Brown Cafe Warning

Catatonic

Nine Lives
Make sure you don’t post libelous messages or post trade secrets or intellectual property of UPS and you’ll be ok.

I remember when I first heard about this site. It was 4 or 5 years ago when they gave the address out at the managers feedback meeting. It was given as a recommended resource and most of the management people that I know still use it.

I can most assured you, this site is not given out by UPS management as a recommended resource.
Too many management came on here and expressed their displeasure and issues within the company. It appears that UPS Upper management is discouraging management people from posting on here and especially in the IS organization.
 

tonyexpress

Whac-A-Troll Patrol
Staff member
I can most assured you, this site is not given out by UPS management as a recommended resource.
Too many management came on here and expressed their displeasure and issues within the company. It appears that UPS Upper management is discouraging management people from posting on here and especially in the IS organization.

Things may have changed but.... Back in the day, the early 2000's I was at a report back meeting where they brought up the BrownCafe as a source. My district manager, IE district manager and Division Manager were well aware of this site and liked it. In fact the Pacific Region office was down the street and the region staff IS people approached me and knew Cheryl's name and were all a flutter about the BrownCafe from the very beginning. Cheryl will attest that I was a little concerned about how it would affect my employment at the time but I never had any problems, more interest than anything else. So much so that when my MIP was given to me during those two years the current District manager would say..."So how's the BrownCafe doing"...

Furthermore Cheryl went to a town hall meeting back then where the District manager and division manager were very complimentary of the site.
 

quamba 638

Well-Known Member
Really??? That was your pcm?

Was anyone else told anything like that?
I was talking to my steward last summer about the contact, he asked me how I knew so much, and I mentioned this site. He said I should avoid this site because it's crawling with bitter people with negative attitudes towards the company. I thought of "I" and dismissed his suggestion.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
I was talking to my steward last summer about the contact, he asked me how I knew so much, and I mentioned this site. He said I should avoid this site because it's crawling with bitter people with negative attitudes towards the company. I thought of "I" and dismissed his suggestion.

Unlike actually working at UPS where it is so upbeat and everyone whistles while they work.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
Things may have changed but.... Back in the day, the early 2000's I was at a report back meeting where they brought up the BrownCafe as a source. My district manager, IE district manager and Division Manager were well aware of this site and liked it. In fact the Pacific Region office was down the street and the region staff IS people approached me and knew Cheryl's name and were all a flutter about the BrownCafe from the very beginning. Cheryl will attest that I was a little concerned about how it would affect my employment at the time but I never had any problems, more interest than anything else. So much so that when my MIP was given to me during those two years the current District manager would say..."So how's the BrownCafe doing"...

Furthermore Cheryl went to a town hall meeting back then where the District manager and division manager were very complimentary of the site.
As a side note, I'm pretty sure folks in Memphis and Pittsburgh are well aware of this site and the FedEx activity here. My question is what does corporate think of a site like this? Is it simply an interesting water fountain topic? I don't get the feeling there are internet head hunters searching out malcontents but I do wonder what their level of interest really is.
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
As a side note, I'm pretty sure folks in Memphis and Pittsburgh are well aware of this site and the FedEx activity here. My question is what does corporate think of a site like this? Is it simply an interesting water fountain topic? I don't get the feeling there are internet head hunters searching out malcontents but I do wonder what their level of interest really is.
As of a couple years ago August 2011, Corporate does not have any active ongoing interest in Brown Cafe.
HR will check it out if a major change is rolled out.
Security will check out any spider crawls that turn up physical threats.
Facebook and Twitter are their major concerns.
Corporate does not consider BC a concern because so few outsiders come here.

Myself and a few others had to be careful not to reveal upcoming initiatives to FedEx or other competitors. No longer a problem for me.

I got started on BC when I came here to solicit information about one-time pickups and Smart pickups which I was investigating back in 2006 and 2007.
 

tonyexpress

Whac-A-Troll Patrol
Staff member
Took these quotes from another thread...

Our DM was in town on Thursday and requested a meeting with five of the more senior drivers. As the meeting was breaking up I asked him if there were a timeline on the implementation of Orion in our center. He asked me where I heard about Orion and I told him I heard about it on Brown Café. He did not offer an opinion either way about the forum but did concede that there is a great deal of good information on the site.

Why would they know about Orion? If it weren't for this site, I would not know a lot of things that happen around the country at UPS.

I will never forget when we were in a brief meeting ( 2 to 3 years ago)
when reductions and realignment were occurring.

We, as the low level workforce, were not in any type of information flow
about this.

I mentioned to my DM that I had checked Brown Cafe for information
about what was occurring
.

He went ballistic!

Guess one can figure out that I have never mentioned BC again since then
at my UPS workplace.

These posts represent a mix of reactions and why people come here.

From an employee standpoint having a place to come where most feel free to express new ideas, learn about new programs and see how other UPSers in different parts of the country/world do things is why the BrownCafe is here. Many come here to complain but a lot of that is expected and warranted. Everyone needs to vent once in while... How many customers call in to say they love their service versus how many call in to complain, it's just human nature and when things are going well you're more likely to say nothing.

As far as corporate goes I really have no idea what their thoughts are.

I would think this place is a snapshot of an employee opinion survey and that there's information here that could be used to benefit UPS and their employees. You would also think that informed employees with the desire to share information and learn things they otherwise would not learn, would be beneficial in the long term success of the whole organization.
 
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