It was from our manager, Well while it might not have been official, but the powerpoint presentation sure seemed the part, and already a few FTers started scrambling. Ricochet I appreciate most of what you post, but we are going to be looking at a much different Express side of business shortly, we've already been told that we won't need the man power we have currently.(by manpower I mean the number of bodies in drivers seats, we already know there are too many in management)
This has been a trend that I've heard about - Senior managers shooting off their mouth, actually trying to INCREASE the anxiety level among their Couriers. What I haven't heard, is whether this is some form of official policy - or a few sr. mgrs. going off on their own trying to put their spin on what they see happening. Increasing anxiety among wage employees only accomplishes one thing - it makes the wage employees MUCH more likely to start signing union cards.
Now... if these senior managers are secretly wanting to get their employees to start signing union cards.... I'm wondering this just from the various reports I've received of "rogue" managers making statements they either shouldn't or have been expressly prohibited from making.
Remember, the sr. mgrs have been given the big picture of the impending changes, but they are not privy to how personnel policy is to be handled. The smart ones know that the full-time Courier will become a thing of the past - but many aren't too sure how Express plans to accomplish that.
I don't disbelieve you when you state a "manager" gave a presentation. I received multiple accounts of Sr. Managers holding meetings on company time where they tried to give a "big picture" presentation of how they see things unfolding in the next couple of years. I've held off posting about it, since it appears to be a "hit and miss" proposition (it doesn't appear to be Express policy for the Sr. Managers to be shooting off their mouths at this point in the game).
As I've stated, speculation in Memphis was rampant before the announcement was made Monday (it is why the announcement was made, to put a halt to some of the wilder stuff going around) - and it appears that the sr. managers have been trying to piece together the puzzle as they see it coming out. What also has become obvious, is that in their attempts to put the pieces together, they are making some big mistakes in how those pieces fit together.
To repeat, there has been no credible report come out of Memphis to me (through those I know) that there will be ANY sort of buyout or layoffs of wage employees. None, zero, zilch, nada.
All reports point to a company wide reduction in hours for wage employees as volumes drop (there will be a significant drop with Express Saver going away), combined with what amounts to a near hiring freeze for full-time Couriers and in some stations whose volumes have dropped considerably, a freeze on replacing part-timers.
There has been PLENTLY of route rebalancing going on, some creative methods utilzed to balance out hours among existing employees and other measures taken to acheive the corporate goal of OT hours being cut to either 6 or 8% of total hours (I can't remember which, I posted the figure about 6 weeks ago).
