Helper for a day, part deux

NoBrownForMe

Well-Known Member
Today I went back down to the package center and turned in my brown hat and pullover jacket (we didn't get pants) and resigned as a driver helper.

They hadn't called me yet today, either. When I turned in my stuff, the girl there said that they were still making calls to driver helpers and that I probably wasn't told how "it" works during my orientation. I told her she was right, we were told very little at orientation.

I had higher expectations of UPS's general ability to manage seasonal help. After all, it's their job--they do it all the time.

When I was being led around the center, I noticed a big sign installed over one of the package belts. It read, "It doesn't hurt if safety is working." If that is a typical example of the corporate-Orwellian mind-screw that goes on daily at UPS, I'm glad I'm no longer a part of it. Just look at the phychologically binding and blameful wording of that sign...

To say that it only hurts if safety is "not working" is to blame the employee for hurting or for being hurt by not being safe or using safety on the job. Safety is a noun, defined as the condition of being safe from undergoing or causing hurt, injury, or loss. Very tricky way to tell someone that an inherant condition arising from schlepping packages all day is their fault. The sign says that if safety is being practiced, it won't hurt to do the work, which is obviously absurd.:confused:1

My final thoughts are that the old-school company culture at UPS is the thing that will bring it down, in the end. As I walked out of the package center, I saw various slimy-looking middle aged white guys in cheap shirts and bad shoes and dark dress slacks not making eye contact with me. Rats in a trap. They must have been the managers, since they were doing no work except handling pieces of paper. :wink: Slick black loafers, like wiseguys...

Of course, the drivers were out, doing their jobs and making the company money. Bless all you people stuck at UPS. Have a happy peak season.:w00t:
 

wily_old_vet

Well-Known Member
NoBrown-I'm really glad there is no brown for you. For someone who technically never worked for the company you sound very bitter. Seems to me UPS is better off with having never used you. You certainly make a hell of a lot of judgements based on walking through the building and I think you would be insulted if people who saw you walking through had similar thoughts about you. Are mistakes made with the working of the helpers? Yes they are but for you to judge a whole corporation by your experience is just wrong.

One final thought-DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU IN THE ASS ON YOUR WAY OUT!:glare:
 

traveler

Where next? Venice
NoBrownForMe said:
As I walked out of the package center, I saw various slimy-looking middle aged white guys in cheap shirts and bad shoes and dark dress slacks not making eye contact with me. Rats in a trap. They must have been the managers, since they were doing no work except handling pieces of paper. :wink: Slick black loafers, like wiseguys...

You know so little but say so much. I worked in a center as a management person some years back and I would never think of wearing a fine shirt or shoes or suit in a center. You made a judgement, once again, based on a cursory glance at real life. A package center is not a clean and sanitized office and a manager is often called on to do some of the "dirty work" and would be a fool to wear a Zegna suit, Brioni shirt and Ferragamo shoes. So once again you have shown you lack of depth in thought by jumping to conclusions.
 

moreluck

golden ticket member
nobrownforme......Never fear, McDonald's is always looking for someone with your critical eye. You are definitely management material for them. Burger College awaits. Good luck with that diploma....oh, and I like my fries HOT !!!
 

NoBrownForMe

Well-Known Member
I ony saw what I saw

I can't answer for anyone's experience but my own.
Let me repeat that: I CAN'T ANSWER FOR ANYONE'S EXPERIENCE BUT MY OWN.
Billions of $$$$ in earnings piled on your backs, bones and lives.
Think about it.

I guess everybody wants to feel like they are a part of something and will adjust his point of view accordingly to do that.

The psychological term for it is "cognitive dissonance." According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (i.e., beliefs, opinions). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance. In the case of a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior, or between perceived realities and realities that exist, it is most likely that the attitude will change to accommodate the behavior or situation.

I have a lot of respect for ALL OF YOU who work at UPS.
I know a ****ty job when I see one. Been there, done that, without having to go there and try it, thanks.

How someone is treated at the outset is a HUGE measure of how it is to work at a place. Often, over time, people become aculturated to dysfunctional situations, even good people. After a while, being abused is normal. Ask the spouse who's being emotionally abused why they stay with the abuser, the situation is very similar.

Like I said, God bless all those who are stuck, afraid to make the change.

Wily, you still haven't told me how it was 25 years ago. Better? Worse? The same? Or is your mind gone or are the medications blurring your perceptions of reality? YOU'VE BEEN ASSIMILATED.

I'm not bitter, just not willing to go back to the corporate drone world and give up my freedom of thought and movement and action. We make our own prisons.

"IT DOESN'T HURT IF YOUR MEDICATIONS ARE WORKING":lol:
Cheers and Merry Frikking Christmas to you too.
(We can say 'Christmas' out here in free society.)
 

moreluck

golden ticket member
"I'm not bitter, just not willing to go back to the corporate drone world and give up my freedom "

You got all this huge insight from one day of NOT working for UPS?????
Geez.....:blink:
 

brett636

Well-Known Member
I'm thinking you are a psychology major.

Either way it appears you had misconceptions about the company before you even applied for the job. Thats fine as I'm sure you will find the same issues with every job you work. Your elitist attitude won't help you much through life so I suggest you drop it before it causes some real problems.
 

NoBrownForMe

Well-Known Member
Nope.

Uh, wrong. I've got a BA in english literature, thanks, which I paid for myself. (Psych majors are among the most messed up people I've met. They generally wind up in corporate HR shops...:biggrin:)

I know very little, actually. But in this type of forum, I guess being articulate is equal to being a "know it all."

You can't type "McDonalds" into Google and find lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit or entire chat forums and Web sites dedicated to allowing McDonalds employees vent their anger and frustrations and get and spread information that they can't get at work, now can you?

UPS drivers are in the top 9 percent of most stressed adults in the United States. That alone says something.

UPS is UNIQUE in its number of on-the-job injuries, work stress, use of Welfare-to-work low wage part-timers, huge profits, oppressive management tactics, union-management friction and much much more. You just need to take a look at the evidence.
UPS is UNIQUE in how it uses people up and spits them out. Five or six years at PART-TIME before you become a driver? That is frigging absurd.

Or choose to be blind to it. Free country. The president of Iran says that no Holocaust took place. Believe what you have to in order to survive and justify your life, but don't blame me when it all catches up with you.

Boy, I wish I could have worked myself to death for 10 bucks an hour!
Like I said, MERRY CHRISTMAS.
 

dannyboy

From the promised LAND
Orwellian mind-screw that goes on daily at UPS, I'm glad I'm no longer a part of it.

The only Orwellian mind-screw is the one loose in your head.

Look kid, you never ever worked at UPS. You were a could-a-been. Nothing more, nothing less. Take the money you made while sitting in class and filling out the forms and smile. To hear you talk, it was the best thing that could have happened to you.

As for UPS failing, leave that to the ones that make it work.

And for the
various slimy-looking middle aged white guys in cheap shirts and bad shoes and dark dress slacks
, that was Tie. It must have been a good day, as you did not mention the horns he ususally has on.

Come to think of it. I think you have been here before posting as someone else. Will have to find out.

d
 

moreluck

golden ticket member
nobrownforme....you can take your "Merry Christmas" that you are tagging on every post and stick it in your ear.

Trying to make nice-nice while you spew your vile comments about a company with a highly regarded reputation. AND a company that a lot of folks are proud to work for.

Go entertain yourself somewhere else....... You could be the new Wendy at Wendy's !! Chili anyone??
 

iloadthetruck

Well-Known Member
NoBrownForMe said:
Uh, wrong. I've got a BA in english literature, thanks, which I paid for myself. (Psych majors are among the most messed up people I've met. They generally wind up in corporate HR shops...:biggrin:)

And most of the English majors I went to college with are huge, know-it-all smart***es who like to expel a lot of hot air repeating something clever they read in a book.

You saw ONE center in ONE city in ONE country. In my center the helper coordination is incredibly organized. Our dispatch is crazy, but it's peak so there isn't much you can do about it. What happens at one center is not indicative of what happens at all of them. UPS is not a Orwellian corporate environment. Did you ever stop to consider some of us LIKE our jobs?

What they probably failed to tell you, shame on them, is that off-the-street helpers are at-will, on-call employees. In my center we use maybe 3-4 of the 15 off-the-street people because we have inside seniority employees who are able to go out and help.

Now, please stop misrepresenting those of us with a college education and go voice your complaints on Democratic Underground or some other neo-socialist, post-modern, pro-worker, anti-capitalist discussion board. I'm tired of reading all these troll posts.
 

UPSmeoff

Well-Known Member
Like I said, God bless all those who are stuck, afraid to make the change.
Golden handcuffs, thats the reason alot of people are still here. Once a couple of kids, mortgages, car/boat payments start racking up, where else are you gonna go and make this kind of money, especially if you have no college degree. Put that english major to work and go get a job you feel you are more suited for.
BTW my BA is in communications.
 

NoBrownForMe

Well-Known Member
right and wrong

See my response in the other thread.
Most of you here appear to be ideal UPSers, it appears.
No requirement to think beyond the limits of whatg is required of you to earn your weekly hush money. Good Romans, you are.

I'm happy you are proud and righteous, and I'll remember your responses whenever I see a brown dude delivering or have to deal with one.

I'd like to say thanks to the very few of you who responded here with balanced and thoughful entries. Golden handcuffs indeed, no truer words have been written.

I've never posted here before and I'm not a troll.
Anyway, this site is primarily a trash bin of the mind and I'll not be back.

Just do a Google search for United Parcel Service and check out the results.

I'm no kid. I graduated from college at 30 and have spent the past 4 years covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for a major publication. I left my last paper, based near Washington, D.C., after management refused to move the AT&T ad off the page with the pictures of dead American servicemen and women. I'm a first generation college graduate in my family and have held jobs from grave digger to senior copy editor. I grew up in a military family and spent lots of time in overseas postings in that time. I served in the US Army Infantry (Airborne) for four years. I know bull:censored2: when I see it and I don't have time for it.

The ungrateful imbecils among you are the reason American kids are dying overseas as we sit here...keep you heads in the sand and just let these corporate morons keep sucking you dry and looting this country.

That's it for me. Have great careers and lives.

Bless you all and Merry Christmas.
 

wily_old_vet

Well-Known Member
NoBrown-You are a pompous :censored2: who thinks that by googling a company you know what's going on. Perhaps we should offer you the CEO position with all your insights. Poor little baby didn't have things go exactly as he thought they should and became a instant authority of all things UPS. You aren't worthy to wipe the sweat off the brow of the newest parttimer. Go away and cry your little eyes out by yourself.
 

NoBrownForMe

Well-Known Member
meathead, wily...

You don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

Here's just a taste, a fraction, of what I found on the Internet regarding UPS:

Data compiled from Department of Labor, various media stories and the AFL/CIO Website (YOUR UNION)

INJURY STATISTIC'S

* On average one UPS employee is killed on the job each month
* Over 60,000 UPS employees are injured on the job annually
* Thousands of injuries go unreported due to threats and intimidation from UPS management
* According to the National Academy of Science: The national injury rate is 8 injuries per 100 employees, or 8:100
* UPSs injury rate is 15:100 employees
* Into the 90s UPS was the highest fined company by OSHA with over 1300 citations, 1/3 of those were serious in nature
* In 1994 in order to avoid a contempt ruling in Federal court UPS was fined $3 million for their repeated failure to comply with the Government mandated Hazardous Material Spill Program
* According to a Cornell University study-Former UPS workers missed an average of 275 workdays A PIECE due to injuries sustained at UPS
* UPS pays out over $1 million A DAY in worker compensation claims
* OSHA receives more complaints from workers at UPS than from any other company
* UPS has an occupational injury rate 3 times that of the transportation industry
* UPS has one of the worst HAZMAT violation records in the industry
* Young, new workers are becoming disabled for life at an alarming rate from injuries received while at UPS
* UPS drivers lead the industry in alcohol and substance abuse associated with stress at UPS
* UPS drivers rank in the top 9% of most stressed adults in the nation
* 1.8 million worker suffer workplace injuries, 600,000 of those injuries are ergonomic related such as repetitive motion, and carpal tunnel syndrome
* Between 1972 and 1996 UPS spent over $4.6 million for fines levied against them
* 85% of the injuries at UPS are ergonomic in nature
*UPS raised the weight limit of its packages from 50lbs to 150lbs, which injury rates increased as well
* The average value of a UPS workers life is $5,000, standard OSHA fine
* In Chicago a brand new employee (described as barely more than a "boy") serving his 30 day probation died of heat exhaustion while unloading a truck during one of Chicago's heat waves. He was required to meet the standard of unloading 2000 packages per hour in order to make probation. OSHA fined the company $5000.
* Packages presently can weigh up to 150 pounds each. The company has refused to bargain over weight limits, reserving the right to require drivers to unload alone packages that could run 200 or more pounds. When challenged, management told the union that if the driver needed help, s/he could ask the customer to assist. Young, inexperienced workers are becoming disabled for life from injuries received at UPS, often their first real job.
* UPS has consistently stonewalled union demands for appropriate safety equipment such as decent seatbelts, seats, and tires, and has refused to retire from their fleet trucks that have only single cylinder brakes.
* The EEOC has filed a class action suit against UPS for violating the rights of disabled workers. Workers who suffer eye injury are entitled to be transferred to other jobs, but UPS has refused or failed to accommodate their disabilities.
* UPS has a rate of occupational injury that is three times that of the transportation industry.
* The National Coalition on Ergonomics, an employer association has worked to prevent OSHA from adopting standards intended to cut down on repetitive motion injuries. Among the main corporate opponents of sensible repetitive motion injury regulations has been UPS, which is among the leading violators of OSHA regulations.
* The average penalty for a serious violation is $709, according to "Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect," a new report by the AFL-CIO.

Political influence vs. safety statistics:

*Ergonomic injuries account for all serious workplace injuries and cost society approximately $50 billion each year
*Ergonomic injuries affect women the most who make up less than 50% of the workforce, but account for 1/3 of the total workplace injuries
* UPS facility in Lenexa Kansas was fined $140,000 by OSHA for deplorable working conditions that were resulting in an injury rate of almost 20:100 employees, thus began UPSs venture into the ergonomic arena battling OSHA, and the public interest
*UPS sued OSHA in Federal court over the Lenexa Kansas citation, and the Federal judge ruled that since no ergonomic standard existed for workers all citations were dropped, and OSHA began working on ergonomic standards
*1993-94 UPSs PAC was the largest contributor to congressional candidates-$2.65 million
*1995-96 UPS gave over $575,000 to supporters of Ballenger Bill
* UPS handed out more than $3 million for the 2000 elections with 73% going to Republicans
*Teamster General President James P. Hoffa joins UPS in refusing to address skyrocketing injury rates (refer to news article enclosed)
*Teamster General President James P. Hoffa appoints OSHA killer hired gun, Joseph DiGenova, to the IRB overseeing union corruption, which the position is paid for by members dues money to the tune of $100,000 a year plus a union retirement
*UPS was found to have illegally contributed to James P. Hoffas election campaign in 1996
*Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa was a former labor attorney representing UPS and ATA member, Yellow Freight against UPS employees
*UPS hired Eugene Scalia, son of U.S Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, as a lobbyist to defeat ergonomics
* UPS attempted to endow a chair at the University of Washington and fill it with their bought M.D, and hired consultant, Stanley Bigos, who testified against the ergonomics standard in the House\
* UPS and their Coalition is lobbying for the for the application of cost benefit analysis or worker death to cost to profit ratio
*UPS claimed publicly that the national ergonomic standard would cost its shareholders $3 billion
*UPS was the top contributor in the 2000 US Presidential Election- transportation sector: UPS $3,135,569
*Ergonomic injuries affect mainly lower wage scale workers, which is comprised mostly of minority and female workers
*UPS was the #1 political contributor while being a member of the NAMCE, the 300 company coalition headed by UPS
*UPS hires former OSHA head, DOROTHY STRUNK, as a consultant to attack and defeat the very language she drafted to protect workers from ergonomic injuries. Shes paid over $60,000 as a UPS lobbyist (see documents enclosed)
*President Bush (00) returns the favor to UPS and defeats the ergonomic bill affecting millions of American workers.

UPSs SOCIAL AND BUSINESS PRACTICES

* Annual turnover rate at UPS is 400%
* UPSs association with National Welfare to Work campaign has hired more than 50,000 welfare recipients since the program began in 1997. Very few of those people remained by years end respectively.
*UPS receives incentives for hiring these people into poverty jobs
*Average weekly salary of the welfare to work employees was $104 after taxes per week. ($8.00 hr X 3.0 hour guarantee X 5 days 25% with holdings and - $25 in union dues)
*Work place abuse, unsafe working conditions, and no hope for a FULL TIME job cited as reasons for leaving UPS
*UPS is routinely sued by the EEOC and various other Civil and Human rights agencies for violations, and discrimination
* RAINBOW PUSH Coalition is well known for attacking companies who violated minoritys civil rights, but it seems that UPS is a trading partner on their Board, and now has nothing to worry about from RAINBOW PUSH
*UPSs main public relations firm, Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, is the volunteer firm for the UN Global Compact. The Compact is hoped to be a PR coup for companies with tarnished public images to show to show their support for democracy and human rights without ACTUALLY having to change their practices
*UPS is being sued in two separate class actions from previous customers who were over charged for insurance, which stems from UPSs $1.8 billion tax evasion suit
* UPS was sued in two separate suits involving wage fraud regarding meal issues of drivers in New Jersey and Washington state, which have cost UPS employees an estimated $3 billion
*Monopolistic practices: UPS is routinely suing foreign governments for unfair, and monopolistic practices, while expanding exponentially around the world, and at the same time keeping foreign companies out of the American market
*Workers at UPS who report unsafe working conditions, unsafe and illegal equipment, payroll fraud, and corruption are harassed and discharged often without help from the Hoffa controlled Teamsters union clearly in violation of Federal law.

And there's more where that came from...
 
Top