Black Friday Blues

Black Friday's On-Line Consumer Feeding Frenzy has begun! Christmas presents to your door!

This time last year I swapped my CHARLES TYRWHITT LLP sweater and office trendy FitFlop shoes for a high vis and sturdy boots. Living the dream, I became Postie Norm for 4 months. Set free with my own Postie Van, Postie Bag and standard issue Cat!! I had a round to follow and people to greet. Happy Mr Postman Pat.

But then the rain lashed all day. Soaked to the bone. Envelopes melt in your hand before you can shove them through draft proof letter boxes, designed to stop the slightest breeze, never mind a book package from 亚马逊 Most folks have their parcels tracked. But scanning those items on a rainy driveway with a Hand Held that doesn't like to get wet, is a supreme test. At 7pm, the rounds still not done, I'm stuck on an estate in a van in the dark, I'm trying to persuade myself that I can't quit.

The following day. The managers has moved on his one man efficiency blip (me), to a different depot - a huge aircraft hanger space in a different town. Someone else's problem! As I arrive a bloke walks past me. I shout where's the boss. He points vaguely. "Managers office!" Huddled around a computer screen three stare without words at a problem. Before I can speak, without looking up, one of them says "Go back to dispatch". "Wait there!" I go to where I've been instructed. A group of men are waiting and shuffling. Sent by Manpower , they have turned up to work whatever hours they can get. No need for introductions. Exchanged looks tell tales of quiet desperation. Half an hour passes. "Right". A voice shouts. "You!" - "what's your name". "Norman". "Sign this sheet", "Here's your keys". "Your scanner's there". "It's got the route pre-loaded". "Should normally take no more than three hours". Then he's off - finding another, and another, to take the vans that are left. As I walk out into the yard, I pass posters on the wall telling me to take pride in my work and always put the #customer first.

In my van, turning the key, neither the heater or the radio work. The dirt in the well for your cups is thick, detritus of crisps, cans, and half eaten sandwiches are on the floor on the passenger side. It stinks, and it rattles as it hobbles along. My induction programme has been very effective. I am clear about my place in the business. I am a no-one. A body completing a task.

New town. No clue where I am. Me and my Royal Mail Red van follow sat-nav, to our first address. Amongst a scrum of parcels in the back, I burrow out, slam the door & stand up only to see a younger fella, in baggy tracksuit bottoms, running past me and up to the big house, putting his parcel on the floor, ringing the bell and sprinting down the drive past me. "Why you running mate?" I shout. "Get paid by the parcel", he yells, as he jumps back in his Evri van and belts off down the road! And then it dawns on me. I'm the lucky one in this game. I get paid for the hours I do.

Raining again. I head up to the door of the big house. It's clear no one's in. I fill in the little red docket form, which tells the owner that they have a parcel in the shed around the back. I look at the parcel now getting rained on, and put it closer to the wall in the hope that it won't get completely drenched.

Being a Temporary Postie, did me a great favour. It peeled off every layer of 'self importance' that I had built up over a career. Humbling in a way? Yes I may have once written a report for the Labour Party about the pitfalls of Zero Hours Contracts, but here I now was! A not very good Postie!

Non the less being a Postie is a noble, honest, job requiring commitment and a love of shorts, come rain, shine or snow! But treating temps in a way that says you are not worthy of #dignity & #respect is ugly. People will and do break, and eventually civilized society does fracture. We can see how many people are struggling to cope already in the UK's #mentalhealth & #wellbeing epidemic. The burden of band-aiding that crisis today lies with the NHS . Of course this isn't a new observation. But we don't seem to have grasped that the way people are treated on the front line is largely NOT due to a few bad apple managers scattered across a business, as was recently suggested by 麦当劳 boss, CEO Alistair Macrow at a Parliamentary Select Committee - But to #culture, set by bosses who choose not to understand, not to care, or not to see what it takes for people to flourish. In 21st Century Britain, the fundamentals of what we need to help foster happy, productive, fulfilled people - are frankly being ignored!

So spare a thought - when you find the delivery man has thrown a parcel over the gate, bashing the things inside! Try not to curse him too much. He's done it not because he doesn't care, but because he's probably paying for his kids Christmas dinner by the parcel!!

For more insights on people, dignity at work etc check out A Blueprint for Better Business , Soulla Kyriacou , Together for the Common Good , Association of Camerados , Donna Hicks , Mind & Stevie Spring CBE or on ethical dimensions try Dr Ann Marie Mealey & of course for the underpinning psychology try Deci & Ryan. And if you are just looking to get a better handle on the impact of your current investments in #Wellbeing check out Saranjit Sangar at BetterSpace .

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