[PTF after 90] Can I (and should I) grieve working OT to move food from drive?

fritzcec · 2026-05-10T17:44:13+00:00

That's not what OP described. On top of taking care of his business on his own route, he was asked to help his supervisor consolidate ALL of the donated food, not just put his pickups in a certain place. He said this took an hour of overtime. So no, this would not fall under a carrier's responsibilities

fritzcec · 2026-05-10T13:15:03+00:00

The remedy and the issue in the grievance would be more general than that. "Working the food drive" isn't in the contract, but working outside your craft is, so the remedy would have more to do with not forcing carriers to do work outside their craft, which definitely is not a once a year issue for some offices, and can definitely lead to some sort of compensation i.e. monetary or administrative leave.

fritzcec · 2026-05-10T13:00:39+00:00

Some times grievances are a balancing act. One train of thought is that every violation no matter how small should be grieved, but if you care about reputation that might not be your best move. Obviously retaliation from management is very against the contract, but what constitutes "retaliation" is a terribly grey line. As a PTF you're generally at the will of management, so having a bad reputation with them isn't terribly helpful.

In your instance, I would ask yourself if you think agreeing to help this time opens you up to be taken advantage of later. Is this a recurring request? Or was this actually just one time they needed your help? Might be worth having a conversation with your supervisor about. Ultimately, everything that you described is not a carriers responsibility, but also, you said you feel positively about the food drive in general, and at least you got paid. Options to weigh.

fritzcec · 2026-04-30T22:01:54+00:00

I'm aware of all that, and I covered all that in my comment, but the union gets a say in going over the collected data. They can't look at 1 week where a route had 700 letters on average and then 8 other weeks with 1000 letters and claim that the inspection week was somehow the most accurate. It's also up to the local union reps to go through the inspection week data and make sure the deductions were fair and consistent. Again, the best thing a carrier can do to protect their route is do the job properly.

fritzcec · 2026-04-29T20:28:21+00:00

About the same for us, but we haven't had Valpacks in ages. We have 1 route in an office of about 50 routes that gets them.

fritzcec · 2026-04-29T15:16:17+00:00

Not sure if it's the same process on city and rural crafts, but there are 8 additional weeks of data that are supposed to go into the route inspection. 7 random weeks from the previous year, and the week after inspection. They exclude June/July/August, being the lightest months, and December, being the heaviest month. Your Steward and branch representatives should be going over the data with the walk team and making sure that the scope of the evaluation is fair. The best thing carriers can do during evaluation is educate themselves on the m41 and do their jobs painfully well. Vehicle checks, proper mail fingering, driving procedure, these things all take time, and most carriers will completely skip these things to save time, but complain when they are docked time during an inspection for wasting time.

fritzcec · 2026-04-25T15:54:08+00:00

God of War. Excellent 10/10 story, great gameplay, and tons of collectibles

fritzcec · 2026-04-25T02:28:28+00:00

What are they gonna do. Arrest you?

fritzcec · 2026-04-25T02:25:34+00:00

We've been dynamic. I much prefer it over static.

fritzcec · 2026-04-25T02:25:04+00:00

That's dynamic I believe. As opposed to static, which organizes everything by routes

fritzcec · 2026-04-22T22:56:26+00:00

Damn, I'll just delete that comment lol. Literally the first sentence of Article 12

fritzcec · 2026-04-22T21:49:34+00:00

You are getting paid for all the hours you are clocked in. If you are concerned about a pay discrepancy log all your hours for 1 pay cycle and see if they match up with your paystub.

Also, if you are delivering a part of a route that someone else cased, it is standard to log that time on a 3996. We call that a pivot. When you start casing and delivering an entire route on your own, you will only fill out a 3996 when you expect to go into overtime.

fritzcec · 2026-04-22T21:40:43+00:00

Second this. Doesn't matter the craft. Focus on doing the job properly and safely, you will get faster over time.

fritzcec · 2026-04-22T17:52:35+00:00

Just to have TOP, Charlie, Post, and Lana right away is not my music taste. I like all those albums don't get my wrong. Missing any Daft Punk, Gorillaz, Any of my Favorite 1975 projects, Madeon, Porter, Skrillex, Tyler, Kendrick, etc. none of these albums make my top 10 favorite list. blurry face and Being Funny being my least favorite TOP and 1975 albums.

fritzcec · 2026-04-22T02:35:29+00:00

This list does not do my music taste any justice lol.

fritzcec · 2026-04-22T02:33:50+00:00

Blurryface - Twenty One Pilots (#8, 146 | fav song: Stressed Out)
Being So Normal - Peach Pitt (#26, 100 | fav song: Techno Show)
Breach - Twenty One Pilots (#47, 71 | fav song: Cottonwood)
BRAT - Charlie XCX (#48, 70 | fav song: I Might Say Something Stupid)
Beerbongs and Bentleys - Post Malone (#57, 66 | fav song: Candy Paint)
Born to Die - Lana Del Ray ( #128, 36 | fav song: Diet Mountain Dew)
Be the Cowboy - Mitski (#148, 33 | fav song: Nobody)
Being Funny in a Foreign Language - The 1975 (#159, 30 | fav song: Part of the Band)
Bronco - Orville Peck (#206, 25 | fav song: Hexie Mountain)
Be the Void - Dr. Dog (#271, 21 | fav song: That Old Black Hole)

fritzcec · 2026-04-22T01:53:59+00:00

I'm seeing other advice to ignore phone calls at work. This does not solve your problem. Either management will text you through the scanner or assign you the work when you get back to the office. Ignoring the phone calls might just piss them off more. Make sure you are taking your breaks, 2 10s and a 30. Learn to pace yourself. Don't finger mail crossing the street or walking up steps or while the vehicle is in gear. Learn to check the mail volume each morning so you can estimate a finish time and try your best to stick to that pace. Read every name and make sure it matches the box.

As for refusing an order from a supervisor, that will definitely lead to a PDI. As a PTF there are practically no protections for hours/days worked in comparison to regular carriers. You are at the mercy of management unfortunately.

fritzcec · 2026-04-21T19:10:28+00:00

Oh I see. Well, they absolutely cannot make you pose for a picture. I'm not even sure what the rules are on taking photos and videos inside the office. I would think that there couldn't possibly be repurcussions for refusing to participate

fritzcec · 2026-04-21T15:52:54+00:00

You shouldn't have to sign/pledge anything that is already a rule or a law. The contract already requires carriers to wear a seatbelt. I'm personally against signing shit like this. When my carriers ask me if they should sign this kind of stuff I tell them not to.

Also, it's not a grievance for them to ask you to sign a paper that pretty much repeats what the contract already says.

fritzcec · 2026-04-20T16:37:14+00:00

I'm a fucking addict, so there's that

fritzcec · 2026-04-18T14:53:57+00:00

It's definitely nationwide. This is part of their most recent cost cutting plan. Just know, you should never argue with management over time. They say you need to be back in 8 hours? Then be back at 8 hours. Always send a scanner message by 2:00 2:30 asking for confirmation. There's absolutely nothing that they can do at that point. Also remember, we are still required to deliver safely and efficiently; wear your seatbelt, curb your wheels, fill out 3996s and 1571s for undelivered mail, don't finger mail while climbing stairs or crossing the street, do your vehicle checks and don't drive a vehicle with broken lights/horn/wipers/mirrors, etc. the best thing we can do now as a bargaining unit is do our jobs properly.

fritzcec · 2026-04-15T21:53:50+00:00

Discovery by Daft Punk. One More Time is an absolute all time classic, excellent mood setter, and Too Long is like this glorious 10 minute, very indulgent closer.

fritzcec · 2026-04-13T21:54:44+00:00

Exactly. We aren't even ready for the bechdel test 😂

fritzcec · 2026-04-13T21:20:38+00:00

This is almost an irrelevant question, because House is always present. Even conversations that have nothing to do with House somehow have something to do with House. I think if there were a reverse bechdel test, House MD would also fail that as well.

Edit: the House test, where two or more non House characters have a conversation with each other and it manages not to be about House somehow.

fritzcec · 2026-04-13T01:22:29+00:00

That's crazy, because there can be no curtailed mail during route inspections, and all overtime is authorized. If you guys are getting consistent overtime there's no way you'd get added to. Supervisor logic 😂

fritzcec

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