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<blockquote data-quote="Ricochet1a" data-source="post: 876059" data-attributes="member: 22880"><p>Just had to respond to this, still laughing...</p><p></p><p>1) The "outstanding" FedEx experiences are now the exception rather than the norm. </p><p></p><p>2) PSP has for a long time been inverted into Profit, Service, then People. I wrote a post a few weeks back using the mailed propaganda that came out to Express employees. Express has now very clearly stated that PSP is not a "linear" philosophy (one thing first, then the other), but rather a circular philosophy. When Fred deems it necessary to move either profit or service ahead of the employees, he will do so. The employees haven't been at the front of the management equation for quite awhile. </p><p></p><p>3) Leadership is something clearly lacking at Express. The reason for this is that individual initiative isn't looked upon favorably, only conformity to Memphis mandated directives. The quality of new operational level management has deciined markedly in the past 5 or so years. Station and ramp management that has been around for more than 10 years know damn good and well what is going on, but they keep on doing what they are told, to have a job themselves. Most of the good people (management) that didn't want to get out of Express have moved into non-managerial salaried positions to maintain employment. In a couple of years when the job market improves, they'll be leaving. </p><p></p><p>Most Express employees work despite the presence of their station/ramp management, NOT due to their presence. It is well known that things tend to go smoother when station/ramp management ISN'T present, rather than present - speaks volumes to their actual effectiveness. </p><p></p><p>4) This is a phenomenon that I ran into in my last couple of years with Express. All bitch and moan about the low compensation and working conditions, but when the issue of unionizaiton comes up, they clam up and act as if you have horns on your head and try to get as much distance as possible between themselves and you. There are plenty of Express employees which post here about the conditions which I'm absolutely confident that haven't signed union representation cards. I'll have another post regarding this issue probably next week. </p><p></p><p>5) In the stations, there is a clear "gap" developing between the mid-range Couriers and new hires. Hardly any Couriers stay beyond 3 years of service now. With all the games to wage progression that have occured in the past 3 years, a Courier with 4 or less years is getting paid only pennies an hour more than a new hire off the street. They know there is no future in a company with this compensation policy, so they real motivated to find other work ASAP. As long as Express can find other warm bodies to fill the positons, they don't care - it is all about maximizing productivity and intimidating those who are creating that productivity into keeping their mouths shut. </p><p></p><p>6) Not going to really touch this one... except that I don't have any reason to believe that Express has stopped drug testing of new hires. When I was in AGFS, there were plenty of "colorful" characters around doing the work. Express had no choice but to hire people that they wouldn't dream of allowing customer contact with - in order to get the ramp work done. The wages for non-ramp agents were just too damn low to get in a more "customer friendly" type of individual. Between the hard physical work and low wages, Express is doing good to maintain functional workgroups -just how Memphis wants it, minimal expendature to get the job accomplished. If the job isn't accomplished, hang the manager who's work group failed to come through. </p><p></p><p>7) It was my experience that Express was a "family affair". Express maintained/s a strict policy of NOT having family members report directly to another family member in management - however, as long as there is no direct reporting, there are many cases of managers with spouses working as wage employees in other locations, extended families (father, sons, cousins), working in various work groups in an operating location or nearby stations. </p><p></p><p>The only time issues developed is when senior management had their children working within the same district. This created problems. The "child" would clearly identify themselves to their co-workers as being so and so's son, and instantly create the impression of favoritism. In many cases, this was indeed the case, the child of a senior manager would indeed receive special treatment from their immediate manager (senior manager in one location, the child working in a workgroup in another location) - for the obvious reason that the ops manager didn't want junior running to their senior manager parent and talking trash about them - which would come back on them. </p><p></p><p>Express <u>should </u>extend its policy to state that senior managers or above cannot have an immediate family member working within the district that the senior (or above) manager is located within. This would solve most of the real issues that develop. </p><p></p><p>8) Team effort is talked about a lot, but those who have survived long enough under the Express disciplinary system know to CYA at all times. The process of loading or unloading an aircraft obviously is a "team effort", but it was my experience that the non-ramp agents merely did what they were told and nothing else. They had no incentive to go out of their way to take a "risk". </p><p></p><p>As far as "outside" vs. "inside" - that has been around for about as long as there has been a differentiation between sort and aircraft workgroups. Virtually everyone who works "outside" with the aircraft started on the "inside" working the sort - they survived long enough to move outside making an additonal 50 cents an hour and not spend a few hours in mind numbing and back straining package handling. Part of the "survival" mentality for those working the aircraft is to talk trash about those on the sorts. It doesn't make the job of those on the sorts any easier - to the contrary, it directly contributes to the high turnover rates of ramp sort workgroups. There is nothing that has been, and nothing that will be done about it - AGFS is survival of either the fittest or most desperate (depending on why the individual is there). </p><p></p><p>9) This is something which drove me nuts while in AGFS. Management would hire someone to do a job, but when they consistently screwed it up, directed that the screw up be moved to a position where they couldn't screw up. People aren't dumb, and they would deliberately screw up to get a less strenuous work assignment. Well, I made sure that screw ups were directed to download containers or work the lowers in the aircraft. Management had their hands tied as far as sending home employees which were chronic screwups, but they weren't blind either. Enough screwups, they were handed the 1-2-3 Warning Letters and more often than not quit of their own accord prior to geting fired. It still makes the work for everyone else around them more difficult. </p><p></p><p>10) Express is merely a job now, NOT a career. Management is looking out for their pitiful careers and those who have been around for more than a year or so know how the game is played. Clock in, do your job, don't screw up, clock out. When you find something else that has career progression possibilites, move on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ricochet1a, post: 876059, member: 22880"] Just had to respond to this, still laughing... 1) The "outstanding" FedEx experiences are now the exception rather than the norm. 2) PSP has for a long time been inverted into Profit, Service, then People. I wrote a post a few weeks back using the mailed propaganda that came out to Express employees. Express has now very clearly stated that PSP is not a "linear" philosophy (one thing first, then the other), but rather a circular philosophy. When Fred deems it necessary to move either profit or service ahead of the employees, he will do so. The employees haven't been at the front of the management equation for quite awhile. 3) Leadership is something clearly lacking at Express. The reason for this is that individual initiative isn't looked upon favorably, only conformity to Memphis mandated directives. The quality of new operational level management has deciined markedly in the past 5 or so years. Station and ramp management that has been around for more than 10 years know damn good and well what is going on, but they keep on doing what they are told, to have a job themselves. Most of the good people (management) that didn't want to get out of Express have moved into non-managerial salaried positions to maintain employment. In a couple of years when the job market improves, they'll be leaving. Most Express employees work despite the presence of their station/ramp management, NOT due to their presence. It is well known that things tend to go smoother when station/ramp management ISN'T present, rather than present - speaks volumes to their actual effectiveness. 4) This is a phenomenon that I ran into in my last couple of years with Express. All bitch and moan about the low compensation and working conditions, but when the issue of unionizaiton comes up, they clam up and act as if you have horns on your head and try to get as much distance as possible between themselves and you. There are plenty of Express employees which post here about the conditions which I'm absolutely confident that haven't signed union representation cards. I'll have another post regarding this issue probably next week. 5) In the stations, there is a clear "gap" developing between the mid-range Couriers and new hires. Hardly any Couriers stay beyond 3 years of service now. With all the games to wage progression that have occured in the past 3 years, a Courier with 4 or less years is getting paid only pennies an hour more than a new hire off the street. They know there is no future in a company with this compensation policy, so they real motivated to find other work ASAP. As long as Express can find other warm bodies to fill the positons, they don't care - it is all about maximizing productivity and intimidating those who are creating that productivity into keeping their mouths shut. 6) Not going to really touch this one... except that I don't have any reason to believe that Express has stopped drug testing of new hires. When I was in AGFS, there were plenty of "colorful" characters around doing the work. Express had no choice but to hire people that they wouldn't dream of allowing customer contact with - in order to get the ramp work done. The wages for non-ramp agents were just too damn low to get in a more "customer friendly" type of individual. Between the hard physical work and low wages, Express is doing good to maintain functional workgroups -just how Memphis wants it, minimal expendature to get the job accomplished. If the job isn't accomplished, hang the manager who's work group failed to come through. 7) It was my experience that Express was a "family affair". Express maintained/s a strict policy of NOT having family members report directly to another family member in management - however, as long as there is no direct reporting, there are many cases of managers with spouses working as wage employees in other locations, extended families (father, sons, cousins), working in various work groups in an operating location or nearby stations. The only time issues developed is when senior management had their children working within the same district. This created problems. The "child" would clearly identify themselves to their co-workers as being so and so's son, and instantly create the impression of favoritism. In many cases, this was indeed the case, the child of a senior manager would indeed receive special treatment from their immediate manager (senior manager in one location, the child working in a workgroup in another location) - for the obvious reason that the ops manager didn't want junior running to their senior manager parent and talking trash about them - which would come back on them. Express [U]should [/U]extend its policy to state that senior managers or above cannot have an immediate family member working within the district that the senior (or above) manager is located within. This would solve most of the real issues that develop. 8) Team effort is talked about a lot, but those who have survived long enough under the Express disciplinary system know to CYA at all times. The process of loading or unloading an aircraft obviously is a "team effort", but it was my experience that the non-ramp agents merely did what they were told and nothing else. They had no incentive to go out of their way to take a "risk". As far as "outside" vs. "inside" - that has been around for about as long as there has been a differentiation between sort and aircraft workgroups. Virtually everyone who works "outside" with the aircraft started on the "inside" working the sort - they survived long enough to move outside making an additonal 50 cents an hour and not spend a few hours in mind numbing and back straining package handling. Part of the "survival" mentality for those working the aircraft is to talk trash about those on the sorts. It doesn't make the job of those on the sorts any easier - to the contrary, it directly contributes to the high turnover rates of ramp sort workgroups. There is nothing that has been, and nothing that will be done about it - AGFS is survival of either the fittest or most desperate (depending on why the individual is there). 9) This is something which drove me nuts while in AGFS. Management would hire someone to do a job, but when they consistently screwed it up, directed that the screw up be moved to a position where they couldn't screw up. People aren't dumb, and they would deliberately screw up to get a less strenuous work assignment. Well, I made sure that screw ups were directed to download containers or work the lowers in the aircraft. Management had their hands tied as far as sending home employees which were chronic screwups, but they weren't blind either. Enough screwups, they were handed the 1-2-3 Warning Letters and more often than not quit of their own accord prior to geting fired. It still makes the work for everyone else around them more difficult. 10) Express is merely a job now, NOT a career. Management is looking out for their pitiful careers and those who have been around for more than a year or so know how the game is played. Clock in, do your job, don't screw up, clock out. When you find something else that has career progression possibilites, move on. [/QUOTE]
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