NoBrownForMe
Well-Known Member
If you're wondering why UPS stock is running flat...
Mike Eskew
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
United Parcel Service
55 Glenlake Parkway NE
Atlanta, GA 30328
Mr. Eskew,
This is the story of my short but happy career with United Parcel Service.
I applied to the UPS to be a seasonal driver helper by logging onto the UPS Website and filling out a few blocks of personal information. The automated HR system immediately scheduled an appointment for me to visit the local package center located at [location edited], on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2005, at 11:15 a.m.
My Tuesday visit took only 15 minutes, in which time I filled out a piece of paper with some personal information for furtherance of a background check and was asked for my size in jacket and pants. The e-mail had said I could expect my tour of the facility to last between 60 and 90 minutes, but I wasnt given any tour or orientation and the HR woman told me orientation would be Saturday.
On Saturday, Dec. 10, I arrived at the package center on time for the 9:30 a.m. appointment along with about 34 other prospective driver helpers. We were given a glossy-covered folder containing multiple pages and paragraphs under each of which was a signature block. There were two additional papers, one of them identical to the one I had filled out on Tuesday. We were briefed on each of the paragraphs in the glossy-covered folder and told to sign each signature block. At the back of the glossy folder was a blank page for notes. I then filled out the same form I had filled out on Tuesday and signed it again.
The assembled group was told that we would all be working on Monday. In a disorganized way, we were issued some clothing and I-9 processed in a small supply room. There were not enough trousers to go around or in the correct sizes, so the HR person told us to just wear khakis or do the best we could toward wearing brown pants. I was issued a knit cap and a pullover jacket with UPS logo, my ID and SS card were checked and I left the center. There was still a considerable line of people behind me waiting to take care of their I-9 check and clothing issue.
The next day I went to the mall and shopped for and bought the nearest thing I could find to a dark brown T-shirt and pants so I could be prepared for my Monday morning call.
I was awake and ready to go, dressed in brown, my lunch packed and ready to roll at seven the next morning. I was genuinely excited and nervous to be getting out on the road with a driver, helping deliver packages.
After some waiting, I got a phone call at 8:54 a.m. The man asked me if I was available to work and I told him I was. He said someone would be calling me back soon.
Nobody from UPS called me again that day.
I called back the next day, Tuesday, Dec. 13, to ask the package center what had happened. I spoke to Jason on the phone, who told me that they had been busy, how the person making the calls hadnt called me back (No kidding, really?) and how they have something like 88 driver and 54 driver helpers to organize and how both he and the female HR representative had been out picking up other drivers helpers from [location edited], (a town 45 minutes to the north of here) because the helpers didnt have transportation.
As far as Im concerned, the maximum effective range of an excuse it zero meters.
This all left me thinking that the crew of managers at the [location edited] package center have reached the limits of their abilities to cope with the complexity of the operation there. If they cant get it right, who can? If they cant call me in to work, who can? What other balls are being dropped?
After once hanging up without warning and then calling me back, Jason poked around for a minute and finally told me there were two routes where I live, but both already had helpers. He found a package car that needed a helper and said I could meet the car in town at 2:30 p.m. and that the run would probably last about five hours. That was too late in the day for me and my enthusiasm was now being colored by my recent experience. I demurred; Can you blame me? I had made myself available for the entire previous day and failed to receive even a phone call.
It was a wasted day for everyone.
The very first of the UPS core values is:
We believe that integrity and excellence are the core of all we do.
1) There is zero integrity in a UPS employee calling me to say that I will be called and then nobody calling me back.
This event gives the impression of a dysfunctional organization.
2) Nobody asked where I lived or if I could drive to meet drivers places other than my neighborhood at any point in the hiring process. Why would managers give rides to helpers living 45 minutes away when at least one other helper -- me -- was waiting, with transportation at the ready, just 15 minutes away from the package center and 10 minutes from [location edited]?
3) In fact, giving helpers rides begs the question of whether equal opportunity hiring is being exercised at the [location edited] package center or if someone is being favored by the hiring process; plus provided transportation by UPS.
3) Why fill out the same form twice during the hiring process?
This is redundant effort and wastes everyones time.
4) Why provide a sheet for notes in the back of the glossy-covered orientation packet when it will be collected and never seen again by the employee after the safety and security briefings?
That seems absurd and is wasteful at the very least least.
In fact, this entire process has been absurd and quite an exercise in wasted time and effort with zero return. And all I wanted to do was help out and earn a little Christmas money while getting a taste of what its like to work at UPS.
Im no stranger to physical outdoor work, which Ive heard is available at UPS. But this dysfunctional process Ive been subjected to has put me right off of the company. I would love to work with a smart, progressive, nimble, service-oriented company, but I still havent found one.
In your own words, Mr. Eskew, on leading with integrity:
Integrity has always been central to the way UPS does business.
As Jim Casey said in 1957, "We have become known to all who deal with us as people of integrity, and that priceless asset is more valuable than anything else we possess."
Quality, intelligent people make or break any business; UPS included. I was looking forward to being one of those people upon whom UPS could depend. I was ready to work hard for the company, but now I have a very different view of UPS after my experience of (not) working as a driver helper.
My day wasnt totally wasted, though. I sat on my couch dressed in my UPS brown searching the Internet for insights into the corporate culture at UPS. What I found was hardly positive and quite frankly shocking. UPS is hardly the company it was 20 years ago, despite being a corporate behemoth. I have learned that public face of your company is nothing like the one that UPS employees have to cope with every day of their working lives.
Feel free to send me a check for the day I wasted, spent waiting to work for UPS.
The HR department has my contact information.
Sincerely,
Me
Mike Eskew
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
United Parcel Service
55 Glenlake Parkway NE
Atlanta, GA 30328
Mr. Eskew,
This is the story of my short but happy career with United Parcel Service.
I applied to the UPS to be a seasonal driver helper by logging onto the UPS Website and filling out a few blocks of personal information. The automated HR system immediately scheduled an appointment for me to visit the local package center located at [location edited], on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2005, at 11:15 a.m.
My Tuesday visit took only 15 minutes, in which time I filled out a piece of paper with some personal information for furtherance of a background check and was asked for my size in jacket and pants. The e-mail had said I could expect my tour of the facility to last between 60 and 90 minutes, but I wasnt given any tour or orientation and the HR woman told me orientation would be Saturday.
On Saturday, Dec. 10, I arrived at the package center on time for the 9:30 a.m. appointment along with about 34 other prospective driver helpers. We were given a glossy-covered folder containing multiple pages and paragraphs under each of which was a signature block. There were two additional papers, one of them identical to the one I had filled out on Tuesday. We were briefed on each of the paragraphs in the glossy-covered folder and told to sign each signature block. At the back of the glossy folder was a blank page for notes. I then filled out the same form I had filled out on Tuesday and signed it again.
The assembled group was told that we would all be working on Monday. In a disorganized way, we were issued some clothing and I-9 processed in a small supply room. There were not enough trousers to go around or in the correct sizes, so the HR person told us to just wear khakis or do the best we could toward wearing brown pants. I was issued a knit cap and a pullover jacket with UPS logo, my ID and SS card were checked and I left the center. There was still a considerable line of people behind me waiting to take care of their I-9 check and clothing issue.
The next day I went to the mall and shopped for and bought the nearest thing I could find to a dark brown T-shirt and pants so I could be prepared for my Monday morning call.
I was awake and ready to go, dressed in brown, my lunch packed and ready to roll at seven the next morning. I was genuinely excited and nervous to be getting out on the road with a driver, helping deliver packages.
After some waiting, I got a phone call at 8:54 a.m. The man asked me if I was available to work and I told him I was. He said someone would be calling me back soon.
Nobody from UPS called me again that day.
I called back the next day, Tuesday, Dec. 13, to ask the package center what had happened. I spoke to Jason on the phone, who told me that they had been busy, how the person making the calls hadnt called me back (No kidding, really?) and how they have something like 88 driver and 54 driver helpers to organize and how both he and the female HR representative had been out picking up other drivers helpers from [location edited], (a town 45 minutes to the north of here) because the helpers didnt have transportation.
As far as Im concerned, the maximum effective range of an excuse it zero meters.
This all left me thinking that the crew of managers at the [location edited] package center have reached the limits of their abilities to cope with the complexity of the operation there. If they cant get it right, who can? If they cant call me in to work, who can? What other balls are being dropped?
After once hanging up without warning and then calling me back, Jason poked around for a minute and finally told me there were two routes where I live, but both already had helpers. He found a package car that needed a helper and said I could meet the car in town at 2:30 p.m. and that the run would probably last about five hours. That was too late in the day for me and my enthusiasm was now being colored by my recent experience. I demurred; Can you blame me? I had made myself available for the entire previous day and failed to receive even a phone call.
It was a wasted day for everyone.
The very first of the UPS core values is:
We believe that integrity and excellence are the core of all we do.
1) There is zero integrity in a UPS employee calling me to say that I will be called and then nobody calling me back.
This event gives the impression of a dysfunctional organization.
2) Nobody asked where I lived or if I could drive to meet drivers places other than my neighborhood at any point in the hiring process. Why would managers give rides to helpers living 45 minutes away when at least one other helper -- me -- was waiting, with transportation at the ready, just 15 minutes away from the package center and 10 minutes from [location edited]?
3) In fact, giving helpers rides begs the question of whether equal opportunity hiring is being exercised at the [location edited] package center or if someone is being favored by the hiring process; plus provided transportation by UPS.
3) Why fill out the same form twice during the hiring process?
This is redundant effort and wastes everyones time.
4) Why provide a sheet for notes in the back of the glossy-covered orientation packet when it will be collected and never seen again by the employee after the safety and security briefings?
That seems absurd and is wasteful at the very least least.
In fact, this entire process has been absurd and quite an exercise in wasted time and effort with zero return. And all I wanted to do was help out and earn a little Christmas money while getting a taste of what its like to work at UPS.
Im no stranger to physical outdoor work, which Ive heard is available at UPS. But this dysfunctional process Ive been subjected to has put me right off of the company. I would love to work with a smart, progressive, nimble, service-oriented company, but I still havent found one.
In your own words, Mr. Eskew, on leading with integrity:
Integrity has always been central to the way UPS does business.
As Jim Casey said in 1957, "We have become known to all who deal with us as people of integrity, and that priceless asset is more valuable than anything else we possess."
Quality, intelligent people make or break any business; UPS included. I was looking forward to being one of those people upon whom UPS could depend. I was ready to work hard for the company, but now I have a very different view of UPS after my experience of (not) working as a driver helper.
My day wasnt totally wasted, though. I sat on my couch dressed in my UPS brown searching the Internet for insights into the corporate culture at UPS. What I found was hardly positive and quite frankly shocking. UPS is hardly the company it was 20 years ago, despite being a corporate behemoth. I have learned that public face of your company is nothing like the one that UPS employees have to cope with every day of their working lives.
Feel free to send me a check for the day I wasted, spent waiting to work for UPS.
The HR department has my contact information.
Sincerely,
Me