fancyflowers
Like lots of our institutions, standards have fallen.
It's not just Royal Mail.
There are numerous news items about poor standard care in hospitals, including a recent item about a baby boy who died during a procedure which was carried out by a trainee.
There is still a culture of racism and misogyny in the police.
Perhaps it has a connection with the 'gentle parenting ' culture in the UK, whose children are now participating in running these institutions.
Some parents today refuse to hold to schools' rules and complain loudly if their child is disciplined.
I think where the delivery of mail is concerned it might well have to do largely with privatisation where profitability is the driving force.
The 'gentle parenting' culture is fairly recent, many of the postmen and postwomen are generation X - but regardless, blaming the workers for sparse delivery is rather unfair.
Managers instruct that parcels - because they take up more physical space - are delivered as a priority.
'Bulk' mail - like bills and statements are batched, so together with 2nd class mail these items accumulate in the sorting office for several days until the scheduled delivery day, which is why you often receive a lot of mail in one go.
Also parcel delivery often means photos/GPS tracking - and that takes more time - posties can run out of time to deliver letters.
Staffing is a real problem - the turnover is huge. Since 2022, new entrants are put on contracts with lower wages, less benefits and fewer protections compared to the long-term staff.
To run a plc profitably you need to maximise profitable areas and minimise cost and this usually means a reduced service to the public and, if you're on the lower rung of the company hierarchy, a less than attractive job opportunity. So the problem is less to do with gentle parenting and more to do with satisfying the requirements of shareholders.
