3 strikes.

[bbsam]

It's not easy but it is profitable.

 

[MAKAVELI]

It's not easy but it is profitable.

Until it blows up in their face.

 

[STFXG]

It wont

 

[bbsam]

Calculated risk.

 

[MAKAVELI]

It wont

It already started.

 

[bbsam]

It already started.

How so?

 

[MAKAVELI]

It already started.

How so?

If you actually worked in the Express division then you would know. From your world everything is all peaches and cream as long as your checks keep coming. But just remember we are all under the same corporate umbrella. If Express goes down so does Ground.

 

[STFXG]

Express won't go down. That's a ridiculous statement and it makes you sound crazy.

 

[MAKAVELI]

Express won't go down. That's a ridiculous statement and it makes you sound crazy.

Okay buddy you believe all the Kool Aid drinkers you want but I believe what I see.

 

[thedownhillEXPRESS]

How so?

Things are definately spiraling out of control.
They are throwing everything at the wall hoping something will stick.
The main problem is that people are not doing anything "above and beyond".
This was always taken for granted but now is lost.
Our management or their superiors are at a loss of what to do to stem the disaster taking place.
I think they got caught trying to implement DRA before it was even close to prime time and now are dealing with a scorned workforce that can't be motivated by fear and threats.

 

[bbsam]

If you actually worked in the Express division then you would know. From your world everything is all peaches and cream as long as your checks keep coming. But just remember we are all under the same corporate umbrella. If Express goes down so does Ground.

oh my. Get over yourself already.

 

[fedupped]

Things are definately spiraling out of control.
They are throwing everything at the wall hoping something will stick.
The main problem is that people are not doing anything "above and beyond".
This was always taken for granted but now is lost.
Our management or their superiors are at a loss of what to do to stem the disaster taking place.
I think they got caught trying to implement DRA before it was even close to prime time and now are dealing with a scorned workforce that can't be motivated by fear and threats.

The problem is they have let a computer calculate what is above and beyond, without any real world statistics to back it up.

 

[bbsam]

I am curious. I understand having unemployment claims raises rates for the company, but how much? Anybody know?

 

[overflowed]

Things are definately spiraling out of control.
They are throwing everything at the wall hoping something will stick.
The main problem is that people are not doing anything "above and beyond".
This was always taken for granted but now is lost.
Our management or their superiors are at a loss of what to do to stem the disaster taking place.
I think they got caught trying to implement DRA before it was even close to prime time and now are dealing with a scorned workforce that can't be motivated by fear and threats.

Downhill is absolutely correct. Management has lost all credibility with the workforce. Most don't care. If there is no incentive to do a good job, the normal fear of losing the job subsides. Upper management has been making insane demands that don't make any sense. The crest for most employees starting "to get it" was seeing all the ops managers working Saturdays because the company didn't want to pay OT. The employees understood they were working for FREE. Case in point, was a meeting yesterday where the regular insane demands were reminded about and 90% of the couriers started openly laughing while ops was talking. Not giggling, not chuckling, straight out loud laughing. The meeting abruptly ended and you could see from the ops managers faces that they understood what just happened. They understood the couriers KNOW that all they do is take orders. The station is very strange to say the least at this point.

 

[Ricochet1a]

I am curious. I understand having unemployment claims raises rates for the company, but how much? Anybody know?

I know it would be on a state by state basis. However, it would take someone with some very detailed knowledge in HR and unemployment, to be able to give an accurate figure for what a corporation is charged for unemployment claims and how incremental claims would impact rates charged.

 

[MrFedEx]

Downhill is absolutely correct. Management has lost all credibility with the workforce. Most don't care. If there is no incentive to do a good job, the normal fear of losing the job subsides. Upper management has been making insane demands that don't make any sense. The crest for most employees starting "to get it" was seeing all the ops managers working Saturdays because the company didn't want to pay OT. The employees understood they were working for FREE. Case in point, was a meeting yesterday where the regular insane demands were reminded about and 90% of the couriers started openly laughing while ops was talking. Not giggling, not chuckling, straight out loud laughing. The meeting abruptly ended and you could see from the ops managers faces that they understood what just happened. They understood the couriers KNOW that all they do is take orders. The station is very strange to say the least at this point.

I love this post, and here's why. Management has taken it from merely ridiculous to ludicrous, and employees are finally seeing it for the theatre of the absurd that Express has become. We also laugh openly now. How refreshing is it to see that look on their faces to see that we aren't buying any of it any longer. Our senior had a meeting on the belt today (late freight), and about 40% of the assembled workgroup just walked off as he was ranting about being more productive. We brought back hundreds of DEX01s today, and I hope we double that tomorrow.

I also see the system imploding, and it's because so few people care. While I agree with R1a's assessment that they will do whatever it takes to make their profit targets, let the whole operation burn to the ground in the meantime. They want us gone, so let all of the new people do the heavy lifting and make SPH. If everyone sticks together, Express will soon be a total disaster, and it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

Too bad more people couldn't have figured this out sooner. A union is not in the cards at this time.

 

[Ricochet1a]

Case in point, was a meeting yesterday where the regular insane demands were reminded about and 90% of the couriers started openly laughing while ops was talking. Not giggling, not chuckling, straight out loud laughing. The meeting abruptly ended and you could see from the ops managers faces that they understood what just happened. They understood the couriers KNOW that all they do is take orders. The station is very strange to say the least at this point.

This is an indicator that morale has completely broken down, management is held in contempt and basically have NO CONTROL over what is going on. Put another way, the operation is running without any direct influence from management - chaos in motion.

In a military environment, a situation like this would result in the commander being IMMEDIATELY relieved of command and the unit declared to be operationally unfit until new leadership is brought in and the unit is 'rehabilitated'.

It is good to know that at least the ops managers realize they no longer have any real control over what is going on. From their perspective, it is a case of the 'inmates running the asylum' with their not being able to do anything about it. From a HR point of view, the organizational cohesiveness has completely failed, and either a change in business operating procedure is needed (not going to happen), a change in management is needed (may indeed happen - at least at the station level) or a good round of "Roman discipline" is needed (the Romans 'decimated' a unit if it performed very poorly, one man in 10 was put to death to help motivate the rest to do better next time). I think everyone agrees that Express is already engaging in a form of Roman discipline.

This is actually one of the steps needed on the road to successful labor organizing - a company's labor holding their management in complete contempt and not afraid to demonstrate that fact. Whether or not this situation is occurring on a national scale is to be seen.

It would be interesting for the poster to ask their coworkers what their sentiment towards organizing is now. Are they willing to laugh at management but NOT willing to sign a rep card? Are they willing to sign a rep card but only without their coworkers knowing about it?

The wage employees have held 'Memphis' in contempt for a while now. It looks like that contempt is falling on local level management finally. I do remember writing a few months ago that when it comes to wage employee discontent, that Memphis was no longer going to let the local management play 'good cop' while placing all the blame on Memphis; local management was going to have to step up and actively promote and defend policies established in Memphis and not attempt to distance themselves from those policies.

I also wrote not too long ago that Memphis totally wrote off this year's SFA (have you heard any BS regarding the SFA taken just over 2 months ago???). Memphis knows what is going on, they aren't blind.

Don't be too surprised if 'decimation' is used to help motivate the remainder to 'get with the program', or face the consequences. It is only going to get worse...

 

[SmithBarney]

The problem is they have let a computer calculate what is above and beyond, without any real world statistics to back it up.

Well the "computer" is fed false(ified) data. Years of falsified numbers, fudged a little here and there to "make" the STA/CRR/MGR look good, will eventually catch up and has.
We are constantly told we "need a x% improvement year over year" but due to the law of diminishing returns eventually you run out of the ability to "improve"

Computer folks might know the acronym GIGO, Garbage IN, Garbage Out.
The computer can't tell the truth from lies, and it processes the lies as if they are truth, and the output is garbage.

Same might be said for hourlies, Give us nothing, Get nothing.

 

[MrFedEx]

This is an indicator that morale has completely broken down, management is held in contempt and basically have NO CONTROL over what is going on. Put another way, the operation is running without any direct influence from management - chaos in motion.

In a military environment, a situation like this would result in the commander being IMMEDIATELY relieved of command and the unit declared to be operationally unfit until new leadership is brought in and the unit is 'rehabilitated'.

It is good to know that at least the ops managers realize they no longer have any real control over what is going on. From their perspective, it is a case of the 'inmates running the asylum' with their not being able to do anything about it. From a HR point of view, the organizational cohesiveness has completely failed, and either a change in business operating procedure is needed (not going to happen), a change in management is needed (may indeed happen - at least at the station level) or a good round of "Roman discipline" is needed (the Romans 'decimated' a unit if it performed very poorly, one man in 10 was put to death to help motivate the rest to do better next time). I think everyone agrees that Express is already engaging in a form of Roman discipline.

This is actually one of the steps needed on the road to successful labor organizing - a company's labor holding their management in complete contempt and not afraid to demonstrate that fact. Whether or not this situation is occurring on a national scale is to be seen.

It would be interesting for the poster to ask their coworkers what their sentiment towards organizing is now. Are they willing to laugh at management but NOT willing to sign a rep card? Are they willing to sign a rep card but only without their coworkers knowing about it?

The wage employees have held 'Memphis' in contempt for a while now. It looks like that contempt is falling on local level management finally. I do remember writing a few months ago that when it comes to wage employee discontent, that Memphis was no longer going to let the local management play 'good cop' while placing all the blame on Memphis; local management was going to have to step up and actively promote and defend policies established in Memphis and not attempt to distance themselves from those policies.

I also wrote not too long ago that Memphis totally wrote off this year's SFA (have you heard any BS regarding the SFA taken just over 2 months ago???). Memphis knows what is going on, they aren't blind.

Don't be too surprised if 'decimation' is used to help motivate the remainder to 'get with the program', or face the consequences. It is only going to get worse...

Yes, now is the time to ask your fellow employees to sign cards and organize. I totally agree with your "decimation" comment. I fully expect that some employees will be used as example punching bags. FedEx management is completely used to having complete control with almost no backlash from hourlies....they are lost right now. The "ship" is now running in circles, backwards, yet still sinking rapidly. the crew won't cooperate and the "captain" is crazy. It's quite a show, isn't it?

 

[thedownhillEXPRESS]

Yes, now is the time to ask your fellow employees to sign cards and organize. I totally agree with your "decimation" comment. I fully expect that some employees will be used as example punching bags. FedEx management is completely used to having complete control with almost no backlash from hourlies....they are lost right now. The "ship" is now running in circles, backwards, yet still sinking rapidly. the crew won't cooperate and the "captain" is crazy. It's quite a show, isn't it?

I almost expect MT3 to show up on the next frontline video with an eye patch and a parrot on his shoulder,Arggggghhh!!