[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by Russ B

I'm working for myself. It's mail order related, most of my incoming and outgoing mail is in envelope form. At the moment I'm getting by just using stamps but I'm looking at getting a RM business account and forking out for a 'franking' machine. To justify that cost I need to be sure of a business plan which I'm tentatively working out.

Although bad the economy isn't affecting my trade directly but the RM would really screw up my projected growth. It's hard enough selling the idea of small businesses to people when I have major league competition but all it would take is delivery delays to take longer (even asking people to be patient during the strikes doesn't work - most people want things NOW or they go elsewhere) and potential customers give up and take their business elsewhere.

I need a delivery service I can rely on. It should be the RM but I'm not fussy, I'll pay anyone to deliver my mail and have orders brought to me, this is why I'm more than happy for the RM to have competition if they won't do the job they're supposed to do.

I thought you under stood commercial activity? If you are unhappy with a supplier and they are not delivering a cost effective service, the you find one that does. Secondly, this strike is not going on indefinitely and will only be for a few days, yes there will be a back log, but most most other businesses and customers will be in the same boat. Any good business person will be able to explain, in clear and simple terms, what it means to their customers and how it will effect them in the short term. What level of service have you been getting from the Royal Mail in the past?

---------- Post added at 17:00 ---------- Previous post was at 16:57 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

As it happens, I am currently a statistic, but that's par for the course when you specialise in short-term contract work. But I have worked in plenty of offices and for more than one FTSE-100 outfit - one, in particular, where both the CEO and COO had a real bugbear about voicemail and phones ringing out, and used to lead by example by answering random desk phones if he happened to be passing while they were ringing and being ignored. I got a callback message on a post-it from one of them once.

I have been called upon and have been happy to take on all sorts of tasks that were not part of my core job description over the years, becauseI have always seen myself as an employee of company X rather than simply a person who does job Y.

I appreciate the general point you're making about demarcation lines, but I think - I hope - you and I both know that there's a difference between taking reasonable steps to safeguard your job, and taking extreme measures to avoid having to lift a finger and do something productive.

If one is unhappy with their conditions of employment and their career choice, they can always go and find another job; isn't that what you are suggesting the Royal Mail workers do?

---------- Post added at 17:04 ---------- Previous post was at 17:00 ----------

Originally Posted by Russ B

At the moment I don't have an alternative to RM. For the forseeable future (12 months) I'm going to be relying on customers sending me items via 1st or second class mail and me using the same service back. Nobody else does simple door-to-door delivery of mail at that level. You're right that I don't care who takes care of the mail. This is why my attitude is if the RM workers won't do the job I'll happily pay someone else in their place.

It's also why they'll never get one iota of sympathy from me. The worst thing is if my business goes under as a result of orders being lost or delayed, there's not a single thing I can do about it.

But the service they are offering for the future is likely to worse than they are giving to day. So, where will that leave you?