How are they going to keep PTers after next month.

[bellesotico]

UPS signed an agreement to make new employees wait a year long to get the health coverage. Thus another year to get a family member or new person on your benefit plan, covered. On top of all that, you have to be a full time student to get the full coverage, ouch.

1 year for new hires..18 months for family.

I have never read anything about having to be a full time student to get full coverage. Is that in your supplemental?

 

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

Or should I say..we don't get disciplined for them.
They do show up on the call in log.
We get rewarded for catching them though.

Right, that is what I was going for originally. The errors are likely charged to the preloader and the preloader probably has a sit- down with management at some point, if not just a chat with a sup about it.

when PAS was first implemented in a small center I worked in '04, I was loading flips all the time, and management would give a "talk to" a handful of times. Never disciplined though. The problem was, it's peak and loading 2 24's and a 500 did not give enough time to look at all labels and compare them, being 120% capacity.

I rememeber myself and many of fellow preloaders were not having fun with the new system that peak, labeling it Preload Resist System, Pointless and Stupid, etc

I told them whenever we had those data flip issues "if you want to me to preload, this is what you're going to get". The following week early Jan, back up on the pickoff.

 

[ORLY!?!]

1 year for new hires..18 months for family.

Ah a beer right after breakfast is the breakfast of champions, lulz.

That is what I heard from someone in my building, hinting they are apart of the safety committee. Or the itty bitty kitty committee XD~!~.

I couldn’t careless about the benefits, to tell all you the truth. Being young as I am, and being well spoken for online in text and in person; I believe what is being said here, that UPS wants employees of younger status, because they require less as heath concerns.

As for my drivers, or all of them, seem to be so much older and / or been in and out of the military. In fact, one of my drivers is 62 years old. He handles a small car with about 310 in it on a daily basis, two regular stops of 50 or more to major retail stores in the area. It is a major task on the body to load it I can just imagine the task it is to unload quickly, accurately and safely. They certainly don’t make people like that in this country anymore.

The reasons why they like the old timers and ex-military personal is because they have been doing it or putting up with the crap for awhile, or have nothing better to do. Or even a darker reference, they have no more life to live.

 

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

1 year for new hires..18 months for family.

Ah a beer right after breakfast is the breakfast of champions, lulz.

That is what I heard from someone in my building, hinting they are apart of the safety committee. Or the itty bitty kitty committee XD~!~.

I couldn’t careless about the benefits, to tell all you the truth. Being young as I am, and being well spoken for online in text and in person; I believe what is being said here, that UPS wants employees of younger status, because they require less as heath concerns.

As for my drivers, or all of them, seem to be so much older and / or been in and out of the military. In fact, one of my drivers is 62 years old. He handles a small car with about 310 in it on a daily basis, two regular stops of 50 or more to major retail stores in the area. It is a major task on the body to load it I can just imagine the task it is to unload quickly, accurately and safely. They certainly don’t make people like that in this country anymore.

The reasons why they like the old timers and ex-military personal is because they have been doing it or putting up with the crap for awhile, or have nothing better to do. Or even a darker reference, they have no more life to live.

I don't understand what you're trying to say in the last paragraph. Maybe they're doing it because they're making 80k a year? Or because their two kids are 18 and 20 in college?

 

[MarePare]

I exist in the UPS world and accept that there are things I cannot change. I go to work because it is my choice, and I do my job to the best of my abilities because it makes ME feel good. I have a strong sense of pride in my work and it shows.

...

I guess what I am trying to say is the more we as part timers get upset about such as management walking around basically saying how bad we suck, the more power we give them. No one wants a service failure period but we as preloaders can't come in to work day after day with a storm cloud hanging over our heads.

I couldn't have said it better myself! Nice post!

I think one of the reasons that turnover is and will continue to be so high (besides a low starting wage, changes to wait for benefits, etc.) is that new hires are looking for approval from management and don't get it. We all have been the new guy at one time or another and I think most people can relate to this. It's difficult to come to work day after day and feel like you did a horrible job because your supervisor tells you that you did this, this, and that wrong. (maybe you'll get a "good job" compliment for something else if you're lucky!)

Especially with a lack of training, it's difficult for a new employee. Speaking from the perspective of a preloader, there are many things that I wish I had been told when I first started that would have helped me do my job better and given me more pride in my work. I had no idea that supervisors couldn't work and I was quite frankly pissed that they would stand around when I was getting slammed with packages and tell me to work faster and not stack out. I also did not fully understand how to load things on the floor if they didn't fit on the shelves. I thought I had to get everything on the shelves or else!

As time went on, I learned so many things from my fellow preloaders and my drivers. If I had better training and learned right off the bat how I could make my job a little easier and less stressful, I would have been so happy. Believe me, I thought of quitting many, many times in my first 30 days. I'm so glad that I didn't because I never knew that I would improve so much and feel good about my job.

I guess my point is that IMO we should look out for the new guys (I know that many of us already do and I think it's great!). From my experience, management doesn't do enough to encourage new hires to stay. All it might take is a coworker saying "hey man, don't worry about that misload yesterday - it happens to us all and once you've been here a while, you won't even need to think about which car you're in anymore".

Or drivers, when you have a new preloader (I know it can be aggravating to have a new person loading), keep in mind that they receive little training. My drivers have helped me out so much by telling me about their preferences (ex: all pieces for 1 stop together or some on floor and some on shelf). Now I don't have to worry about if something will make my driver's job easier or harder because I already know.

On a final note, I just want to share my own view on my job. I used to think that I should work so that my supervisor would be happy because I wasn't stacking out or in need of help. Now I don't care if I get a little behind - I'll catch up later. Too bad if I get off the clock 2 minutes later than what you planned for. If I can give my drivers a quality load that will prevent them from searching for missing packages or delivering misloads then I'm happy. I could not care less what management thinks of me. As far as I'm concerned, yes I work for the company, but I like to think that I work for my drivers. They are the ones directly impacted by my work and that's why I care. That's why I stay, because I know that they appreciate my work.

New hires don't usually see this kind of appreciation, hopefully more will understand that they are wanted at UPS, not just needed, and that they do matter. Maybe turnover won't be as high then.

 

[Babagounj]

The reasons why they like the old timers and ex-military personal is because they have been doing it or putting up with the crap for awhile, or have nothing better to do. Or even a darker reference, they have no more life to live.

OUCH.

(1) ups has always hired folks from the military; has to do with people who are willing to work hard & are well adjusted to their corporate mind set.
(2) " putting up with crap for awhile " , child you have no knowledge of how much fun it was back in the days of sheeting on paper & no cell phones. Things were nicer.
(3) " having nothing better to do " ," have no more life to live "
Now that is very mean. What do you think we should be doing.....be greeters at WalMart ?
Seems you lack a lot of knowledge about many aspects of life. That old saying " don't trust anyone over 30 " must be your golden rule.

 

[HEFFERNAN]

I guess what I am trying to say is the more we as part timers get upset about such as management walking around basically saying how bad we suck, the more power we give them.

Don't forget Belle

In the morning meetings, the FT Preload sup is hammering the part time sup for all the mistakes his/her people made. Sometimes that fact gets forgotten. It is there job to go over all the info with their preloaders. Some PT SUPS have better people skills than others. I know that if I'm loading a truck, I don't want to hear how much I screwed up yesterday either. I understand your point of view completely.

 

[1989]

wow i thought my 55% over a yr was bad

In the 90's ('91-'96 the kinder gentler UPS) On average we would retain 1 out of 7 new hires (preloaders) One would last about a year or so. In 2006 3 were on car supes and 1 was a center manager.

 

[ORLY!?!]

I didn’t mean to upset anyone.

What I was trying to say, is UPS is looking for people who have lived their lives already and can be 100% committed to the cause. Most of the drivers are older and have no other reason to quit the job. After saying that, none of them want to quit either, the pay is great, duh. Making the promotion to driver that much of a false reality. Yet, my drivers always tell me stories of thinking of quitting due to UPS working them too damn hard.

As being a younger man, and going for the younger generation working at any HUB. They are looking for those kids to go to school and enrich themselves. The promise of promotion is slow, yet I see new hires have all the confidence in the world that the driver promotion is right around the corner.

They see younger people as a flight risk because I will admit that we are young and stupid. We would be more at risk of quitting or crashing cars, as their statistics show them.

I agree that UPS has seen better times. Due to the new GPS search and find, they can check up on drivers at anytime to see if they are taking 5-10-15 minutes too long at bulk drops and house deliveries.

 

[bad company]

Don't forget Belle

In the morning meetings, the FT Preload sup is hammering the part time sup for all the mistakes his/her people made. Sometimes that fact gets forgotten. It is there job to go over all the info with their preloaders. Some PT SUPS have better people skills than others. I know that if I'm loading a truck, I don't want to hear how much I screwed up yesterday either. I understand your point of view completely.

Yes...true...but...your point? As a member of the management team, it is a supervisor’s duty to accept the responsibility for their groups' actions. If a full-time sup hammers a part-time sup, it does not mean the part-time sup should hammer the preloaders. It means the part-time sup needs to evaluate what went wrong, and promptly address the specific issues to rectify the situation. They should then follow-up on the matter regularly to make sure that the same mistake isn’t repeated. The notion that it's ok for a part-time sup to hammer preloaders simply because he/she got hammered from their superior is foolish. The problem with most part-time sups is that they are reactive, instead of being proactive.

 

[SoyFish]

Ummm I got tired of reading all the posts halfway through the first page...anyways it's the workers attitude that will keep them working there, not what UPS does, though that does factor in as well I guess. Meh.

 

[Mike Hawk]

Bad SPA labels should be charged to the SPA person, however it is much harder to figure out which SPA person did it, especially when both use the same login. Even with different ones you need the SPA label in front of you to see the ID. If it gets delivered chances are they won't know who to blame. And when there are two different labels with the same tracking number, but different truck numbers, that is usually the preloaders fault for pulling the sticker off and putting it on a side other than the one with the label, SPA people can't do a six sided check on every box that comes down when we need to be scanning faster than 1/second.

 

[HEFFERNAN]

Yes...true...but...your point? As a member of the management team, it is a supervisor’s duty to accept the responsibility for their groups' actions. If a full-time sup hammers a part-time sup, it does not mean the part-time sup should hammer the preloaders. It means the part-time sup needs to evaluate what went wrong, and promptly address the specific issues to rectify the situation. They should then follow-up on the matter regularly to make sure that the same mistake isn’t repeated. The notion that it's ok for a part-time sup to hammer preloaders simply because he/she got hammered from their superior is foolish. The problem with most part-time sups is that they are reactive, instead of being proactive.

That's where the people skills comes into play. It's something you don't learn in a book. Some have it, some don't !

 

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

Bad SPA labels should be charged to the SPA person, however it is much harder to figure out which SPA person did it, especially when both use the same login. Even with different ones you need the SPA label in front of you to see the ID. If it gets delivered chances are they won't know who to blame. And when there are two different labels with the same tracking number, but different truck numbers, that is usually the preloaders fault for pulling the sticker off and putting it on a side other than the one with the label, SPA people can't do a six sided check on every box that comes down when we need to be scanning faster than 1/second.

I know what you're saying, but I disagree partly. Every center is different. Some SPA ispa right there on the boxline load, others in primary, and other variations.

I have worked in centers where the primary has SPA stations right there in the unload, and believe me the SPA guy/gal doesn't have time to check the pals, and if they did they'd be stopping the unloader every few minutes.

But where applicable, yeah the preloader should not be the only one accountable. The OMSs doing data correction, like I've said before, are also accountable. they must maintain over 90% correction efficiency also, or theyre usually out of a job.

*edit* actually we aren't that far off in thinking after all eh

 

[bellesotico]

1 year for new hires..18 months for family.


I couldn’t careless about the benefits, to tell all you the truth. Being young as I am, and being well spoken for online in text and in person; I believe what is being said here, that UPS wants employees of younger status, because they require less as heath concerns.

It's not that younger people "require less as heath concerns", UPS is counting on college students moving on or moving up before they are eligible for benefits.

As for my drivers, or all of them, seem to be so much older and / or been in and out of the military. In fact, one of my drivers is 62 years old. He handles a small car with about 310 in it on a daily basis, two regular stops of 50 or more to major retail stores in the area. It is a major task on the body to load it I can just imagine the task it is to unload quickly, accurately and safely. They certainly don’t make people like that in this country anymore.

I guess I'm confused here, are you referring to human beings or vehicles?

The reasons why they like the old timers and ex-military personal is because they have been doing it or putting up with the crap for awhile, or have nothing better to do. Or even a darker reference, they have no more life to live.

Hmmm...I'm thinking that maybe you are generalizing here. You may want to reconsider your words and state them as opinion and not as fact.

 

[DeputyDip]

Probably been posted here before, but here are the results of a 1997 research project sponsored by the IBT. If you have time for a read:

http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=reports

For most of these workers, the single most disturbing factor about their UPS work experience was the lack of opportunity for full-time employment at full-time pay rates. Three out of four of the part-time workers expressed dissatisfaction with the general lack of full-time and promotional opportunities at UPS. ​

This dissatisfaction was not limited to any certain group of part-timers; it crossed all boundaries of tenure and total hours worked and appeared to be rooted in the fact that a significant majority originally accept part-time employment at UPS because they were either unable to attain a full-time job elsewhere, or hoped that the part-time position would lead to full-time employment at UPS.​

 

[HEFFERNAN]

Deputy

I'm not going to flat out call it propaganda, but.......never mind......it's Propaganda


Being it was sponsered by the IBT and the main reason for the "project" was for those new 22.3 combo jobs that we went on strike for.

 

[DeputyDip]

Yes, it is definitely one sided.

 

[BrownSuit]

One thing to also keep in mind is that UPS looks a whole lot better on a resume years down the road than McDonald's. Which would you look more favorably on, a company that flips burgers, or somebody working hard moving packages. It says more about work ethic than anything.

As for the current staffing, I'm very curious what will happen when the hiring freeze is lifted. That will no doubt add an interesting dynamic to the whole situation.

Also, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't HR's QPR in part influenced by overall turnover at their location? People do look at those numbers.

 

[drewed]

Also, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't HR's QPR in part influenced by overall turnover at their location? People do look at those numbers.

all the qprs (pt/ft ops sups) ive seen, turnover is very highly weighted