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A blog Post(ie)

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Part 3 of my post redundancy life.

I finally started my new job as a Postie last Monday with a days induction in beautiful Croydon. Lots of health and safety (mainly dealing with dogs) then onto a walk on Tuesday with another Postman. It’s a very rural walk or should I say drive out into the wilds of the South Downs. Lots of driving down tiny country lanes, lots of massive country houses.

Had a two hour driving test on Friday and passed (76/80) so after one more day of supervision I was let out on my own yesterday. It was slightly terrifying but I managed to find nearly everywhere first time with only a little bit of driving up and down searching! Today was another level, Wednesday is always the busiest day and I thought I would never finish but I finally managed it. The amount of walking is impressive, 26500 steps today.

It has been lovely being back in work again, the other Posties have been incredibly kind and welcoming. It is hard and fairly complicated work but really enjoyable.

Any downsides? They have Heart FM on the radio in the office in the morning, its bloody awful.

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Comments

  5. Great to hear and glad you are enjoying it so far.

    Looks like you’ve started just in time to go on strike at Christmas….. does that mean everyone on here will be blaming you when their Pink Floyd box set doesn’t arrive in time for Christmas 😉

    • My central heating came on a little bit this morning for the first time since March. The thermostat is next to the front door, so it must have been cold outside. I had to turn it up for 5 mins last week just to make sure it was still working.

  10. I was a postman in Golders Green in that London in 1974. Let me tell you about it.

    I had to go to Postman School, just like you @ip33. Back then it was two weeks in central London, with a bunch of assorted lads. I remember our instructor Mr Raza spent a lot of time showing us how to open a postbox (we had to do collections from post-boxes as well as deliver the mail). He was very concerned about how we placed our leg against the open door – blah blah. Obviously early 70s OHS.

    Also we had to learn the names of what towns and cities belonged to what counties. I still remember some of them.

    Then I got assigned to Golders Green PO. We started at maybe 6am and the first round was at 7am, then back to the office and the second round was maybe 11am? Rorts abounded. The union ruled the place. No women. The guy running the cafe was a rostered postman. Etc etc. Everyone saved first class mail (supposed to be delivered on the early round) for the second round, thus easing their workload. If you got caught the union looked after you. However if you hadn’t joined the union (hello, that’s me) then they found a way to show you up to the bosses. Who gave me one chance (which I took, ie joined) and then it was all OK. I was doing the job to save up for a trip to Europe so I just copped it, did all the overtime that was available, and resigned after 9 months. I pity the poor buggers who relied on overtime (referred to as “gobble”) and had mortgages to pay.

    i learned a lot. My mate told me the whole British postal system was based around the football pools, and at the time it was true. I’d say a good third of the mail we delivered was Pools mail, and half of that was to people who weren’t at their address.

    But that was then of course…

  11. When I was a youngster I actually singled out “postman” as my preferred occupation. I never pursued it as I was relatively clever (headed for uni etc, then tried and gave up teacher training, IT work, art school etc – a long story….) so it never seemed objectively to be a desirable occupation.

    These days I wish at times I had maybe stuck to my guns more (story of my life) as I wither away in front of a computer doing insurance work and probably earning less than I would now be earning as a postman. Sigh. I had a paper round when I was younger and I used to love the quiet, early mornings out and about. It was even bearable when the weather was bad.

  12. I had a paper round for about 3 to 4 years (I guess age 13 to 16 or 17). Up at 7am 6 days a week for all those years. Pay was a massive 1 pound a week to begin with, think I got 2 pounds at Christmas. No training.

  13. Great news to hear you’re making progress being a postie!

    I’m intrigued to know what advice you were given, mutt-wise. If it was me and I couldn’t even get safely to a front door with a letter box due to a stroppy mutt, I’d be inclined to dump the mail over the wall or gate or even on the pavement outside! And what about fingers when posting through a letterbox – I’ve met a few dogs that would happily knaw your knuckles if you stuffed a mailshot through the slot. What is the official line (and, more interestingly still, what is the unofficial line) on dealing with mutts?

    • @Vulpes: unofficial rule for posties – in Ireland, at least – to deal with such snarling, savage antagonists was ‘kick ’em in the fork and run like f**k’. This also applied to dogs.

      @ip33: I wish you a long, enjoyable jaunt in HM Pony Express. Fulfilling work is a genuine blessing

    • The advice I was given was if there is a dog loose in the property don’t go in. Endorse the mail ‘dog loose’ and take it back with you. 600 Postman are bitten by dogs every year, Royal Mail are getting really hot about this. If a postie is bitten that generally means that your mail will never be delivered again. Your have to go to the office and collect it. That’s how I understand it.

      Only been chased by one so far, and the owner was so apologetic I didn’t make a fuss.

      As for fingers we have been issued with a ‘posting peg’ a sort of long red peg that you can load the letter in and poke it through.

      • What I’d do is I’d get a bunch of official looking envelopes with “WARNING – FINAL REMINDER – YOU WILL BE SUMMONED TO COURT IF YOU IGNORE THIS LETTER” in bold red ink across the back, and addressed simply to “The occupier”. I’d keep a few in my pocket, with the tops ripped open haphazardly.

        Any gnarly dog houses where fingers are at risk, I’d post one through the letter box with the peg thingamajig, hoping that the recipient imagines that mutley has gobbled the enclosed letter, thus occasioning profound existential worry.

      • @ip33 – that’s exactly the advice I was given in 1973!

        Further to that – I got a job as a postie back in NZ in 1975, and actually got bitten by a couple of snappy little chihuahuas. I went to the doctor and because I’d sought medical treatment the PO had to take it to court. The day before I was due in court the dog owners pleaded guilty (to whatever). And I got paid for a couple of days off.

        But yeah, dogs – fuck, I was never a dog person and being a postie put me off them for life.

    • Ah, I went and visited Le Palais Ideal back in 2009. As an avid folly hunter, I honestly welled up slightly on arrival, at last to b there. It is the ne plus ultra, the daddy, the uber-folly.

  16. BTW regarding the radio station playing in the office: on one of my sorting office stints (I used to do a temp job there each Christmas when i was a student), I took my JVC cassette player in one day with a tape of the recently released Never Mind The Bollocks loaded. 30 seconds – if that – into GStQ, the regular blokes told me that if I didn’t switch it off they’d do so for me, in a permanent fashion. Such was the anti-Pistols tabloid hysteria at the time!

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