Life Spugs because...

[Noisybast]

That sucks, Doctor. My girlfriend's brother did himself in the same way.
There's not a lot anyone can do if he won't let himself be helped.

[Darren Stephens]

Yeh, Doc, that is a shame. I have a friend who, I suspected, was an alcoholic for years. He recently admitted to me that he was. As Noisybast says, not a lot you can do to help them if they wont help themselves.

[House of Usher]

I found a job I enjoy, and the manager has to go and spoil things by giving us 20 kilo bags to carry on a postal round and telling us it weighs 14 kilos, when the absolute maximum allowed is 16 kilos. After 4 days of this twice a day we found the scales and started weighing our own bags and taking out bundles of mail until they were within specified limits. I haven't had any crippling pain yet, but the muscles across one side of my back hurt quite a bit.

What is really annoying about this is that the managers knew the loads they were giving us were too heavy, they didn't care about the possibility of injury arising, and carrying that much mail at once achieved precisely nothing, because we were still carrying the extraneous 4 kilos of mail every time the managers turned up on the route to give us our second lot of mail to deliver. We carried all that weight for nothing, the slow pace added an hour to every working day, and the managers had to help us deliver whatever was left in the bag when they caught up with us.

Hopefully my muscle pain will go away with a few days' rest and moderate exercize. I'm not put off the idea of applying for a job as a real postman, but this was taking the piss.

[Roger Godpleton]

Whatever you do, don't show up dressed as Edward Scissorhands like you did at your last job.

[Hoagy]

I found a job I enjoy, and the manager has to go and spoil things by giving us 20 kilo bags to carry on a postal round and telling us it weighs 14 kilos, when the absolute maximum allowed is 16 kilos. After 4 days of this twice a day we found the scales and started weighing our own bags and taking out bundles of mail until they were within specified limits. I haven't had any crippling pain yet, but the muscles across one side of my back hurt quite a bit.

What is really annoying about this is that the managers knew the loads they were giving us were too heavy, they didn't care about the possibility of injury arising, and carrying that much mail at once achieved precisely nothing, because we were still carrying the extraneous 4 kilos of mail every time the managers turned up on the route to give us our second lot of mail to deliver. We carried all that weight for nothing, the slow pace added an hour to every working day, and the managers had to help us deliver whatever was left in the bag when they caught up with us.

Hopefully my muscle pain will go away with a few days' rest and moderate exercize. I'm not put off the idea of applying for a job as a real postman, but this was taking the piss.

You are Charles Buckowski am I not correct?

[Peter Wolf]

20 kilos/44.1 Ibs/3 st2.1 Ibs is nothing at all but i guess it is if you are not used to it.

Its 5.25 percent of what i weigh and its less than a bag of cement which weighs 25kg.



This is more like an impediment but i just had doorstep canvassers for a charity at the door and i dont like this because they put you on the spot and as i turned them down i end up feeling guilty and all the rest of it.

@HOU : If you were to report this matter to H+S your employer/manager could be fined or at the very least get a warning.

[TordelBack]

20 kilos/44.1 Ibs/3 st2.1 Ibs is nothing at all but i guess it is if you are not used to it.

Its 5.25 percent of what i weigh and its less than a bag of cement which weighs 25kg.

Despite you clearly being a giant I'm willing to bet you don't have to carry a bag of cement around several housing estates before putting it down.  If you do, someone's cocked up, as is the case here. It's not about weight, it's about safe systems of work - if the postie's bags are supposed to carry a certain weight, and the staff are trained in manual handling of that weight (you are trained in manual handling, right Ush?), exceeding that weight is a health and safety issue.  There's no reason a system couldn't be designed and implemented for carrying heavier bags, but it hasn't been.  Assuming UK HSW legislation mirrors the European model, then the employee is actually obliged by statue to inform the company Health & Safety Officer that the company's policy is being breeched.  The sad reality is that nobody wants to jeopardise their work by being that git - but this is exactly how people get hurt.

[Old Tankie]

Christ, Peter, 20 kilos is 5.25% of your body weight?  I wouldn't like to bump in to you down a dark alley!!!

[davethomson]

Christ, Peter, 20 kilos is 5.25% of your body weight?  I wouldn't like to bump in to you down a dark alley!!!

I don't think you'd have anything to worry about, he wouldn't fit down any alley in the UK.

I did some time as a postie (temping over the big freeze) and we had the same troubles as Usher. As temps though we were banned from weighing our bags and any complaints met with a swift firing. I got through it by constantly remaining out my tits on painkillers.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

You WIMPS 

I won't even begin to tell you the weight of my bergan in Norway, plus chest rig, weapon, pulk, 4 man tent (cause I was the biggest) and carrying all that on ski's, when I had only just learn't how to stay upright on the bastards 

The good old days, I bet they all travel around in BV's all the time now, due to H&E 

[SmallBlueThing]

John, i honestly read that as 'the weight of my chest wig'.

SBT

[Peter Wolf]

I realised this as well and i made myself look stupid and overweight.

I weigh 231 Ibs.

I have to say that there is a big difference between how much weight you can carry on your back in a rucksack which is evenly distributed and the kind of bags that posties use that are shoulder bags where you perhaps have too much weight that isnt evenly distributed so if you are not used to it will strain your shoulder or back.

I could walk round housing estates all day carrying a bag of cement or slightly less preferably in rucksack without putting it down but just because i can it doesnt mean anyone can and that everyone should have to even if they cant.

I did a H+S course recently and i know all about safe lifting practices* and the whole point of it was that there will be a limit on the amount of weight you would be allowed to lift on your own but the maximum amount of weight is not a target and if you cant lift that much then dont lift it.Only lift what you feel comfortable lifting and that might be more or less than the maximum that is allowed but only if you are comfortable with it.

HOUs employer is being highly stupid and irresponsible/negligent.

*I dont always follow them and i never bother with the recommended way of lifting heavy objects and i have never had back problems.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

They should carry one bag over each shoulder to counteract the pull and do one street out of one bag and the next out of the other.
Better still, use one of those manly trolly things that I have seen them use occasionally!

I do like that SBT, I had to have a close look at my post 

[davethomson]

They should carry one bag over each shoulder to counteract the pull and do one street out of one bag and the next out of the other.
Better still, use one of those manly trolly things that I have seen them use occasionally!

Those trolly things are a godsend to posties with sore backs but I have never seen them used in anything other than the very upmarket areas. They probably get nicked a lot in the less salubrious areas.

The worst bit of being a postie were people who have their letterboxes at the bottom of their door, you have to take the bag off to crouch down otherwise you'll never get back up. People that deliberately let their dogs out after the postman are bad as well, might just be the areas I worked but I spent a lot of time running from staffies.

It sucks being a postman...

[Cyberleader2000]

Life Spugs because ive been sick all day with a realy bad cold.