100 years of culture

Ms. Brown

Member
What do you all think about the UPS culture? Do you think there need to be changes made? This company is a throwback to the old way of doing business. Does it still work?
 

SmithBarney

Well-Known Member
The culture today is not what it was 100years ago, or 50, 25 years ago or possibly even 10 years ago.
Once upon a time, Employees would recommend UPS to friends as a great place to work

Now-a-days Employees generally wouldn't recommend it to enemies...


Drivers that have been on for 15+ years have seen the change, they
are mostly hanging on to retire. The Job when they started has changed so
much.
 

Ms. Brown

Member
Yeah, it seems like other companies are doing something about helping employees find a good balance between work and family...you hear about all the innovative work schedules and whatnot...but not at UPS.
 
J

just a though

Guest
Yeah, it seems like other companies are doing something about helping employees find a good balance between work and family...you hear about all the innovative work schedules and whatnot...but not at UPS.

There is something to be said about working in a collective bargaining environment and having the highest wages in the industry. Those two realities play a huge role in the work rules and environment that we have at UPS. Its a give and take...if you want to have the wages and benefits that UPS provides there is a tradeoff. The expectations are high...they always have been. The company can't afford the luxury as an example of carrying "extra" employees on the payroll....far to costly.
 

Dutch Dawg

Well-Known Member
What do you all think about the UPS culture? Do you think there need to be changes made? This company is a throwback to the old way of doing business. Does it still work?

I remember when UPS employees had a better sense of pride. When many more within believed we were a step above the competition. When a driver went the xtra step in delivering or picking up a parcel as a norm because they valued the people on 'their' route and the people they served in turn recognized that.

While management has always been consumed with numbers, today they're driven with a misconception that incorporating new technology to analysis these numbers, more precise results will be obtained to streamline, increase efficiency, and guide UPS into the future. Ignoring all along the input data often leaves much to be desired.

There has always been a segment of discontent within delivery centers, that's to be expected to some degree. In the past most would have blamed in on malcontents and old timers beyond retirement. Some today might suggest it's due in part to the tireless PCMs on Safety and Service and the contradictory undertones management places upon employees to meet their expectations. Whether true or not, there appears to be a sense that Center Management has lost the power to make sensible change for the better in the daily routines of their hourly employees when needed. Based on the above, some might argue that modern change has been occuring all along.

'If you squeeze the orange too hard, zest will cause bitterness to the juice.'
 
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BLACKBOX

Life is a Highway...
'If you squeeze the orange too hard, zest will cause bitterness to the juice.'[/quote]


You know it does'nt take alot for attitudes to go south. All the old-time driver always have something to be unhappy about, and the next thing you know everybody feels the same way.

They got to stop squeezing our oranges so hard, pretty soon there is nothing left to squeeze!
 

satellitedriver

Moderator
'If you squeeze the orange too hard, zest will cause bitterness to the juice.'


You know it does'nt take alot for attitudes to go south. All the old-time driver always have something to be unhappy about, and the next thing you know everybody feels the same way.

They got to stop squeezing our oranges so hard, pretty soon there is nothing left to squeeze![/QUOTE]Let me get this straight.
The old-timers are the cause of your bad attitude?
Everbody feels the way they want to feel, not just us old farts, and your post seems to reflect that.
My oranges are still full of juice. Sorry to hear that yours have already been squeezed dry.
 

satellitedriver

Moderator
I remember when UPS employees had a better sense of pride. When many more within believed we were a step above the competition. When a driver went the xtra step in delivering or picking up a parcel as a norm because they valued the people on 'their' route and the people they served in turn recognized that.

While management has always been consumed with numbers, today they're driven with a misconception that incorporating new technology to analysis these numbers, more precise results will be obtained to streamline, increase efficiency, and guide UPS into the future. Ignoring all along the input data often leaves much to be desired.

There has always been a segment of discontent within delivery centers, that's to be expected to some degree. In the past most would have blamed in on malcontents and old timers beyond retirement. Some today might suggest it's due in part to the tireless PCMs on Safety and Service and the contradictory undertones management places upon employees to meet their expectations. Whether true or not, there appears to be a sense that Center Management has lost the power to make sensible change for the better in the daily routines of their hourly employees when needed. Based on the above, some might argue that modern change has been occuring all along.

'If you squeeze the orange too hard, zest will cause bitterness to the juice.'
I agree, well said.
 

local804

Well-Known Member
Drivers that have been on for 15+ years have seen the change, they
are mostly hanging on to retire. The Job when they started has changed so
much.

AMEN!!!!

I also think UPS must stop the discrimination against women and minorities. There are way too few of both in any full time position or supervisor position for that matter. UPS is an EOE, I think its time to show it.
 

rushfan

Well-Known Member
I've been with us for 13 years I thought 14, (but did the math, what a let down to find out I was wrong...just joking). It seems to me the "young-uns" don't really give a S#$% about good service.
 

BLACKBOX

Life is a Highway...
The old-timers are the cause of your bad attitude?

Oh hell yeah!

There has'nt been a day in our center that a veteran driver is'nt bad mouthing management or another driver. I dunno, you old timers seem awfully paranoid.

I just hate it when the target is another driver that I think is a good person and that the topic is about their work habits or worse yet their personal life.

Crazy part is that most times they are right, because they somehow have info about something before most of us do.

Maybe your orange is being squeezed but you just don't realize how hard.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
"It seems to me the "young-uns" don't really give a S#$% about good service."

I agree! But they get that attitude from the management team.

Think about it. Some young kid just starting, doesn't know how it used to be. All he sees is the management team running around with their noses buried in daily reports. It would seem that service means nothing. It's all about the numbers....

Some of you will say we've always had reports. Well, we've always had the daily OR. Now there is an amazing number of daily reports. Can we name them all?

1. The OR.

2. Late air.

3. SSI accounts not delivered on time.

4. P/Us not made in window.


There's more. But there's no report for "good service". No one cares anymore.
 

satellitedriver

Moderator
The old-timers are the cause of your bad attitude?

Oh hell yeah!

There has'nt been a day in our center that a veteran driver is'nt bad mouthing management or another driver. I dunno, you old timers seem awfully paranoid.

I just hate it when the target is another driver that I think is a good person and that the topic is about their work habits or worse yet their personal life.

Crazy part is that most times they are right, because they somehow have info about something before most of us do.

Maybe your orange is being squeezed but you just don't realize how hard.
If you allow other people to direct your attitude, then you are not being true to yourself.
You hate it and I hate it,when someone picks on a group or an individual who they think they can intimidate.
If their work habits are sloppy, maybe they deserve a gentle reminder of what their job entails.
Their personal life should be personal, unless they bring it to the work place.
It isn't crazy that some old-timers know things before you do. It's a simple thing that is called experience and it comes with age.
Not all old people are in your way. Just think of them as the forward guides on your path.
I think I should know how hard my oranges have been touched after 21 yr's of driving. It has felt more like a caress than a squeeze, but maybe my oranges have a thicker skin than yours.
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
"It seems to me the "young-uns" don't really give a S#$% about good service."

I agree! But they get that attitude from the management team.

Think about it. Some young kid just starting, doesn't know how it used to be. All he sees is the management team running around with their noses buried in daily reports. It would seem that service means nothing. It's all about the numbers....

Some of you will say we've always had reports. Well, we've always had the daily OR. Now there is an amazing number of daily reports. Can we name them all?

1. The OR.

2. Late air.

3. SSI accounts not delivered on time.

4. P/Us not made in window.


There's more. But there's no report for "good service". No one cares anymore.

Those 4 you just mentioned are the smallest tip on the largest iceberg that you can comprehend. They have so many reports now, that the paper they waste could be used to wipe the butt's on everyone in China for 100,000 years!
 

satellitedriver

Moderator
Those 4 you just mentioned are the smallest tip on the largest iceberg that you can comprehend. They have so many reports now, that the paper they waste could be used to wipe the butt's on everyone in China for 100,000 years!
And, most of those reports should be used exactly as you described.
 

mattwtrs

Retired Senior Member
AMEN!!!!

I also think UPS must stop the discrimination against women and minorities. There are way too few of both in any full time position or supervisor position for that matter. UPS is an EOE, I think its time to show it.
804, I am sorry to hear that you think UPS discriminates against minorities & females. In my little center of 70 some employees there are 12 females & 3 of them are in management. Ten percent of the full time drivers are male minorities & 20% are female. As far as minorty management in your area maybe they are smart enough not to sell their soul to Big Brown!
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
AMEN!!!!

I also think UPS must stop the discrimination against women and minorities. There are way too few of both in any full time position or supervisor position for that matter. UPS is an EOE, I think its time to show it.

Stop discriminating? UPS already promotes too many people based on race or gender. Haven't you seen the pamplets and articles in "Inside UPS" bragging about winning awards for "Being Most Diversified"?? EOE is nothing but another way of saying Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is discrimination. I don't care how much people try to sugar coat it. That is what it is. Jobs should be filled based on what an employee puts in the "previous experience" section on an application. Not the "race or gender" section. When Martin Luther King was fighting so hard to promote equality he didn't mean that one group should be given special treatment over the other simply because they are in the minority. Hiring people to meet a "racial quota" doesn't sound like equality to me.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
I have to say I dont think that it is racially or minority that people dont get a job. In my center, we have both, but once they do not stay or qualify they are gone and UPS doesnt have to rehire in the quota, to fill a spot. The last crew who was hired for pt, most left. and the last few females waiting their way to the top(which is not what I would call it) have small children and it isnt a good idea for them or they are off on reasons medical, which I dont know.
I would not reccomend full time in any position, unless it was staff where they get to go home at the same time every day. Mostly coz we start too late. If you have young children. And you want or need to be there. Maybe staff has more flexible hrs, I dont know for sure but I think so. But to be in operations, or a center manager, or sup, or driver, I would not have wanted to do it with small kids. I didnt have a husband, to attend what I didnt make, even if I had, there is a certain pride you can never regain by having missed those things. Even if your other half was there. Thats just my opinion.
We have spoken here many times about equality, and I think we know, that not everyone can do it. As for myself, my kids were almost grown when I took on full time. Thank God for unanswered prayers that it didnt happen sooner. I dont know how you employees with children, female, male, black or white or hispanic do it. You would miss too much, and you can never get it back.
 
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