If this company was employee owned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[code5]

Our center manager alway states that the purpose of UPS is to make money, I disagree. The purpose of every organization is to employ people first. UPS is simply a collection of employees. Management are also just employees of UPS, no better or worse than a driver - they just serve a different function.

UPS needs management, like most organizations. I think management could be downsized to allow employees to be empowered some more though. I'd like to see the numbers game get cut back a bit and go back to some common sense and good judgement calls.

I guess if the company was employee owned you wouldn't need a union either.

 

[satellitedriver]

ECON is dishonest. ECON perpetuates the problem because it allows your management to avoid being held accountable for their dispatch mistakes.

I agree, so sue me for working as directed when I am allowed to sheet ECON., as I tell the center I will not work past 10pm.
Safety first.
The company, nor the union, will not do jack about the over dispatch, unless made aware of the situation.
ECON is my way of saying enough is enough.
My safety is an ECON and I record it as such.
What freakin' fool would bang on doors after 10pm in the country?
Not me.
Actually, during my time off I drove to the center and had a very frank talk with my center manager.
Now, I am only working only 2 over 9.5 days a week and 9.5's the other three days.
I do not perpetuate the problem.
I just nip the problem in the bud where I can.

 

[soberups]

I agree, so sue me for working as directed when I am allowed to sheet ECON., as I tell the center I will not work past 10pm.
Safety first.
The company, nor the union, will not do jack about the over dispatch, unless made aware of the situation.
ECON is my way of saying enough is enough.
My safety is an ECON and I record it as such.
What freakin' fool would bang on doors after 10pm in the country?
Not me.
Actually, during my time off I drove to the center and had a very frank talk with my center manager.
Now, I am only working only 2 over 9.5 days a week and 9.5's the other three days.
I do not perpetuate the problem.
I just nip the problem in the bud where I can.

I totally agree with you that it is unsafe to be delivering past 10PM. Where we differ is in the manner that you are recording the packages that arent getting delivered.

Whether you intend to or not, by sheeting them as ECON rather than "missed" you are enabling the company to defraud your customers by denying them the refund that they are entitled to.

If you did the honest thing and sheeted them as "missed" (which is what they really are) then not only would the customers be eligible for a refund, but your management would be forced to actually solve their dispatch problems instead of continuing to hide them.

Your management knows what the underlying problem is, but they have no intention of ever actually solving it. With you doing the dirty work for them, why should they?

 

[dannyboy]

The purpose of every organization is to employ people first

Code, you could not be more wrong. That is not the purpose of any organization. If it was, why would we not have 10 million employees instead of only 400,000. The only purpose to have an organization is to stay in business and make a profit doing so. Without the two, you would not have a business, you would have our gooberment.

I guess if the company was employee owned you wouldn't need a union either.

For all practical purposes, we are employee owned. Yes, we are on the open market with some of our shares of stock. But those stock only represent a portion of what is actually there. The rest, and the largest voting share, are owned by active or retired employees or their families.

As far as being union, that really does not matter when you are employee owned. A union is a business method that allows the company to deal with the employees in a different manner than if they were not represented. There are pluses for both, as well as negatives. But it has no bearing on the ownership of stock.

Sat, Sober does bring up an interesting situation with the solution. Unless it was a true emergency, I refused to sheet a missed as anything but a missed. I also refused to be dishonest about left building time. All these are their problem, not the drivers. IF they want the problem fixed, then they need to fix it, and not play dishonest games.

And not to pick on you but

Safety first.
The company, nor the union, will not do jack about the over dispatch, unless made aware of the situation.
ECON is my way of saying enough is enough.
My safety is an ECON and I record it as such.

Safety first? IT sounds like you know you are doing something wrong, and are now trying to justify your cover up. Its Integrity first. Safety is no excuse to hide missed packages. Econ is not your way of saying enough is enough, its managements way of saying "give Sat too much, he is a team player and will help hide the over dispatch via Econ." So in reality, that does perpetuate the problem.

Now, Kudos for going to the center and hashing the problem out with them, that is how you fix problems, not with Econ.

What I find interesting is that with large numbers of packages each day sheeted up as ECON. that either upper management has no clue, or is actually actively involved with being dishonest with the customer. And I find that them having no clue is hard to believe.

d

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I have a feeling that Sat knows that sheeting pkgs as EC when they should be missed is dishonest but has decided that this is a battle not worth fighting.

 

[dannyboy]

I dont know sat well enough to form a firm opinion, but it sure sounds like for some UPS drivers honesty and integrity have a pretty cheap price. That goes as well for management.

d

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Sometimes you have to go along to get along.

 

[over9five]

$76,000.00, but I only worked 9 months last year.

Yup, that's big. A little over $101,000 if you had worked all year. Too much for me.

 

[over9five]

I have a feeling that Sat knows that sheeting pkgs as EC when they should be missed is dishonest but has decided that this is a battle not worth fighting.

Agreed.
It is dishonest to our customers, but who cares? It's their company, not ours.

 

[soberups]

Sometimes you have to go along to get along.

And if everybody did that, then problems would never get solved. Solutions can sometimes be painful, but in the long run it is better to actually fix problems than it is to keep covering them up.

I guess I must be missing something. What is so difficult about selecting "missed" from the non-delivery options in the DIAD when you scan a package? Its just a keystroke.

 

[soberups]

Agreed.
It is dishonest to our customers, but who cares? It's their company, not ours.

I have put 24 years of sweat into this company, and by my count have handled something like 3.5 million packages and done close to 3/4 of a million stops.

Its my company too.

 

[over9five]

I have put 24 years of sweat into this company, and by my count have handled something like 3.5 million packages and done close to 3/4 of a million stops.

Its my company too.

Then put a tie on and do something to end the madness.

The company's been here for a hundred years, they must be doing something right. I will leave the decision on how to sheet packages up to the boss, and collect my paycheck every week.

 

[dannyboy]

Sober

Solutions can sometimes be painful

I liken the situation to a splinter in the hand. IT will hurt to pull it out. But to leave it in is not really a good option either.

The company's been here for a hundred years, they must be doing something right. I will leave the decision on how to sheet packages up to the boss, and collect my paycheck every week.

I find it interesting that management has "liked" your post. Yes, they have been around for 100+ years. But there was not the wholesale push for number metrics at all costs, including the intentional mis-categorizing of service failures to show them not being service failures. What they are telling you to do now every day, used to be grounds for termination if you did it even once. So there has been a huge shift in integrity. We used to do things to prove our integrity to the customer, even if it meant losing money on that delivery. No longer the case, is it?

So the real question should be will UPS be around after another hundred years now that we as a company are selling out our integrity so cheaply. And the lemmings that quietly follow are part of the problem, not the solution.

d

 

[over9five]

So the real question should be will UPS be around after another hundred years now that we as a company are selling out our integrity so cheaply. And the lemmings that quietly follow are part of the problem, not the solution.

d

Not "we" selling out "our" integrity. I am only a peon working as directed. If my bosses want to run the business like that, I would assume that they know what they're doing. They certainly already know that sheeting Econ instead of Missed is unethical. There must be some sort of trade-off that makes it worth it. Most customers this happens to are probably resis that either don't care when their package gets there OR don't care enough to complain.
"The squeaky wheel gets the grease". I just don't see the squeaky wheel here.

And I certainly don't care if the company is around in another 100 years, 10 ought to be more than enough.

 

[Bubblehead]

Then put a tie on and do something to end the madness.

The company's been here for a hundred years, they must be doing something right. I will leave the decision on how to sheet packages up to the boss, and collect my paycheck every week.

This is the stock answer from people who prefer to take the easy way out.
It's not that I don't understand this approach, I just find it hard to respect.
Obviously everybody can't "wear a tie", but we all have the option of doing the right thing.
I will work as directed as long as it isn't dishonest, illegal, or unsafe.
You should try it, you might like how it feels.

 

[over9five]

This is the stock answer from people who prefer to take the easy way out.
It's not that I don't understand this approach, I just find it hard to respect.
Obviously everybody can't "wear a tie", but we all have the option of doing the right thing.
I will work as directed as long as it isn't dishonest, illegal, or unsafe.
You should try it, you might like how it feels.

Not everyone has to wear the tie. I am quite happy being a driver.
You are not going to change anything because of the manly way you sheet "Missed" in your DIAD. If you truly want to change things, put your letter in. Make a difference!

 

[Bubblehead]

Not everyone has to wear the tie. I am quite happy being a driver.
You are not going to change anything because of the manly way you sheet "Missed" in your DIAD. If you truly want to change things, put your letter in. Make a difference!

Not intersted in management either.
I think I'd rather drive thumb tacks into my forehead.
I don't entertain the dillusion that I can change anything by myself.
If it's missed, that's how I sheet it.
I won't falsify records.
If we all operated this way, then maybe change would be effectuated.

What do you have to gain by falsifying records?
Maybe you are bucking for management and don't even know it?
It's more likely you're just taking the path of least resistance.
Why burden yourself with a conscience?

 

[Catatonic]

Our center manager alway states that the purpose of UPS is to make money, I disagree. The purpose of every organization is to employ people first. UPS is simply a collection of employees. Management are also just employees of UPS, no better or worse than a driver - they just serve a different function.

UPS needs management, like most organizations. I think management could be downsized to allow employees to be empowered some more though. I'd like to see the numbers game get cut back a bit and go back to some common sense and good judgement calls.

I guess if the company was employee owned you wouldn't need a union either.

The purpose of UPS is to create the best ROI for its owners. If hiring a person fulfills that end, then hire.
Good post ... I agree with the rest.

 

[over9five]

Not intersted in management either.
I think I'd rather drive thumb tacks into my forehead.
I don't entertain the dillusion that I can change anything by myself.
If it's missed, that's how I sheet it.
I won't falsify records.
If we all operated this way, then maybe change would be effectuated.

What do you have to gain by falsifying records?
Maybe you are bucking for management and don't even know it?
It's more likely you're just taking the path of least resistance.
Why burden yourself with a conscience?

Conscience? Who cares about conscience?

It's called "work ethic". You do what the boss says. I know, a lot of young guys don't know what that is but I do.
We pay people a lot of money (think Scott) to make the big decisions. All I'm saying is if you want to make those big decisions, put your letter in! I think a man like you could make it big.

Stop pretending you're the man by sheeting those packages contrary to what the boss tells you. Put the tie on. BE the man! You could change the course of the company!



As for me, there's nothing wrong with being a peon, I'll stay a Teamster.

 

[Bubblehead]

Conscience? Who cares about conscience?

It's called "work ethic". You do what the boss says. I know, a lot of young guys don't know what that is but I do.
We pay people a lot of money (think Scott) to make the big decisions. All I'm saying is if you want to make those big decisions, put your letter in! I think a man like you could make it big.

Stop pretending you're the man by sheeting those packages contrary to what the boss tells you. Put the tie on. BE the man! You could change the course of the company!



As for me, there's nothing wrong with being a peon, I'll stay a Teamster.

Not up for pissing match.
We'll have to agree to disagree.
In closing I'll just say a tie doesn't make you right in my world and I'm not afraid to tell a Tie no when it compromises my values.
Those who are afraid are doing themselves and everybody else a disservice.
To sluff it off as work ethic is weak.
It's more like a lack of ethical fortitude.