What do you think? The Utmost Importance of Safety at UPS.

Turmlos

Active Member
As a part-timer with 11.5 years at a fairly small center, I have concluded that safety has always taken a back seat to production. Maybe it's a different story for drivers since they tend to stick around and the company feels that they are worth the investment, or not worth the much larger disability checks, I don't know. I can say safety was more important back when we had a full time manager, but ever since the managerial downsizing it's been limited to some lame 'safety tip' on a dry erase board and filling out some poorly written workbook. You can report faulty/broken equipment for weeks, but eventually you just give up after seeing no results. The only way an issue gets addressed is when somebody gets hurt. If this is an example of 'the utmost importance', then this company is in trouble...

Surely the company understands the concept of wear and tear, as they have to maintain an enormous fleet of vehicles. They need to acknowledge the fact that the same concept applies to their employees. Calling every injury 'avoidable' is as much of a joke as 'expect the unexpected'. The practice of having employees memorize and regurgitate 'safety keys' on demand in order to place all blame on them is a sham. With the current 'more from less' trend, it's only going to get worse. Haste makes waste.
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
As a part-timer with 11.5 years at a fairly small center, I have concluded that safety has always taken a back seat to production. Maybe it's a different story for drivers since they tend to stick around and the company feels that they are worth the investment, or not worth the much larger disability checks, I don't know. I can say safety was more important back when we had a full time manager, but ever since the managerial downsizing it's been limited to some lame 'safety tip' on a dry erase board and filling out some poorly written workbook. You can report faulty/broken equipment for weeks, but eventually you just give up after seeing no results. The only way an issue gets addressed is when somebody gets hurt. If this is an example of 'the utmost importance', then this company is in trouble...

Surely the company understands the concept of wear and tear, as they have to maintain an enormous fleet of vehicles. They need to acknowledge the fact that the same concept applies to their employees. Calling every injury 'avoidable' is as much of a joke as 'expect the unexpected'. The practice of having employees memorize and regurgitate 'safety keys' on demand in order to place all blame on them is a sham. With the current 'more from less' trend, it's only going to get worse. Haste makes waste.

On a daily basis, I stand at the intersection of the fantasy land of safety and the reality of production.

Every day, I die a little on the inside.
 

Signature Only

Blue in Brown
An on-road supervisor called a veteran driver during the 2nd week of December in tears.
The inbound volume that day demanded 52 routes.
The center manager allowed her 47.

I remember that day because I worked 13.90 hours.
The lightest day was 11.50.

That is management's commitment to safety.

Cut 5 routes during Christmas.
 

DS

Fenderbender
No need for that ... learn to detach yourself.

How?
There's the mandatory"must be back and punched out by 19:00"decree,
and there's reality.I guess I detach myself by deciding If I go over,they can
discipline me,and I'll just grieve it and win.This is still stressful.
I would love to know how to detach myself, I guess I'm just way too sensitive.
 

Limper

Out For Delivery
How?
There's the mandatory"must be back and punched out by 19:00"decree,
and there's reality.I guess I detach myself by deciding If I go over,they can
discipline me,and I'll just grieve it and win.This is still stressful.
I would love to know how to detach myself, I guess I'm just way too sensitive.


Nothing is mandatory after the "it ain't gonna happen" call to the center.
 

twoweeled

Well-Known Member
Safety is not important at UPS. This is not hyperbole. The importance lies only in ramifications from an unsafe act. If UPS held absolutely no responsibility for any injury, accident of any sort. If we had to pay for any and all accident damage done to property or ourselves, UPS wouldn't care if we ran out the gate and literally ran over people. If running on hub belts, improved production, DO IT! Speeding and running stop signs and lights improve production? They wouldn't care. All this concern over accident now is about cutting cost, absolutely nothing else.
 

Integrity

Binge Poster
Safety is not important at UPS. This is not hyperbole. The importance lies only in ramifications from an unsafe act. If UPS held absolutely no responsibility for any injury, accident of any sort. If we had to pay for any and all accident damage done to property or ourselves, UPS wouldn't care if we ran out the gate and literally ran over people. If running on hub belts, improved production, DO IT! Speeding and running stop signs and lights improve production? They wouldn't care. All this concern over accident now is about cutting cost, absolutely nothing else.
twoweeled,

Safety is not important to you?

Sincerely,
I
 

twoweeled

Well-Known Member
How?
There's the mandatory"must be back and punched out by 19:00"decree,
and there's reality.I guess I detach myself by deciding If I go over,they can
discipline me,and I'll just grieve it and win.This is still stressful.
I would love to know how to detach myself, I guess I'm just way too sensitive.

Get into your own routine and don't sway from it. But don't get into too firm a routine, because nothing is routine at UPS anymore. And sorry to say, but you will be all alone in your fights in the near near future. Pick em wisely!
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
No need for that ... learn to detach yourself.

If I didn't work in Operations, or in a position that was so close to these people, then yes, I would agree.

But, and maybe this is my own inexperience and naivete talking, but the position I am in now just doesn't allow me - as a human being - to detach myself from the reality. It is not lost on me that this will probably drive me out of UPS and possibly management in general.

Honestly, if I was brought into this company from the outside, at a higher level, and didn't personally know the people that my decisions affected, I could grind them to pieces without a second thought. But, the sad fact is that I've only worked in one center, and I know everyone, and I also know their families. As a result, the decisions I am forced to make hurt on a personal level.

I'm probably forced to make these decisions by a person who was, as I hinted earlier, brought in from the outside and has no problem grinding people to pieces - myself being one of them. I think I see it clearly enough.
 
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