Why What We Do is Skilled Labor

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Stooping and picking vegetables in the hot sun for 8+ hours a day is definitely a skill. You should try it sometime.

You are confusing skill and work ethic.


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[MAKAVELI]

You are confusing skill and work ethic.


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It's not just work ethic. It takes skill to do that work and survive. Sort of like crab fishing in Alaska.

 

[FedExRookie]

A fruit picker has but one task, which is to pick fruit. No technology, no multiple service levels, no vehicle no additional skills, no multi-tasking, and no customer interaction. Remove fruit from branch and insert in box or place on belt. Not exactly the same level of skills required. Bad analogy, because the courier job is multi-faceted and requires both skill and judgment on a continuous basis.

Since you are straying from your statement that regarded the 'level of productivity [demanded]' as your criteria for skilled labor I have a different analogy for you.

OK, so a sales representative in a retail store is skilled laborer?

They have customers, technology (cash registers, RFID scanners), use equipment (forklifts) in the backroom, have to multi-task.

Hell, they even have to deal with money, which almost no courier does....

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

It's not just work ethic. It takes skill to do that work and survive. Sort of like crab fishing in Alaska.

There is no unique skill set required for either of those two jobs.

There is no unique skill set required for either of our two jobs.


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[prodriver]

There is no unique skill set required for either of those two jobs.

There is no unique skill set required for either of our two jobs.


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Anyone that has good work ethic can pick fruit, not just anyone can be a safe and efficient courier.

 

[vantexan]

Technically, we are semi-skilled, but my point is that the level of productivity demanded pushes us into the realm of the skilled. No, you don't need a degree to do this job well, but you do need a number of "skills", none of which Fred is willing to pay for. I almost never agree with vantexan, but his post above is right on the money.

Now was that so hard....

 

[TUT]

Not so quick. If anything, DRA has proven that they cannot just plop someone in a vehicle and make it "happen".

Well you can't just turn on the friers and make McDonalds happen. That's silly, everything that would need a human to operate would be considered a skilled job, otherwise a tool/robot would do them. Now I agree to a level that everything has a skill to it and it does. But for the common definition in the real world no matter what you or Fedex thinks... it's an unskilled blue collar job. You turned down moving into a skilled white collar job, you want your cake and eat it to. (We all hate that saying but it fits). You turned down a life of luxury because you didn't want the extra stress and all that and now want to wave a wand and call your job skilled to benefit your choice of staying put.

I thought we've been around this topic with you a few times now.

 

[MrFedEx]

Since you are straying from your statement that regarded the 'level of productivity [demanded]' as your criteria for skilled labor I have a different analogy for you.

OK, so a sales representative in a retail store is skilled laborer?

They have customers, technology (cash registers, RFID scanners), use equipment (forklifts) in the backroom, have to multi-task.

Hell, they even have to deal with money, which almost no courier does....

That depends on what the sales rep is tasked with. It's always in the employer's interest to be able to characterize employees as being as unskilled as possible. That way, they can pay less. SPH brought up the case of crab fishermen...are they unskilled labor? A deckhand might be semi-skilled, but not the captain or engineer/deckhand. What we do used to be called "pink collar", which was somewhere between white collar and blue collar work. The whole DRA scheme would have us believe that we are just a cog that gets plugged into the driver's seat and that technology does all the hard work...uh, no. All of the juggling and multi-tasking we have to do rises well above the "unskilled" label. Like I said, Fred likes to say we're easily replaceable because it suits his purposes to do so. If I can do twice as much as a new-hire DRA courier, attract new business, stay safe on the road, and deliver impressive service, I'd say that's a skill set.

Both UPS and FedEx use Taylorism, which is the application of particular methods to a repetitive task. This is the basis for the UPS time study and since FedEx is a slavish copy of UPS, we do the same thing. Not a second or step is wasted if the driver follows the Tayloristic steps exactly. But, what we do is a bit more complex than picking fruit or shoveling coal...it requires thought and judgment beyond a mere repetition of tasks.

 

[Cactus]

Like I said, Fred likes to say we're easily replaceable because it suits his purposes to do so. If I can do twice as much as a new-hire DRA courier, attract new business, stay safe on the road, and deliver impressive service, I'd say that's a skill set.

Absolutely. If Fred and his cronies think the courier job is easy and only requires the skill of someone stationed at a McDonald's french fryer, I say they can try it for a week and let us know just how much they like it. Up for the challenge Memphoids?

 

[MrFedEx]

Absolutely. If Fred and his cronies think the courier job is easy and only requires the skill of someone stationed at a McDonald's french fryer, I say they can try it for a week and let us know just how much they like it. Up for the challenge Memphoids?

They think it's the same thing. Therein lies the problem.

 

[Cactus]

They think it's the same thing. Therein lies the problem.

I just wish they'd stick their heads in a McDonald's french fryer if only for a minute.

 

[Route 66]

I just wish they'd stick their heads in a McDonald's french fryer if only for a minute.

yes!, they should hold an annual 'bobbing-for-french fries' contest in MEM

 

[59 Dano]

A fruit picker has but one task, which is to pick fruit. No technology, no multiple service levels, no vehicle no additional skills, no multi-tasking, and no customer interaction.

That's about as many skills as a fast food worker needs.

 

[CJinx]

You're confusing skill with experience, mastery, and work ethic.

You were once the pleb that you consider your newer coworkers to be. Only through repetition of your assigned tasks did you master them to the point where you consider yourself to be skilled. That new employee might not be able to touch your numbers now, but given time they will; and they'll be younger, healthier, cost less, and have a better attitude than you.

 

[HomeDelivery]

if Mr Smith can build these now...

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs30/friend/2008/165/friend/b/FedEx_Robot_2_by_maceno.jpg

he would say "eff you" to all those workers

 

[!Retired!]

Think back to when you started. Were you 'skilled'? Did you know whether to deliver to a back door, front door, loading dock, etc? Did you know how to operate a tracker or drive a 9 ton truck safely? I can honestly say, I didn't. You do what you now do well because of experience and repetition. True, not everyone can do this job. Not everyone can read a map, be it a map book or DRA map. Then again, not everyone can handle working at McDonald's during lunchtime.

 

[scooby0048]

Then again, not everyone can handle working at McDonald's during lunchtime.

Hence the reason I do not go near McDonald's at lunch or dinner times...7 out of 10 times they screw my order up

 

[Griff]

"Driving for UPS is a requirement for management. The CEO, Mike Eskew, who by his own chuckling admission “wasn't very good at it.”."

He made that remark on more than one occasion throughout his tenure as CEO. So there's a guy with a "skilled" job that wasn't so great at "unskilled" labor. Doesn't really add up.

Could careless what other people think of the job. You can take any job in the world and oversimplify it from the outside looking in. Fact is, it takes a certain type of person to do this day in and day out. In the year 2014, I'd say work ethic IS a skill-set. 50 years ago a solid work ethic was common, today it is not.


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[scooby0048]

Fact is, it takes a certain type of person to do this day in and day out. In the year 2014, I'd say work ethic IS a skill-set. 50 years ago a solid work ethic was common, today it is not.

+1

 

[vantexan]

You're confusing skill with experience, mastery, and work ethic.

You were once the pleb that you consider your newer coworkers to be. Only through repetition of your assigned tasks did you master them to the point where you consider yourself to be skilled. That new employee might not be able to touch your numbers now, but given time they will; and they'll be younger, healthier, cost less, and have a better attitude than you.

When that old courier was young he had a $100 annual deductible on his insurance, everything else paid by the company. He had a traditional pension and real wage progression. A nice bonus system. He had jumpseating privileges as well as some incredible commercial airline discounts. His future was bright, and he saw it being slowly taken away over time while being lied to constantly. So his attitude isn't great. But that young guy coming in works in a different world and all he really sees now is an expectation to work hard with no rewards, no real perks. He soon realizes he'll never make the money the old couriers are getting and his mgr's attitude is it's good enough for him so don't complain. And word is out about FedEx now. Very few applicants are the same quality workers of times past and the few who are leave quickly. I set up guys with 25 stops in a fairly condensed area with a good map and they didn't get back to the building until 1500-1600. It was absolutely pathetic and the mgrs were so desperate to hang on to part-timers that they said very little. We had so much turnover of young part-timers at one station that I'd get the FedEx Office pup dumped on me after running a heavy extended route all day while part-timers were heading back to the station. Why? It was Friday night and they all bitched about working late and having to work Saturday too. Most of those newhires aren't just like us only they haven't honed their skills yet. They are Walmart McJobbers who are thrilled to make $15hr because they never thought they would but don't have the wherewithal to perform at the level the company demands. That's what the company is trying to overcome with DRA because they don't want to pay for quality.