"Work as directed" dishonesty stories: Share yours here.

[Integrity]

I applaud all the honest workers at UPS and I credit them for their desire to work " with Integrity" and not against him. There is an unfortunate fact at UPS that dishonest workers are here too. They come in all shapes and sizes. They hold a variety of positions both management and hourly.

Sometimes, dishonest practices that are generally accepted in an area of UPS adversely affects the decisions of some genuinely honest people in those areas. Many UPS employees don't know what others have to experience regularly as they try to make sense of it all. If you have been put in this situation, you are not alone. It could very well be that every UPSer has falsified something at the direction of management.

Have you ever "worked as directed" and done something that you weren't 100% comfortable with?

Please share your story here!

This question applys to everyone: Part-time sups, full-time sups, middle and upper managers, unloaders, sorters, preloaders, hub loaders, irreg handlers and pito drivers, drivers (package and feeder), auto mechanics, PE mechanics, first responders, DMP employees (management and hourly), safety committee co-chairs(management and hourly), safety committee members and any that I may have left out.

I

 

[The Milkman]

I applaud all the honest workers at UPS and I credit them for their desire to work " with Integrity" and not against him. There is an unfortunate fact at UPS that dishonest workers are here too. They come in all shapes and sizes. They hold a variety of positions both management and hourly.

Sometimes, dishonest practices that are generally accepted in an area of UPS adversely affects the decisions of some genuinely honest people in those areas. Many UPS employees don't know what others have to experience regularly as they try to make sense of it all. If you have been put in this situation, you are not alone. It could very well be that every UPSer has falsified something at the direction of management.

Have you ever "worked as directed" and done something that you weren't 100% comfortable with?

Please share your story here!

This question applys to everyone: Part-time sups, full-time sups, middle and upper managers, unloaders, sorters, preloaders, hub loaders, irreg handlers and pito drivers, drivers (package and feeder), auto mechanics, PE mechanics, first responders, DMP employees (management and hourly), safety committee co-chairs(management and hourly), safety committee members and any that I may have left out.

I

I worked the Customer Counter for 8 years before retiring 1-08 and I did not enjoy telling customers lies as directed by my center concerning pkgs. Same Day Will calls were at times a nightmare and many times I would call the ctr to have someone come up to explain to irate customers why they were promised their pkg and then why they won't.I gave out the ctr phone #'s for complaints as the 800 # gave customers different info depending on who they spoke to..Glad I am out of UPS as this forum shows me that it is only and will continue to get worse..

 

[BILLYB]

When we went to remote delivery a few years ago I was caught in a snowstorm and had 30 stops of RR3 left at 830pm. Called my center manager and explained I had a 2nd day medicine left but he ordered me to return to the center and remote everything or else! This is before 2 way comm so he hung up on me so I "worked as directed." The "regular" driver delivered the pkg the next day and asked for the box to show mgt what I did was wrong. My center manager backed me and explained it was his order but to this day this driver still hates me. Was I wrong?

 

[DS]

I am pleading the 5th,I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incrimiate me.
Well ok but no specifics.
Being directed to sheet late air as emergency conditions when its untrue.
Being told to sheet misloads as ni1 resis when in fact they are businesses.
During peak this year I brought back 15 missed business stops that my sup scanned as LIB
I personally have not heard of anyone being fired for following instructions

 

[soberups]

I once brought about 200 stops back at 11:00 at night during peak season. This was back before the DIAD and package tracking existed. My center manager told me to just unload the packages without sheeting them, so that they would not show up on my timecard as "missed".

I once sat in a mall parking lot until 9:00 at night during an audit, with a truck full of misloads, with instructions to not come back to the building until I had called in to make sure that the auditors had all gone home.

I was told for years that I had to put a one hour lunch on my timecard even though I wasnt getting one.

Only a couple of years ago we were on a "10 minutes of AM time" flavor of the week, and I was told I had to show no more than 10 minutes no matter what. I politely asked them to put their request for document falsification in writing, and the matter was dropped.

 

[tieguy]

Integrity one of the things thats nice about this brown cafe community is that people like to talk about things that happen at our around work as they come up.

Its a spontanteous thing thats driven by current events.

You're taking it to another level and trying to keep the negativity on the forefront 24/7.

 

[Roll Tide Roll]

Integrity one of the things thats nice about this brown cafe community is that people like to talk about things that happen at our around work as they come up.

Its a spontanteous thing thats driven by current events.

You're taking it to another level and trying to keep the negativity on the forefront 24/7.

It's the truth tieguy! We've all been instructed to do things by management and then turn around and get disciplined for it. I have stopped doing it myself. I would rather have to answer to a missed pkg than to have to answer to falsifying my documents. A fellow driver was terminated this week for sheeting NDA pkgs as NR1 before 10:30. The mall he delivers to does not open till 10:00, giving him a 30 min. window to deliver his NDA. He has been instructed to do this in the past by management. You young drivers out there need to take note....you will not be terminated for legitimate missed pkgs or your over allowed hours, but you will be terminated for falsifying your DIAD entries. Don't do it!

 

[pudg00]

I was instructed to del. wine to address other than that was on the pkg. (add. on pkg. was wrong by a couple of houses) called center manager while he was at a church function. Told me to del. to correct person. Had them send me a message directing me to do so. Took pic. of message with my cell phone for evidence.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

I worked the Customer Counter for 8 years before retiring 1-08 and I did not enjoy telling customers lies as directed by my center concerning pkgs. Same Day Will calls were at times a nightmare and many times I would call the ctr to have someone come up to explain to irate customers why they were promised their pkg and then why they won't.I gave out the ctr phone #'s for complaints as the 800 # gave customers different info depending on who they spoke to..Glad I am out of UPS as this forum shows me that it is only and will continue to get worse..

Congrats on retiring. I worked at the counter for a few short years FT and it was not fun. Everything you said was true and probably still is if not worse. I tried not to lie to customers, occasionally giving up and basically saying " I understand, you are right, this company sucks." There really isn't much else you can do.

 

[soberups]

Integrity one of the things thats nice about this brown cafe community is that people like to talk about things that happen at our around work as they come up.

Its a spontanteous thing thats driven by current events.

You're taking it to another level and trying to keep the negativity on the forefront 24/7.

The truth might be "negative"...but that doesnt change the fact that it still needs to be told.

Problems dont get solved by sweeping them under the rug or pretending they dont exist.

I will say this; UPS is a far more "honest" company today than it was 23 yrs ago when I started. We still have some work to do, but I have seen progress.

 

[brownrod]

When I was a PT clerk and had access to the customer counter DIAD there was a driver supervisor who would have me DR packages with the CC DIAD. The driver sup would then deliver the packages on his way home. These would be packages what would otherwise be missed and happened to be on the way home to this supervisors house.


Another time I driver released about 10 stops to a different driver supervisor. They were stops for his neighbors during the week before christmas. His neighborhood was so snowed in that it was impossible to get a UPS truck up there. And the closest safe parking spot for a UPS truck was 15 minute walk away. I had no problem doing that as those packages would have not been delivered until after Christmas otherwise. At that time we were working 12 hours per day and bringing back truck loads of packages we never even got to make attempts on.

 

[MC4YOU2]

I remember a center manager from years ago that used to encourage sheeting NDA DR's blocks away from del point to meet commit time. Current mgmt team does not do this, but probably because one of their peers got fired for cooking time cards. I see less of that stuff nowadays thankfully. From both hourly and mgmt.

 

[Eclipz]

Recently, we have to put in a minimum lunchbreak time of 30 minutes even if you didn't have a break at all. One can easily see in the records that you were delivering during a "made-up lunchbreak" but I've seen drivers get reprimanded for forgetting to punch in a time in the diad afterwards. Makes you wonder why they're not automatically add a breaktime when you start the diad. Seems like it doesn't matter if it's true or false anyway.

I will say this; UPS is a far more "honest" company today than it was 23 yrs ago when I started. We still have some work to do, but I have seen progress.

Must've been a horrible company back then if that's true.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

When I was a PT clerk and had access to the customer counter DIAD there was a driver supervisor who would have me DR packages with the CC DIAD. The driver sup would then deliver the packages on his way home. These would be packages what would otherwise be missed and happened to be on the way home to this supervisors house.


Another time I driver released about 10 stops to a different driver supervisor. They were stops for his neighbors during the week before christmas. His neighborhood was so snowed in that it was impossible to get a UPS truck up there. And the closest safe parking spot for a UPS truck was 15 minute walk away. I had no problem doing that as those packages would have not been delivered until after Christmas otherwise. At that time we were working 12 hours per day and bringing back truck loads of packages we never even got to make attempts on.

The title of this thread is dishonesty stories but I fail to see how either of these scenarios is dishonest but rather would be superior customer service. I am occasionally asked to drop off a pkg on the way home and have no problem doing so. As far as the Peak packages, would it have been better had we waited until the roads were plowed and delivered those 10 stops after Christmas or did we take care of the customer by gettings these stops delivered before Christmas? I applaud your center team for taking care of the customer and the supervisor who took his personal time to take care of his neighbors.

Sober's point is an excellent one. One of the advantages (or disadvantages, depending on your viewpoint) of all of our technology is that we can longer hide behind "it's in the system" when a customer asks where their pkg is. We can't falsify late delivery of NDA as easily on a DIAD as we could on paper. This transparency has forced us to clean up our act and have become a more honest company in the process.

 

[The Milkman]

Congrats on retiring. I worked at the counter for a few short years FT and it was not fun. Everything you said was true and probably still is if not worse. I tried not to lie to customers, occasionally giving up and basically saying " I understand, you are right, this company sucks." There really isn't much else you can do.

Did you go back on the road?? I came off road after 18 yrs and was as they say just doing my time ...

 

[The Milkman]

I remember a center manager from years ago that used to encourage sheeting NDA DR's blocks away from del point to meet commit time. Current mgmt team does not do this, but probably because one of their peers got fired for cooking time cards. I see less of that stuff nowadays thankfully. From both hourly and mgmt.

A few years ago I ordered a part for my motorcycle NDA as the shop needed the part early. I got nervous as the commit time approached as I had to run it down to the shop asap. Well I call shipper about 10:45 or so and it showed DR gar?? Looked outside ,no pkg. When driver showed up about 11, I gave the air driver a talk about not fudgeing #"s and I know because I was at the time a friend/T driver and knew the system. I called customer svc and said I want a refund but because it showed DR,I was out of luck. This driver came out of my former bldg and I called the C/M who was at one time my C/M and asked if he could see if I could get a refund..$35 bucks down the drain because a young air driver is overload with too many NDA and thus messes up my whole day..I told the driver to do it right and CYA and you will be ok ,but doing what he did to me will come back someday and bite him in the butt..We were all a little intimidated when we started UPS but I listened and took advice from the Senior Men and made it out the door in one piece after 25...

 

[trplnkl]

The title of this thread is dishonesty stories but I fail to see how either of these scenarios is dishonest but rather would be superior customer service. I am occasionally asked to drop off a pkg on the way home and have no problem doing so. As far as the Peak packages, would it have been better had we waited until the roads were plowed and delivered those 10 stops after Christmas or did we take care of the customer by gettings these stops delivered before Christmas? I applaud your center team for taking care of the customer and the supervisor who took his personal time to take care of his neighbors.

Sober's point is an excellent one. One of the advantages (or disadvantages, depending on your viewpoint) of all of our technology is that we can longer hide behind "it's in the system" when a customer asks where their pkg is. We can't falsify late delivery of NDA as easily on a DIAD as we could on paper. This transparency has forced us to clean up our act and have become a more honest company in the process.

How can this NOT be dishonest? A driver DRs packages for several stops while at one location and the sup then delivers them. The official UPS records show that the driver delivered those packages when in fact he did not. THAT is dishonesty regardless of how you want to dress it up. Add to that, if you did this and had another driver drop them off on his way home you would/could be fired for...ya got it....dishonesty. I would agree that the customer would see this as superior customer service, however he/she is not the one that could possibly lose their job over this action. If it is dishonest to do it once, it is every time.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I guess my definition of dishonesty would include the word intent or intentionally as in did we intentionally deceive by sheeting those pkgs in the CC DIAD and then delivering them or did my center intentionally deceive by sheet a LIB in the CC DIAD and asking me to drop it off on the way home. IMO there was no attempt to deceive in any of these instances. Just good ole customer service.

 

[Ms.PacMan]

Being told to:
Sheet pkgs as NI1 instead of EC when you can't get near the house because of the weather.

Deliver NDA on trace and sheet the late air as weather when there is no weather.

Sheet a bad SPA/misload as NI1 because "we called the customer and they said it was okay". Real reason - no one in the building to come and get the pkg.

Sheet misload as a driver follow-up "found package".

 

[trplnkl]

Once while on an extended rte, I came across a misload for the center's town, about 85 miles away. The package was for a business and as instructed I called the misload in to the OMS, about 30 minutes later I received a DIAD text instructing me to show as "Clo 1" before 1700. Against my better judgment I did as I was told, but not before taking a cell phone pic if the message. Sure enough the next a.m. a sup came up to me with a copy of my delivery records and wanted to know why I recorded a "Clo1" while 85 miles away. When I told him about the message, he called my integrity into question. It didn't take me long to show him the pic. I think I was being set up(by whom or why I do not know), although I never had any other instances such as this afterward.