The Concept of Constructive Dissatisfaction

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
I just finished reading "Driving Change", which was basically a tribute to UPS management that pretty much ignored the contribution of hourly employees to the company's success. Throughout the book, however, the authors kept hammering home Mr Casey's ideal of "constructive dissatisfaction" and how deeply instilled it was in the unique culture of UPS. While I certainly understand and respect the concept, I suspect that "constructive dissastisfaction" that comes from hourlies is received somewhat differently from that which originates in management.

At FedEx, we have the similar concept of "Continuous Improvement", which means that if you're a driver and have a good, but controversial idea, it is ignored and you're branded as a bad attitude employee. If a manager comes up with the exact same idea, he or she is a superstar and promoted to their next level of incompetence. In short, it's BS. Is it the same at UPS??
 

tieguy

Banned
I just finished reading "Driving Change", which was basically a tribute to UPS management that pretty much ignored the contribution of hourly employees to the company's success. Throughout the book, however, the authors kept hammering home Mr Casey's ideal of "constructive dissatisfaction" and how deeply instilled it was in the unique culture of UPS. While I certainly understand and respect the concept, I suspect that "constructive dissastisfaction" that comes from hourlies is received somewhat differently from that which originates in management.

At FedEx, we have the similar concept of "Continuous Improvement", which means that if you're a driver and have a good, but controversial idea, it is ignored and you're branded as a bad attitude employee. If a manager comes up with the exact same idea, he or she is a superstar and promoted to their next level of incompetence. In short, it's BS. Is it the same at UPS??

I thought we banished you guys to your own forum?
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
"I thought we banished you guys to your own forum?"


LOL! Try to appease the riffraff by giving them their own forum and they STILL show up here!
 

Griff

Well-Known Member
We do have a FedEx Forum, but I'd still like to know if what the book says is crap or not.

It's only right that they take full credit for the operation they oversee and oversee to perfection. Without them -- what would happen? I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think I could go out and move volume without hearing that I'm a thief everyday in the morning.
 

tieguy

Banned
We do have a FedEx Forum, but I'd still like to know if what the book says is crap or not.

The way you first phrased your question it appears you had already formed your answer. Its a book that primarily focuses on the start up and evolution of ups. Since ups has been around a hundred years it would appear to me that its history is not crap.

continous improvement is another popular catch word in todays management world. As corporations plagerize concepts from each other.
 

DS

Fenderbender
Tie and over9,I hope you are kidding,MrFedEx is asking a valid question and I think he deserves a real answer.I believe that originally Jim Caseys idea of constructive dissatisfaction was intended for all employees and I'm sure a lot of the ideas and methods in use today are the direct result of thier input.Over the years with Jim gone and nobody in charge with the same values,this concept has eroded to the point where in some centers,management has misinteprpreted it .Now it's a means to an ends to ensure that the driver has it driven into his head every day ,regardless if he is doing a good job or not,that he needs to improve his numbers.
As far as ideas submitted by hourlies goes,it seems that there is no new ideas to ups,they know everything, with one recent exception.They are asking for advice on the design of the new diad on upsers.com.In the end,what they want is to save them time so they can be that much more productive.The only suggestions ups acknowledges is sales leads,and they do pay well if there's volume involved.So I guess,in the end,it all boils down to money.
I have not read "driving change" and I don't intend to.I'm afraid t would just piss me off.
I'm not sure abot FedEx but ups used to be about providing a service,but they've become so big,that constructive criticism has been replaced by the desire for promotion,and all the abuse we take is the result of some center manager needing to improve HIS numbers. Its sad really.
 

JustTired

free at last.......
Not having read the book, maybe I'm way off base here. But I would take "constructive dissatisfaction" to mean that we should never be satisfied with the way the business is run and should always be looking for ways to improve. Not only improve the way we do business, but the service we give to our customers.

Obviously, this concept has been bastardized through the years to mean something else entirely. It appears to me that the company is "dissatisfied" with the amount of time it is taking to do the job properly, the wages being paid to its' employees and the hours its' employees are working. Satisfaction would be employees doing more and working longer for less.
 

pretzel_man

Well-Known Member
Here it is in casey's words:

Be a self-driver
A person’s worth to an organization can be measured by the amount of supervision required. 1947

Self-evaluation
Don’t over-rate yourself. Lean a little the other way — be constructively dissatisfied with yourself — and you’ll go further.

Others will judge you by what they think of the quality and effectiveness of your work — not what you think of it.

You cannot be successful entirely through your own efforts. All of us, if we are to accomplish anything worthwhile, will do it largely through the help and cooperation of the people who work with us. We must help others to help us. 1947

P-Man
 

IWorkAsDirected

Outa browns on 04/30/09
When I first started with UPS almost 21 years ago, I was told that the only thing we have to sell is service. Well, maybe now with diversification UPS does not care much about service anymore. At least it certainly seems that way in our center, numbers come first, cost cutting definately comes before service. The public still perceives UPS as a package delivery company and expects the service they have had in the past, but alas it has gone by the wayside. Can UPS survive if they abandon their roots?
 
A

Anonymous Commenter

Guest
When I first started with UPS almost 21 years ago, I was told that the only thing we have to sell is service. Well, maybe now with diversification UPS does not care much about service anymore. At least it certainly seems that way in our center, numbers come first, cost cutting definately comes before service. The public still perceives UPS as a package delivery company and expects the service they have had in the past, but alas it has gone by the wayside. Can UPS survive if they abandon their roots?

UPS still cares about service, and our service has improved over the past few years (in terms of time in transit, percent of service failures, etc). If you've been around for 20 years then you must recall the days where entire cars were missed in the past and noone found out about it. It was much easier to bury large numbers of packages 10 years ago. Compare that to now, where two missed packages show on a report the next morning and you have to realize that overall service has improved (even though it may not feel like it). As far as the roots of UPS, we're a public company so I think we have to abandon some of our roots if we're going to move the stock price. We tried running the company "by our roots" over the last 8 years and the stock is lower than the 11/10/1999 closing price. It's time to run it different, take some risks, and get the stock moving.
 

tieguy

Banned
Tie and over9,I hope you are kidding,MrFedEx is asking a valid question and I think he deserves a real answer.I believe that originally Jim Caseys idea of constructive dissatisfaction was intended for all employees and I'm sure a lot of the ideas and methods in use today are the direct result of thier input..

No I'm not kidding anyone; the company policies and principles withstood the test of time thus we celebrate our 100 year aniversary.

While you and the other moderators here have elected to kiss the fdx tucasa I choose to discuss casey with those who have earned the right.
 

tieguy

Banned
When I first started with UPS almost 21 years ago, I was told that the only thing we have to sell is service. Well, maybe now with diversification UPS does not care much about service anymore. At least it certainly seems that way in our center, numbers come first, cost cutting definately comes before service. The public still perceives UPS as a package delivery company and expects the service they have had in the past, but alas it has gone by the wayside. Can UPS survive if they abandon their roots?

This point is probably one of the ones where management and the drivers opinions my differ. You see us cutting routes and question our committment to providing service. We see the huge expense into systems that have improved service even if not in your particular center.

PAS and edd may very well have some serious flaws now. But I do believe that someday those systems will help us provide near perfect service.

The end result the technology has helped us improve our tnt performance from the 96 percent range to where 99 percent is not uncommon.
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
For TieGuy and everyone else who thinks FedEx people don't have any links to UPS, I'd say about 15% of FedEx employees are ex-UPSer's, many with 10 or more years of service. If you focus on management only, it's more like 25%. We get a lot of your leftovers and burnouts, so we also deal with UPS techniques and philosophy, even if it is residual. As for me, I put in 4 peak seasons in the Feeder Dept doing everything from running Air to the ramp, hostling trailers at my local center, to picking-up trailers all night long from the UP and BNSF. Management could and did slot me into any task they needed and I always did it right and on-time, often better than the regulars. They still call me every year even though I can no longer work for them. So, whatever you think of me, I do have some Brown in me and know the Feeder job well. I would have liked to work for UPS, but I couldn't afford to go PT as a loader and I didn't want to wait 20 years to get into Feeders. I spent most of those 4 peaks in one of those great single-screw International COE's with the rock-crusher 7-speed, so you know I earned my money in comfort.

I remain very interested in UPS because, for the most part, they have their act together as a company. I like to compare and contrast them with FedEx because UPS continues to get it right most of the time while we do not. My intent in posing the "constructive dissatisfaction" question was to see if it was just lip service. "Driving Change" seems to think it's still a valid philosophy.

So TieGuy, you can flame me all day long, but I do have some Brown cred and could probably drive circles around you in either a package car OR a feeder.
 
Last edited:

IWorkAsDirected

Outa browns on 04/30/09
This point is probably one of the ones where management and the drivers opinions my differ. You see us cutting routes and question our committment to providing service. We see the huge expense into systems that have improved service even if not in your particular center.

PAS and edd may very well have some serious flaws now. But I do believe that someday those systems will help us provide near perfect service.

The end result the technology has helped us improve our tnt performance from the 96 percent range to where 99 percent is not uncommon.


Yes I see cutting routes, and as a result we have businesses (alot of them) being dellivered after 6:00 pm, what kind of service is this? With PAS businesses canot count on deliveries coming at a certain time each day either. UPS is so far behind in facilities (in order to save money?) that there are centers who miss thousands of packages DAILY (just ask anyone in Las Vegas)

As for remembering service in past years, it was much better, we managed ourselves and we had pride (with PAS there is no feeling of pride in doing our job) we delivered every package everyday no matter what and no one was sticking it to us, or showing us reports to get us to do it.!!
 

tieguy

Banned
So TieGuy, you can flame me all day long, but I do have some Brown cred and could probably drive circles around you in either a package car OR a feeder.

Flame you? The last time I checked you worked for the other guy. The guy who actively tries to steal my packages every time I go through contract negotiations by telling my customers that there will be a strike this time. While others here are ready to give you their packages because they believe there is plenty for everyone I don't hold those same feelings of love. As far as I'm concerned the brown cafe may as well open theirselves to bestiality and pedophilia now that they have invited fdx in.

You asked a question when you started this thread. You asked the question as if you had already answered it. You flamed yourself.
 

satellitedriver

Moderator
No I'm not kidding anyone; the company policies and principles withstood the test of time thus we celebrate our 100 year aniversary.

While you and the other moderators here have elected to kiss the fdx tucasa I choose to discuss casey with those who have earned the right.
Tie,
"and the other moderators here"
this part of your post is inclusive to all moderators and I take a different view.
I agree with you, it is like sleeping with the enemy.
Next, lets go postal.
PAX
 

55andout?

Well-Known Member
It's only right that they take full credit for the operation they oversee and oversee to perfection. Without them -- what would happen? I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think I could go out and move volume without hearing that I'm a thief everyday in the morning.
Actually the book speaks very highly about the UPS service provider. But the book is actually how UPS evolved over t he years to allow the company to grow instead of die like so many other companies that never "drove change". If change is not part of our past and future then we would have no future.
 
Top