I have many friends and some aquaintances I have made in my career at UPS from around the country. Over the last two weeks I have discovered that two of them are out on stress leave...And these two are top notch, (at least at one time they were)- not in my current District. Then I consider the sheer number of ft management on stress leave in my current district right now. It makes me wonder, what percent of FT operations management are on stress leave currently throughout the company?
stress leave-
- Thread starter sosocal
- Start date
rod
Retired 22 years
How high up the ladder are these stress cases? I wouldn't think anyone from a center manager on down would have any stress---all they do from what I gather is scream "get out of the building" for a few minutes in the morning after being told by phone how to run their center for the day. How can you have any stress when you aren't the one making decissions?
I have no idea how many management people are on stress leave, but I know that the percentages are far less than in California.
In California, stress is workers compensation; in just about anywhere else, it is disability. The job is the same for an operations managememt person any where in the country.
Is it just human nature that classifying "stress" as work related causes there to be more people (management and hourly) out on stress in California? Or is there truly a different work ethic from California to other places, like the midwest for example?
It will be interesting to hear what people think.
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
Because they still get blamed when things go wrong.
The modern-day center manager is like the pilot of a jet airliner...that has had its steering wheel, throttle, and rudders removed. He can sit in the cockpit and look out the window and talk to the passengers on the intercom, but the plane itself is being controlled remotely by some I.E. guy in a cubicle who isnt going to be on board when it crashes and burns.
Don't know for sure but I suspect our ft preload sup may have just spent two weeks on some sort of stress leave. For the past six months he has gotten out of hand with his yelling and badgering. Just plain nasty.
He disappeared for two weeks of "vacation" and returned this week. Now the belts have been sped up and whenever an unload door goes down that sorter is sent to do bulk right away. They are like stink on a turd.
Vacation, stress leave, or a trip to corporate to have the remaining soul sucked out of them and replaced with UPS special training?
He disappeared for two weeks of "vacation" and returned this week. Now the belts have been sped up and whenever an unload door goes down that sorter is sent to do bulk right away. They are like stink on a turd.
Vacation, stress leave, or a trip to corporate to have the remaining soul sucked out of them and replaced with UPS special training?
Returntosender
Well-Known Member
What if the Sup went to a corportate re-education camp Sups must fall inline with the company polices, the war of attrition is on"like 407post said It is on". No excuses, it's us "management" vs them "Union".
18hr days! Always being told you suck, even though you have some of the best numbers in the district. Being told by DM's your family doesen't matter to them. Having your job threatened every week. Loading down drivers according to the plan even though you know its not safe. Being blamed for not running the plan if things go wrong. Being blamed for running plan if things go wrong. Putting up with some computer operating IE goon, that has never even been near an operation, telling you adding 80 stops to a driver will work. Knowing level 18 mgr are getting richer while they hand out terrible pay increases, and at the same time telling how lucky you are to even have a job. To hear your boss calling from a bar yelling at you for not being in your operation, even though you have been there going on 8hrs. Conference calls that last hours and are about things that happened last month. Watching the support functions not even supporting the operations. Watching the support functions work 8-5. I could go on and on.. Most of the people I know out on stress were mgr's that bled brown and would go the extra 100 miles for the company. They were very loyal to UPS. They work and work and work to achieve the almost impossible goals that the desk jockeys create. The blame themselves for not reaching the goals and work harder, and then SNAP! They finally realize they are killing themselves and at the same time the company doesn't give a crap!!!!!!!!!!!!! How many 'how are you doing' phone calls do you think these mgrs get? none. Wow I better stop I am stressing myself out!!!!
rod
Retired 22 years
yes, that would do it. Too bad that most of our ft sups went into management when they were still allowed to manage. They're like lots of us who started out innocent and , by the time we realized how rough it can be, had too much to lose by quitting.
FracusBrown
Ponies and Planes
In other words...Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. Job security for management is not what it used to be.
Commitment is proportional to compensation. As the compensation drops, the commitment goes with it.
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
"Stress leave" is the only protection that operations management has left. Its against the law to fire someone who is out on any sort of medical leave.
The "new" management model...in which the Center Manager has no control over dispatch, area trace or number of routes on the street...has pretty much put these people into hopeless, no-win situations. Under this new model, the Preload Dispatch Supervisor shoves a failed dispatch out the door in order to cut out enough routes to look good on a report, and then goes home by 11:00 AM or noon and is in bed or on the couch when the wheels fall off and the sparks start flying. The Center Manager and his subordinates are left behind to clean up the mess and take all of the blame. They have no authority or resources to actually solve any of the underlying issues, they are now little more than glorified clerks who read the PCM's and rubber-stamp the warning letters. They have been set up to fail.
My theory on the huge spike in "stress leave" is that it is simply a survival technique for the guys who are trying to hang on for another year or two until they are eligible for retirement. If they can get a doctor to sign off on it, then when the company whacks them for failing to meet its impossible expectations they might be able to retaliate with a discrimination lawsuit. Its pretty much the only card they have left to play.
The "new" management model...in which the Center Manager has no control over dispatch, area trace or number of routes on the street...has pretty much put these people into hopeless, no-win situations. Under this new model, the Preload Dispatch Supervisor shoves a failed dispatch out the door in order to cut out enough routes to look good on a report, and then goes home by 11:00 AM or noon and is in bed or on the couch when the wheels fall off and the sparks start flying. The Center Manager and his subordinates are left behind to clean up the mess and take all of the blame. They have no authority or resources to actually solve any of the underlying issues, they are now little more than glorified clerks who read the PCM's and rubber-stamp the warning letters. They have been set up to fail.
My theory on the huge spike in "stress leave" is that it is simply a survival technique for the guys who are trying to hang on for another year or two until they are eligible for retirement. If they can get a doctor to sign off on it, then when the company whacks them for failing to meet its impossible expectations they might be able to retaliate with a discrimination lawsuit. Its pretty much the only card they have left to play.
8up
Well-Known Member
whoa! do i know you, are we working in the same center?
whatwasithinking
Member
I have heard that there are an excessive # of mgmt personnel that have left this year in our district, and the District mgr now needs to find out the reason why. I have a pretty good idea, but we'll see if anything is ever addressed. And yes, there are a # of stress cases that our district is dealing with, and like someone else said, these are over 30 yr employees that all of a sudden are not good enough for UPS standards. Although they helped to contribute to the outstanding growth of the company through those years. I think of all the management folks through the years that were not very book smart, but could figure out how to move packages efficiently and therefore turned a profit. Now, we have very smart people, but someone (far removed from operations) is waaaaayyy smarter and tells them how to move pkgs much more efficiently. Why promote people if we don't want to take advantage of their skills and knowledge? By the way, the people that helped to grow this company are now multi-millionaires and those of us left hope to receive a decent pension, because if we are dependent on stock, we are going to be in real trouble (especially after today).
8up
Well-Known Member
the upper mgmt doesn't care about the lower level mgmt. they would just as soon turn them out and replace them with young college educated one that they can work for 5 -6 years at a lower wage and then cut them loose and repeat the process. it doesn't matter that the company will be paying the retirement as well as the wages for the new replacements which would actually cost more and end up getting less, until you realize that the retirees pay from the pension fund and the replacements pay out of the operating budget. so tho actually paying more it actually shows up as less off the books due to the pension funding.
Catatonic
Nine Lives
Have not heard this. My understanding is that Short-term disability which is for 6 months is 100%. At 6 months it migrates to long-term disability which is 60%.
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