhelmed and extremely anxious. The regulars always tell me that I am doing a great job but I dont feel I am. Is there anyone who can take time to guide me through policies and procedures as an RCA because the rules change frequently and seem so very different then if you are a regular carrier.. Please help I want this career to work out.
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Absolutely. Talk to your local steward or your district rep for questions regarding the contract or what you think may sound wrong. This sub also provides a lot of good information. What are some things you’re stuck on?
 
Everything you need to know is here on this site. If a question comes up, ask away. There are people on this site that have as much knowledge about our craft as any leader at the top of our union. In the resources section is even more info for your reading pleasure.
To start with you really don't need to worry about being fired. They need every warm body that happens to make it to and through the academy class.
 
Try not to stress yourself out.

I have never seen anyone in the Post Office who was properly trained.
You feel uncertain because you don't know things you should have been taught.

Maybe your workmates feel hurried, because of current conditions, but I'm sorry they have not supported you.
If you have a specific question, just post it here.
(Sometimes it's hard to find information in the search engine because you don't know what everything is called.)
If someone is using a term you don't understand, ask what it means.

Keep coming back!!!

P.S. Sometimes, when I need a good laugh, I drop down to the Off Topic section and read pages and pages.
Ha-Larry-Us ?
 
Find the carrier in your office that knows the rules...so many have no clue and never take the time to learn. Ask them about the PO 603...if they don’t know what it is, run away:) Read here...lots of great resources...Make friends with like -minded RCA s and learn together. My best friend and I became a united carrier front for 20 years when we figured out we were constantly lied to and stolen from. We led the constant fight in our office and the other carriers mostly followed. You can learn, it doesn’t take a whole lot to know more than most of your supervisors and PMs?
 
Welcome Trebehom
Congrats on taking the steps to make your work life better. This is where it will start to make it a little more easier to realise your future is gonna be secure. Management will not be happy. A uninformed person is easily abused
And easily manipulated. Smart of you to reach out. Learn well. You got to look after yourself. Management is not there to protect you. Glad your here and thank you for your service. It is a great job to do just remember to treat your body and mind well.
 
If all else fails, put questions up right here. This bunch of know it alls would love to show a greenhorn rookie their vast knowledge hard drive.:D

Personally, I don't know much. I save all my brain space for remembering 3 cases I've tried to learn, plus how to reboot the scanner.
 
Within the past 2 weeks we have received direct orders to lock and secure our vehicles everytime it is out of our site which includes when our backs are turned to deliver mail at a cbu, this tends to get a little tedious but ok no problem. Now we can no longer keep mail in the front with us, to my understanding it is now recommended that we work from the backs of the vehicle and if you have curbside, everytime you dismount to deliver a package you must move your mail into the back cab.? Can they do this? This is exhausting. Packages have been crazy the weather has been in the 90's and we have to wear mask. It is always something new. We recently had a standup about heat illnesses, go figure. A stand up about mental health, yeah right. Is there something that I am missing here? This doesn't seem right. Just venting a bit.
 
csparks said:
If all else fails, put questions up right here. This bunch of know it alls would love to show a greenhorn rookie their vast knowledge hard drive.:D

Personally, I don't know much. I save all my brain space for remembering 3 cases I've tried to learn, plus how to reboot the scanner.
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We have a relatively large office I am constantly thrown on a different route before I can really get to know a route, they throw me on a new one. I now have done 51 routes and counting, but still know nothing?
 
Trebehom said:
Now we can no longer keep mail in the front with us, to my understanding it is now recommended that we work from the backs of the vehicle and if you have curbside, everytime you dismount to deliver a package you must move your mail into the back cab.? Can they do this? This is exhausting. Packages have been crazy the weather has been in the 90's and we have to wear mask. It is always something new.
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k
This duty to move the mail is something I've never heard of, and I've done this job for 36 years!
I couldn't fit everything in my LLV if I had to do that!

If you are being forced to do this, each route needs a "base hour change" so that the evaluation goes up.
(The evaluation is a measure of how much time the route was counted for. The regular carriers' pay is based on this number. Your pay is too, unless you go over 40 hours for the week. [Then you get 40 hours plus time and a half for anything over 40 hours.])

Did you get trained at the Rural Carrier Academy?
If so, did they teach you these silly rules?
Did the academy instructor(s) give you a number to call if you had any questions?

Have you worked 90 days (on the job, not calendar days?)

Has anyone filed a grievance, or the steward filed a class action grievance?
(If you steward isn't properly representing the carrier's interest, they can be dealt with by higher ups.)

If they ordered me to do that, I'd need to vent, too.
Then, as a regular carrier, I would ask, "How are you going to pay me for that?"
If they did not give me a satisfactory response, (they never do,) I would file a grievance.
Then they could pay me for the new duty, or stop requiring it.
 
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[QUOTE="Rural Runner,]
.... In the mean time, maybe park a little past the cbu, then start putting the mail in while standing at an angle. The truck will still be in your peripheral vision. This will allow you to keep the drivers door open and eliminate the "need" to move your mail back and forth. On occasions where it helps to serve from the back (like a row of 20 cbus) pull down and load that section in the back, seperate from your mounted sections in the front.
This is great advice.

Lock up when out of sight is open to interpretation. If the truck is 100 yards away, but i can still see it, id still lock it up. But if the truck is 2 feet behind me, and im not directly staring at it for a couple seconds at a time, then no offense to those that would but no... I wouldn't.
Logical approach!! If I'm walking up to the front door with a parcel, is my truck out of sight? These rules are nonsensical.

It will get better. You learn the rules after a while. Use your primary route day to work on the small aspects of your craft. Once you get the techniques down, doing routes you dont know that well isnt that bad. Your speed will balance out the wrong turns, house number searching, and extra time spent casing. Overwhelmed shouldnt be in your vocabulary. Take your time, and let management worry about everything getting done. That is their problem, not a new RCAs.
[/QUOTE]
 
Trebehom said:
Within the past 2 weeks we have received direct orders to lock and secure our vehicles everytime it is out of our site which includes when our backs are turned to deliver mail at a cbu, this tends to get a little tedious but ok no problem. Now we can no longer keep mail in the front with us, to my understanding it is now recommended that we work from the backs of the vehicle and if you have curbside, everytime you dismount to deliver a package you must move your mail into the back cab.? Can they do this? This is exhausting. Packages have been crazy the weather has been in the 90's and we have to wear mask. It is always something new. We recently had a standup about heat illnesses, go figure. A stand up about mental health, yeah right. Is there something that I am missing here? This doesn't seem right. Just venting a bit.
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Ask WHY? Ask to see it is in writing. Are they worried about being robbed of stimulus checks. Are we talking llv. What do they want you to put up front.... the only rules I know of in llv is no parcels in the driver side wheel well, nothing on dash, nothing on visor, no rubber bands on the gearshifts nothing on floor that could slide under or against your feet. How can you be efficient when everything is in the back....
 
The mail in the back of the vehicle when out of site has been around since before my time. Granted, it took less time to throw stuff in the rear of a DJ-5. They can realign the route to accommodate the placement of mail, they can do a base hour change to accommodate the carrier for additional duties. Locking the doors is big right now. Nationwide we are having vehicles broken into and carriers robbed due to checks and parcels increases. In the last week, 18 vehicles and 5 carriers in my district were victimized. Watch your back.
I would ask for your District Representative ( top area steward) phone number to ask these questions. Find out if they even know the carriers are being required to perform under these conditions, they may be unaware.
 
RDruckus said:
k
This duty to move the mail is something I've never heard of, and I've done this job for 36 years!
I couldn't fit everything in my LLV if I had to do that!

If you are being forced to do this, each route needs a "base hour change" so that the evaluation goes up.
(The evaluation is a measure of how much time the route was counted for. The regular carriers' pay is based on this number. Your pay is too, unless you go over 40 hours for the week. [Then you get 40 hours plus time and a half for anything over 40 hours.])

Did you get trained at the Rural Carrier Academy?
If so, did they teach you these silly rules?
Did the academy instructor(s) give you a number to call if you had any questions?

Have you worked 90 days (on the job, not calendar days?)

Has anyone filed a grievance, or the steward filed a class action grievance?
(If you steward isn't properly representing the carrier's interest, they can be dealt with by higher ups.)

If they ordered me to do that, I'd need to vent, too.
Then, as a regular carrier, I would ask, "How are you going to pay me for that?"
If they did not give me a satisfactory response, (they never do,) I would file a grievance.
Then they could pay me for the new duty, or stop requiring it.
Click to expand...

Yes. This is now a "thing". Regulars are leaving behind half of their routes and subs are now having to take any mail that is left behind. Yes I had training at the academy but it is nothing like actually delivering a route. This is a new order due to the theft in the area. I have been at my po almost a year, it's so hard to keep track of policies and procedures when you are constantly being moved. I am able to catch on to a new route quickly and feel they abuse that. The stewart has advised the regulars to leave behind whater they can not fit into the cab of the vehicle. I'm not sure if grievances have been filed. Can subs file a grievance??
 
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