Personal Update

It's been a nasty horrible couple of weeks.

Possibly put me back 3 or 4 years mentally, and that's a dark place.

It's also having an effect on my job, looking like a real amateur.

Concentration has gone to pot and I'm making loads of stupid mistakes.

Tribunal pre hearing rejected my claim as being made too late - See label on grievance procedures. That's a massive loophole, well played by UPS.

CIPD, and this is no surprise, See CIPD label, rejected my 3 complaints about their members, or non-members. They are as dishonest as UPS. (more on that later as it unfolds)

Called in the CAB whilst delivering in Halifax the other day to query the recourse to Company's who fail to follow the statutory rights regarding Grievance Procedures. They had no answers. It seems that Company's who know what they are doing can side step the Statutory rights.

Can't say that I'm back on it as I can't control my subconcious but Scott, Cindy & Roger, I've been reading those Lou Holtz quotes, you haven't seen my best shot yet.

I can probably make that 2-0 to UPS.

Problem is, I have thoughts and ideas during the day then completely forget about them when I get home at night

Lou Holtz

I'd forgotten about my Lou Holtz quotes until I was looking through the blog for something.

 

Here's a resume of just a few.

 

I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.

 

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

 

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

If you burn your neighbors house down, it doesn't make your house look any better. 

Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. 

Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.

If you're bored with life - you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things - you don't have enough goals.

When all is said and done, more is said than done. 

Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.

No one has ever drowned in sweat.

You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose.

How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.

 

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

Don't be a spectator, don't let life pass you by.

On this team, we're all united in a common goal: to keep my job.

You'll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.

I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it.

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.

The problem with having a sense of humor is often that people you use it on aren't in a very good mood.

If you try to fight the course, it will beat you.

In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.

 

Dr. Louis Leo "Lou" Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is a retired American football coach, and active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker. He served as the head football coach at The College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the University of Arkansas (1977–1983), the University of Minnesota (1984–1985), the University of Notre Dame (1986–1996), and the University of South Carolina (1999–2004), compiling a career record of 249–132–7. Holtz's 1988 Notre Dame team went 12–0 with a victory in the Fiesta Bowl and was the consensus national champion. Holtz is the only college football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games and the only coach to guide four different programs to the final top 20 rankings. Holtz also coached the New York Jets of the NFL during the 1976 season.
Over the years, the slender, bespectacled Holtz has become known for his quick wit and ability to inspire players. He is often found as a guest on the popular Richmond, Virginia based Kain Road Radio. In 2005, Holtz joined ESPN as a college football analyst. On May 1, 2008, Holtz was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

 

Weds

And in comes the Ukraine, welcome.

Good luck to Nigel tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I'd just like to point out my comment on unemployment was made before the figures were published.

My profile photo was taken by Ebony - 9


Bird table quiet today. Maybe because of the rain.

For Goldfiches try nyjer seeds they don't seem to take anything else.

Suet pellets going down well,. The smaller mixed seeds seem to be clogging up when its damp.

PC driving me mad tonight, not sure whats up with it.



I'm so sad I love the stats pages. 10 Countries

United Kingdom

151

Ireland

45

United States

25

Russia

18

Netherlands

8

Spain

4

Germany

2

Canada

1

Sweden

1

Ukraine

1

Did I do a quote this morning?

In case I din't Lou Holtz again - When you concern yourself with the welfare of others, you engender loyalty and respect.

Freddie Flintoff - Depression

Very interesting and relevant, to me, program the other night regarding depression. Even whilst he was the Captain of England, depression meant that he couldn't face people and that he also couldn't switch off. You would expect to be reclusive when you are playing in a losing team, but this was happening whilst England were winning.

Neil Lennon was saying how the Doctors at Celtic are now treating depression. UPS's answer, even with a sick note from my Doctor, was come to work.

Graham Dott spoke about his paranoia, which Mandy says I am, and how he thinks that he'll now always be on "happy pills" When UPS, by implication, are telling you that you are wrong all the time, by ignoring what is being reported, it really knocks your confidence and starts you questioning yourself. Which leads into Barry McGuigan's comments about when you switch the lights off at night, that's when things really happen. In my case thoughts just spiralled around and around for hours on end. The same things every night.

Steve Bull said that sportsmen train, play & travel, train, play & travel. Not disimilar to UPS's work, work, work.

Maybe Freddie needs to be going back to Andrew and try and ditch his alter-ego.


Todays blog brought to you by Frost*'s Milliontown.

& fuelled by that man Lou Holtz again

We are always faced with different challenges, and circumstances necessitate bringing out the greatness God puts in all of us.

Patience

Cue Lou Holtz;

Patience isn't a virtue; it's a necessity.

Being at work 12 hours a day seriously hampered my computer skills.

Back beyond the dawn of time when Lotus was king, I was one of the few at UPS that could use it. From there, lack of time meant a lack of progression (house of) and ( as Forum viewers will know) a lack of  real computer skills.

When I have the time, I can be patient. You may have noticed that I sat in a disciplinary for a driver just before Christmas. Merry Christmas, you're sacked, aka summarily dismissed. As my shorthand is worse than my computer skills I decided to record the second part of the disciplinary, as I couldn't keep up. Now, as I didn't delare that I was doing this, my recording is inadmissible as evidence, (my notes are accurate though) But, as I expect there to be a denial that the Manager involved said that drivers should stay out until 22.00 if necessary, and it isn't in the Company's notes of the meeting. Me against thee can be proved.

I almost woke the kids when I played the recording back on Christmas eve and realised what I'd got. To be followed by chin hitting floor as my media player refused to play the file. It's taken some time but I've finally downloaded a program that will actually convert the file, rather than saying that it will convert the file, and having jiggered and poked in Audacity, having located the right additional files, have now got a little clip of exactly what we need.

In fact, here it is and just like FFTCM you can't listen to it because it doesn't exist

OK, still a novice.You can't listen to it yet, haven't worked out how to load the audio file rather than a vid

No, that doesn't work either.
Patience Michael, Patience.

Here we go, Plan C, Part 4, Para vi, section a

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Hi Pedders

First an apology


Förlåt Sverige blanda dig med Norge, or something like that.


Anyone wanting a laugh, here's a link to the UPS Code of Business Conduct


UPS Code of Business Conduct

Competion to see who can find the funniest quote from the CBC. Pedders does have a head start.

Demoralsing yesterday, to find that having kept under 14 stones over Christmas and into the New Year, in an ideal world I still need to loose another 2 1/2 stones. Well, it's less than I've lost so far, so easy peasy (Cough!!!)

Todays Lou Holtz - The standards you establish for others must reflect the standards you set for yourself. No one will follow a hypocrite.

Who is Lou Holtz I hear you asking, or not,

Louis Leo "Lou" Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is a retired American football coach, and active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker. He served as the head football coach at The College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the University of Arkansas (1977–1983), the University of Minnesota (1984–1985), the University of Notre Dame (1986–1996), and the University of South Carolina (1999–2004), compiling a career record of 249–132–7. Holtz's 1988 Notre Dame team went 12–0 with a victory in the Fiesta Bowl and was the consensus national champion. Holtz is the only college football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games and the only coach to guide four different programs to the final top 20 rankings. Holtz also coached the New York Jets of the NFL during the 1976 season.
Over the years, the slender, bespectacled Holtz has become known for his quick wit and ability to inspire players. He is often found as a guest on the popular Richmond, Virginia based Kain Road Radio. In 2005, Holtz joined ESPN as a college football analyst. On May 1, 2008, Holtz was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Got to be a good guy if he's born on 6th January.

UPS v. VOSA

Sent today

Hi Tracey

At the point of my original contact, I had just resigned from the Company after 20 years service and was working my notice. I had cited a lack of integrity within the Company as one of the reasons for my resignation, Tachograph compliance being a constituent part of that lack of integrity. Having been put on gardening leave I was recalled back to work and given a Tachograph project by our District (UK & Nordic) Manager. This was supposed to be a high profile and important project but it would seem that the Company was trying to set me up a scapegoat for their Tachograph failings. For the majority of days that I was supposed to be working on the project I was sent out on road delivering. I did however complete a new MOP, not that the old MOP wasn't effective, and a training aid for the Company to use. This new MOP was not put into place, despite the fact that within a couple of weeks I had still managed to reduce my Centre's infringements by 49%, against the national average of 0.8% reduction. Follow-up meetings with my Division (Area) Manager were cancelled without notice and not rescheduled, any training suggestions that I made for our least best Centre's were ignored and I was kept on road for the sake of a relatively nominal number of deliveries and collections.

With my own Centre, there has been only a nominal amount of work done with Tachographs over the last year. This is no fault of the Tachograph Clerk who follows her instructions fairly rigidly, but the lack of follow-up to any infringements that take place, even to destroying the infringement letters that the Tachograph Clerk prints out for the drivers. As a Supervisor it was deemed more important for me to go on road delivering than following up on subjects such as Tachograph Training and Infringements. Productivity has been far more important to the Company than Tachograph and working time compliance. Drivers have been allowed to work through their breaks, despite this being highlighted 2 years ago, and then to take their breaks at the end of the day. The current decision made by my Division Manager is that all the small, odd breaks can be rolled together and counted as their full break. i.e. cigarette, toilets breaks etc.

According to our original Tachograph MOP there is "a legal responsibility of the employer to organise work loads so that drivers are able to comply with the drivers hours and Tachograph regulations." This has not happened. Drivers are deliberately overloaded to achieve greater productivity and in my opinion is also a contributory factor in the Company being 30% over plan on its accident's for 2011.

Another statement from the Division Manager is that the drivers choose to have infringements. By his own admission, the Division Manager has stated that there has been little feedback from all the Centre's in the country to their drivers about Tachograph infringements. How would some drivers know that they would have had infringements? There are daily and weekly e-mails that are sent out, and conference calls held, regarding the number of infringements that are occurring. (There has been little movement in these numbers) So the Centre managers have more information than the drivers have been receiving. Does the same logic therefore mean that the Centre Managers, their Division Managers, the UK & Ireland Operations Manager and ultimately the District Manager are all choosing to ignore the results & infringements that are occurring and are taking little action about the lack of compliance in the UK, especially bearing in mind that it took me only a couple of weeks to achieve significant results despite being out on road for the majority of the time.

I was initially wanting a meeting with someone from VOSA to clarify my interpretation of the Tachograph rules and regulations compared to that of the Company. Also whether my opinion on a lack of commitment to compliance would be similar to that of VOSA.

Todays quote, again from Lou Holtz

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

Yikes !!

Was it an earthquake in Lorca?
379 Explosive devices were defused in Murcia last year.

The structure of Corvera International Airport is virtually concluded on schedule. Glad it's not late then. It was supposed to open several years ago. Current plans are for November 2012......Don't hold your breath.
The training program for new staff which should have started last April is currently on hold.

And was that todays post dropping onto the mat?

It was indeed. Absolutely no surprise whatsoever that there's nothing from UPS.

It's that man Lou Holtz again

"When all is said and done, more is said than done."

Lou Holtz

Lost

I suppose having created  a blog, you should be able to find it. Doh!!
Just had to go round the houses to find it again. What a numpty, memory of a goldfish.

Here's a little something for UPS courtesy of Lou Holtz. Which, seeing as it was my Ex-division Manager who introduced my to Lou is quite fitting.

There is a thin line between discipline and harassment. Discipline breeds success; harassment breeds contempt.

& in UPS speak, 4 Managers v. 1 Supervisor isn't harassment or intimidation
(District Manager, Director of Operations UK & Ireland, Division Manager & my Centre Manager v. Me)

You cannot demand respect, you have to earn it - Mike Whitehead 5.1.12

One from Henry Ward Beecher - Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on the foundation of morality.


& one from Arthur C. Clarke -  The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale. (Mine are electric)