The Coding Desk Operator - Matthew Mangan | Sorting Britain: The Power of Postcodes

Coding Desk Operator Matthew Mangan takes us behind the scenes at a mailing sorting office, to provide a unique insight into the role this position played in helping to mechanise the post.

[@threeinone6977]

Postal Cadets where basically cheap labour, used by the Post Office to reduce overtime. (In fact the adult staff had tried to stop the introduction of cadets because of this.) I was sentenced in 1979 to two years as one. We where placed on rotating mornings and afternoons from the age of 16. The first full week past my 18th birthday, I was placed on a night shift, in what was known as the IPS. (Inward Primary Sorting) at Bham's HPO, now The Mail Box.
The film of the Code Sort Area in Bham, brings back faces from the past, with whom I worked; almost all now would be in their late 60s to mid-70s; three of the people in the film moved to Sutton "Z", (Surface foreign) Unlike Matthew's experience, mine was awful and I regularly finished my stint on the coding desk with a headache; through concentration! (I was particularly fast and accurate and once up to speed, muscle memory would ensure the speed was kept up - accuracy was expected, as we were monitored and disciplined if we fell short.) What I hated, amongst other things, was having to manually sort after the coding work finished (usually about 21:00) Instead of going on to my own duty on the "Forward Roads", we were put on the heaviest, like the South West, East Midlands, West 1 etc... so crammed and full to the brim, that there were two PHGs to a letter fitting, all the letters and parcels HAD to be cleared, so again, one had to work like crazy to clear it and get it done. I was over the moon when an opportunity came to move to another branch. Dust off my feet!
I loathed the place and the Post Office (can't go into all the reasons here, (but I could), luckily though, I received a reprieve and managed to leave, go to college and university (Nothing gained from working at the PO, well, only being able to touch type this comment.) Can't imagine how bad it would of been to have stayed and remained there all my working life. As for changing the clocks, NOT a chance in Brum! I'd forgotten the "J", i.e. BJ. though. Glad it worked out for you!

[@silondon9010]

Royal Mail in 2023 is a terrible place to work with completely unachievable workloads 😢