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ups_tech
Guest
How many people here work in TSG? What is your impression of your job? I work in external TSG, it seems "you can be replaced" is the standard management operating procedure. Is it just here or everywhere?
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dannyboy
Guest
Techie
It is every where, whether management,hourly, union or non, the you can be replaced is part of our company history. As well as it should be. I hear many on this board refer to dead wood, and getting rid of it. That is the only way to keep our business going and growing.
As a driver for 30 years, there have been several times that tech support has come to the aid of my customers. You guys are an unsung hero that almost nobody sees and thanks. So from me at least, thanks for what you do behind the scenes
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It is every where, whether management,hourly, union or non, the you can be replaced is part of our company history. As well as it should be. I hear many on this board refer to dead wood, and getting rid of it. That is the only way to keep our business going and growing.
As a driver for 30 years, there have been several times that tech support has come to the aid of my customers. You guys are an unsung hero that almost nobody sees and thanks. So from me at least, thanks for what you do behind the scenes
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ukworker
Guest
It's a common theory that no one is indispensible, don't know about over there but here it only really applies to hourly workers. The parcel delivery side of the Royal Mail here are losing 1 million pounds a day, job cuts and austerity measures were announced, the union called a strike and when interviewed one striker said the real problem was that bad managers never lost their jobs but merely got moved around. This is exactly the same with UPS in the UK, and what's more its openly talked about in management circles. When some guys leave the room they are sneered at. I know of hourly workers who have been disciplined and demoted. But managers who mess up only seem to move sideways until their mistakes are forgotten and then promoted in a function outside of operations.
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ups_tech
Guest
I can, in some aspects, understand the attitude that some hourly workers are dispensable. A newly hired person can be trained fairly quickly to effectively sort packages. However, some jobs rely on a worker having years of experience or natural talent. I would classify mechanics, TSG, etc in this category. I think as a company we should make it policy to try to keep these people, especially in areas such as TSG where we pay less than average.
Don't get me wrong, I think everyone should be doing their required jobs. However, in my department in particular, people are being keep simply because people feel sorry for them. It seems pound foolish for a company to not buy toilet paper to save money but manage people so ineffectively. I have considered opting in to see if I could at least change our department, but it seems like a waste of effort.
Don't get me wrong, I think everyone should be doing their required jobs. However, in my department in particular, people are being keep simply because people feel sorry for them. It seems pound foolish for a company to not buy toilet paper to save money but manage people so ineffectively. I have considered opting in to see if I could at least change our department, but it seems like a waste of effort.
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dannyboy
Guest
UPS's system of hiring and firing is not all that efficient. I have seen managers shagging an hourly get fired, but shagging the wife of another sup gets you moved and promoted? Fire an employee for eating one peice of candy from an open box, and keep on a preload sup that had been shaving time off cards for almost a year?
Its not a perfect world, and not a perfect company. Unfortunatly some of us are so low on the totem pole, it does not matter what we think
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Its not a perfect world, and not a perfect company. Unfortunatly some of us are so low on the totem pole, it does not matter what we think
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lifer
Guest
i tried to get into TSG, but hit it at the wrong time. . . i guess it worked out for the best.
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fups
Guest
yo dannyboy... getting fired for eating some candy????? guys would laugh in your face for that at my hub.... there has been sooooooooo many people that have gotten fired,,, but guess what... at work the next day!!!! rough ain't it? BS if you ask me.
UPS is a strange place to be at times!
UPS is a strange place to be at times!
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dannyboy
Guest
It sure is! Times have changed. I hope the company can weather the storms ahead! Got some good people leading the company, but also have some shady ones!
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airone
Guest
Not sure about the difference between internal and external TSG but I can assure you that the TSG that supports the AGB is the pits. Only thing they are interested in is making their job easier - not helping their customers.
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ups_tech
Guest
AGB? Most of the people I work with strive to do their jobs well. However, from what I have seen this is not the case everywhere.
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tech2wannabe
Guest
I would like to see if we can get a pulse beat on how tsg tech feel if they are fairly compensated
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devilsadvocate
Guest
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tieguy
Guest
The technical expertise required is for the most part replacing hardware that fails or software that "burps" . There really is a limit to what someone in a district level TSG job can do. If you want to get into the data warehousing, web design or programming and development areas then you will probably have to move up to one of the corporate positions. Opportunities to do so may be limited therefore most TSG people I have known get their experience get their degree and move on.
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ups_tech
Guest
There are two types of people in TSG, the trained monkeys and the "experts". Most of the internal TSG work could be done with trained moneys, its all pretty simple and very well documented. Mostly the experts deal with networking and troubleshooting. There tends to be pretty good backup support if something goes wrong.
External is a different story altogether. Most of the work can be done by trained monkeys, we prove it in our center every day. However, a very good external tech can save and make UPS a lot of money. IMHO the compensation for these people should be higher. You have to look at it this way, when a shippers system goes down its important to get them back up quickly so they can start shipping again, but also to inspire confidence in the customer. System downtime costs them a lot of money and time, they want to know UPS will be there when needed. Sadly a lot of our techs do not inspire this confidence. The only saving grace is that FedEx techs are worse. A good external tech can also bring in a lot of business by being able to integrate our software with customer systems. This is truly a talent that most of our techs don't have. In our district I know for a fact that UPS has won or secured close to a million dollars worth of business because we had a couple of good techs. These people could make probably 4x-6x the money as an independant consultant. None of these techs will probably even get an "atta boy" from their manager. I think there is a huge misappropriation of the resources in the tech area right now, it really should change for the good of UPS.
Anybody think TSG will become its own department? Right now its under I.E., which is not really a good fit anymore.
External is a different story altogether. Most of the work can be done by trained monkeys, we prove it in our center every day. However, a very good external tech can save and make UPS a lot of money. IMHO the compensation for these people should be higher. You have to look at it this way, when a shippers system goes down its important to get them back up quickly so they can start shipping again, but also to inspire confidence in the customer. System downtime costs them a lot of money and time, they want to know UPS will be there when needed. Sadly a lot of our techs do not inspire this confidence. The only saving grace is that FedEx techs are worse. A good external tech can also bring in a lot of business by being able to integrate our software with customer systems. This is truly a talent that most of our techs don't have. In our district I know for a fact that UPS has won or secured close to a million dollars worth of business because we had a couple of good techs. These people could make probably 4x-6x the money as an independant consultant. None of these techs will probably even get an "atta boy" from their manager. I think there is a huge misappropriation of the resources in the tech area right now, it really should change for the good of UPS.
Anybody think TSG will become its own department? Right now its under I.E., which is not really a good fit anymore.
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proups
Guest
As technology becomes more important to our business, so will the role of the technician. From what I've seen, our technical people have quite a secure, and exciting, future ahead of them.
All of the technical people are important - both external and internal.
All of the technical people are important - both external and internal.
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ups_tech
Guest
ProUps-
Certainly both groups are important to UPS, I certainly was not trying to bash the internal folks; without them nothing works
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I am curious to see what direction UPS takes technology. For a long time UPS was a technology leader, I feel we are falling a bit behind the times. I think our motto is sometimes "Because we have always done it that way". This is one of the reasons I think it would be helpful to have TSG under its own department. Of course the new Diads on the way are very cool, certainly a step in the right direction.
Certainly both groups are important to UPS, I certainly was not trying to bash the internal folks; without them nothing works
. I am curious to see what direction UPS takes technology. For a long time UPS was a technology leader, I feel we are falling a bit behind the times. I think our motto is sometimes "Because we have always done it that way". This is one of the reasons I think it would be helpful to have TSG under its own department. Of course the new Diads on the way are very cool, certainly a step in the right direction.
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upscorpis
Guest
Would you mind expanding on this:
For a long time UPS was a technology leader, I feel we are falling a bit behind the times.
My perspective is quite different. I remember when UPS was WAY behind in technology. I'm curious to hear why you think UPS is now falling back.
For a long time UPS was a technology leader, I feel we are falling a bit behind the times.
My perspective is quite different. I remember when UPS was WAY behind in technology. I'm curious to hear why you think UPS is now falling back.
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over70lbpkg
Guest
UPS is light years ahead of FedEx, Airborne and the Post Office. I have extensive knowledge on UPS, FedEx and Airborne and no one is a close second to UPS...TRUST ME!
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devilsadvocate
Guest
I Would like to see tech's be made supervisors so we can share in the profits, I'm so sick and tired of being treated like crap from my so called supervisor, most of them have nothing better to do. It seems out of boredom or a way to feel important, that they go out of their way to demoralize the techs. You would not believe the amount of business that I have retained and new business that I have captured by explaining to our customers on how best to utilize our technology and implementing it. The best part about it, if I was to follow the guide lines and wait for the AE to give me the implementation, our customers would still be using paper. the thing that saddens me the most, is that we are not recognized as an asset but treated as a liability, and is obvious. Don't get me wrong I love what I do, and I like UPS and our customers, and they like me. I would just like to share the rewards as everyone else. The drivers, hub rats and mechanics have the union, management have MIP and everyone else is looked as if they have four eyes.
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ups_tech
Guest
A lot of our locations are still running off of very slow connections. It makes support a real pain in the neck. I also see a lot of the management people avoiding and bad mouthing technology becuase they don't understand it. Funny how many times I have heard how we will never use Linux ot other opensource items because they are junk. Strange how much of it is floating around, however.
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