What happened?

[MIPMASTER]

I am a supervisor at UPS. I do not work in the operation so I can not speak to the lives that many of you speak in this forum. I have never been adverse to hard work so I think I would have been successful no matter what career I chose whether it was the operation or my current job within the Information Technology structure.

When I first started here in 1998, I thought I had died and gone to Brown Heaven. Everyone seemed to be so proud of UPS and everyone puffed out their chests with pride. I want to insert a comment here related to my last sentence but I will be good . The question as it relates back to my subject is.....What happened?

I often wonder if people (management, bosses, management committee, union leadership, etc) are truly evil or if they truly believe they are doing the right thing for their respected groups and the overall organization. Has UPS just grown too big to effectively manage?

I am married and have a two year old son. If it wasn't for them, I would leave UPS to explore non-Brown pastures. Not necessary due to UPS but just to explore a non-corporate life. The responsibilities of the family do not allow for this risk. So my job is to make this place a better place day by sometimes painful day. I hope people will join me in feeling free to vent but then being a part of the solution. I am but one voice but I choose to use it.

I would love to hear the thoughts of the very diverse audience in the Cafe!

 

[Channahon]

It started with the IPO in 1999 and hasn't stopped. The organization is now working for Wall St to squeeze every penny into earnings and profits. Some changes are good and others are cost cutting. Do more with less seems to be the structure nowadays. Overworked, short staffed,16 hour days do not motivate anyone to do a good job or have that UPS attitude of times past.
I do think people still are proud to say they work for UPS to the outside world , but inside UPS may not have the same sentiment. Good luck with your career
wherever that may be.

 

[over9five]

"...I would leave UPS to explore non-Brown pastures."

I think that you will regret your decision not to explore.

No offense, you said it. Though I wish you the best in your career.

 

[trickpony1]

To answer your question........

......some are evil just because they can be and some are forced to be evil.

There seems to be an inordinate amount of evil in management simply because they can be.

 

[woodenfoot]

i drove feeder long runs for 33 years and loved it cause it was easy and some good bucks there were 13 road drivers when i started in 72 times were good when i left we had 240 road drivers and all bitch about the com but do the job but the boss people realy suck push push push and step over a dollar to take a nickle from the driver it was so much better when the bosses of the 1970 to 1980 were only high school grads and viet nam vets

 

[Dfigtree]

What happened? The right people got off the bus. The wrong people got on the bus. Simple, really.

 

[Cezanne]

Nothings happened according to the last ERI results. What are you talking about

 

[BLACKBOX]

One of the biggest mistakes was in the year 2000. Fedex decided to explore ground and freight markets. UPS should have used a good portion of the reserve cash they claim to have and quashed the efforts by Fred S.

Peak season numbers for FDX back in 2000 was 3 to 4 mil pkgs. This last peak FDX moved 9.8 million through their system. This may not be significant numbers compared to UPS peak but this number is expected to go up.

FEDEX is quietly upgrading and expanding their ground and freight stations around the country and the world, not to mention their already established express division.

I don't know why UPS is not taking this situation seriously. This may sevearly impact our workforce.

In the coming years you will see a "leveling" out of peak volume between UPS and FDX. When that happens.......what then????

 

[tieguy]

I remember when I was in the army often going out in the field , living in mud , playing war games in case the balloon went up all for 300 dollars a month. My first employer was the most demanding I will ever see.

UPS is a collection of many perspectives. Along with the superior service we provide comes the feedback of dedicated people who care about the business.

I too have concerns about this companys direction since 1999 but I can also recall having similar concerns at various stages throughout my career.

I see people leaving the company and worry about the future but I also remember seeing many people leave when I first started and all throughout my career.

In the end its a tough job working for a demanding company and those who do the job have earned the right to vent.

 

[BrownBlackandBlue]

I rememeber a time when I had fun when I came to work. We shot from the hip, rose to any challenge, and had a real swagger to our step.
While I don't dread coming to work (presently; there have been times that I have), it certainly is not what I look forward to. So I ask myself, have I changed or has the company changed?
I have to think it is some of each. Those wild west-like times, I was young and single and loved a challenge above everything else. And UPS was always a challenge. Now I'm older, I have a family and love time with them more than a challenge. The challenge is balancing both.
From the other perspective, shooting form the hip was a neccessary and admired trait of a good operator. We worked hard but we played hard too, even at work.
There has always been pressure at UPS, but there used to be a time that you felt what you were doing was good enough. Now there is never a time when you are good enough. Even though we turn numbers undreamed of 15 years ago, we bear the weight of it not being enough to stop the sinking of our stock, save our dwindling MIP, keeping our benefits affordable.
I want my pride back. I want to proudly say I work for UPS, Yeah its tough, but I have what it takes. I am a member of the best team there is, bar none. I want to be proud of what I accomplish, I don't always want to be only as good as yesterday. Thats what I want back from the public shareholder.

 

[Dfigtree]

Nothings happened according to the last ERI results. What are you talking about

What exactly is the meaning of ERI? I don't mean definition. I mean what's it supposed to mean? Nothing really. How about instead we do an anonymous evaluation where we measure from 1 to 10 where 1 = I hate it to 10 = I love it. Why does an intelligent management need to know more than that? People are happy or they are not. Or maybe we could keep count of the number of phone callers who call their management to complain about the way things are and then are fired instead of listened to. That might be a great statistic for people with permed hair.

 

[Brown and Out]

We are experiencing an evolution. Right down to our yearly calendars.

 

[shy]

Yeah, the ERI is up from last year. Doesn't that mean something? I'm sure management think it means they're doing just great.

 

[sendagain]

The family feel of the company eroded away some time ago, and the ever increasing size of centers makes it worse. The constant shrinkage of the allowances during each successive time study added to the growing unhappiness with the work. It's one thing to get paid an hour of incentive pay for working hard, and quite another when that level of effort becomes your "standard". The TLA yearly talks with the manager largely disappeared, leaving a driver to sense his impute was unimportant. The yearly event when a center was taken out to a restaurant to talk about where the company was headed, also was trimmed down to some force feeding in the hub. The quality of our work force started to decline with the lowering of wages for part timers, including fewer and fewer college students with some brains in their head. Each new service we brought on board brought some new pressure and deadline to be met, making the entire day a race against the clock. Then we have to compete against companies whose employees are willing to work for a lot less money than us, some of whom are every bit as good as our people. Then we bring PAS along, and some wet-nosed supervisor is going to sit down on a map and tell some guy with over twenty years experience in a package car, which way he should run his route, having not even driven on one of the center's streets. I never knew if these people had college degrees, but I had two of them for what that's worth. Stupid is as stupid does. Trying to design a route from the center is like trying to climb Everest after you glanced at some topo map. But hey, I'm sure the other guys are having their own problems.

 

[rngri4]

I am a supervisor at UPS. I do not work in the operation so I can not speak to the lives that many of you speak in this forum. I have never been adverse to hard work so I think I would have been successful no matter what career I chose whether it was the operation or my current job within the Information Technology structure.

When I first started here in 1998, I thought I had died and gone to Brown Heaven. Everyone seemed to be so proud of UPS and everyone puffed out their chests with pride. I want to insert a comment here related to my last sentence but I will be good . The question as it relates back to my subject is.....What happened?

I often wonder if people (management, bosses, management committee, union leadership, etc) are truly evil or if they truly believe they are doing the right thing for their respected groups and the overall organization. Has UPS just grown too big to effectively manage?

I am married and have a two year old son. If it wasn't for them, I would leave UPS to explore non-Brown pastures. Not necessary due to UPS but just to explore a non-corporate life. The responsibilities of the family do not allow for this risk. So my job is to make this place a better place day by sometimes painful day. I hope people will join me in feeling free to vent but then being a part of the solution. I am but one voice but I choose to use it.

I would love to hear the thoughts of the very diverse audience in the Cafe!

I think your whole post can be summed up in your first sentence, you have never worked in operations. Not to rude, you don't understand what most of the people on this board are griping about, because you have never been there. I am not being rude, just stating my opinion. Also, I have a two year old, and a wife, that didn't keep me from leaving, if you have a degree, there are always better jobs out there than UPS, and I found one.

 

[speeddemon]

Nothings happened according to the last ERI results. What are you talking about

And these results are real too.

 

[Bulkstop]

Yeah, the ERI is up from last year. Doesn't that mean something? I'm sure management think it means they're doing just great.

I haven't taken the ERI in two years. I think now only a select few employees are asked to take it in order to produce favorable numbers.

 

[Cezanne]

What could be happening is that people are getting wiser to the core issues that will effect our future employment and retirement. Have to admit that the scale has far been leaning toward the management side with the matter of perks and benefits, with their accessing MIP stock rewards, matching 401K and healthy retirement trusts. The long term union workers are just starting to ask questions with the pension crisis to what happened to our monetary contributions that were mishandled and not paid, excused way with the appropriate "SORRY, IT WAS A PERFECT STORM". Not an answer and we are getting sick of excuses. With UPS employees in particular the option for a 25 year early retirement is needed, our bodies were pretty well busted up in our younger years and aging is not helping the decline. Most companies even with white collar workers have a early retirement clause, generally with 30 years service and age 55. The prospect of 40 plus year service and 60 plus years of age to collect retirement with the work and schedules that we are required to do is will not work. Most of us will be broke by them and sent to permanent disability land. In my region most all the management who reach the retirement requirement leave without even thinking about hanging on, that in itself should show the nature of our health concerns with prolonging the carrot on the end of the stick. And most of those managers haven't lifted a box over the last ten years, let alone jumping in and out of package car.