Realities of working on the railways

[loplop]

Hi all,

I'm mindful that regulars have been frustrated recently by new members like me asking questions without searching, as an experienced member on a couple of different fora I can totally understand the feeling! I have done a fair bit of searching and reading through old threads about work/life balance, impact of shift working and holidays but I'm hoping I might be able to get some opinions/info that I haven't found yet.

If I have 26 days annual leave working on the railways, what kind of restrictions are in place on how/when it's taken? I saw one post implying that leave is taken in week long blocks, with one in spring, two in summer (or late summer, as the poster said) and one in winter. Is this the case? Obviously 26 days/4 day week is more than 4 weeks. Is there flexibility to take a day or two at a time? If I needed a single day off with a week's notice, say (thinking about something like a rental inspection), is that something which might be approved (subject to who else is off of course) or would it be very unlikely?

A lot of people posting about work/life balance have mentioned the impact on their partners. What is the most difficult thing for them? Is it having to attend social occasions alone? Being disturbed by you getting up/coming home at 'strange' times? Not having regular time with you?

Finally, for customer-facing staff, how often do you go home upset/stressed by passengers etc? I know this will vary from person to person and is partly about coping skills but I'm trying to get a handle on how often difficult situations arise.

Thanks for wading through the epic post, and for any feedback you can give!

 

[Mojo]

It'd depend on the job, the reason for needing the leave and the company in question.

At my company and for the grades I've worked with leave is allocated in blocks throughout the year and there are two odd days left over; one of which is Christmas day (which is obviously returned if you work on Christmas day) and the other can be taken as an odd day.

Typically, not all staff will take all of their rostered leave & will break it up to get more odd days, but this depends on availability of coverage. Others might have an unexpected emergency at home and typically they will be able to either take this as unpaid special leave or take the day(s) from their annual leave.

Many more will swap rostered leave, rostered rest days and banked rest days and keep swapping them multiple times. I know someone who managed to get off two months in a row by doing this!

 

[455driver]

Guards and drivers at our place have 4 weeks allocated (as you state) plus 10 loose days that can be taken when you want.

That might sound generous but remember every bank holiday is a normal working day and if you dont want to work them then you will have to use your floating days.

As we dont work on Christmas day/ Boxing day you will need to save 2 days for those as well but you wont use them if they are your rostered days off.

 

[loplop]

Thank you both. I've applied to be a guard and your responses were very helpful. How far in advance do you know when your leave is rostered?

 

[SJN]

I've just started as a guard/conductor and this week went to my home depot. On Thursday I met with the union rep who went through my entitlement which is two summer weeks, one winter week and the rest in loose days. As it is my first year, I was able to choose to slot in with the empty spaces available. Next year, I will be placed in the normal roster, which I can then swap if the weeks given don't suit me.

 

[455driver]

^^ wot ee sed ^^

Also at our place if the main (holiday) link is full you will be put "ops needs" which means you can take your leave when you want it as long as it is within the leave boundaries, funnily enough most of the ops needs drivers (in our case) go for Christmas week, cant think why!
The year after you will have a bit of seniority and might end up on the main roster (if there is space due to people leaving etc) or the link might be increased in lines so you will get what you are given.

 

[Southern313]

In green and white land drivers and guards have the aforementioned rostered leave one week spring, two weeks summer, one week autumn/winter. Drivers have eight days on a ad-hoc basis...as we work a four day week then this obviously equates to an extra two weeks off and slot it around a long weekend can be quite nice. Guards only have four ad-hoc days but have (approx) 10 days off every 8-10 weeks.

We are expected to work bank holidays and cannot book them off on a ad-hoc basis. However you can either swap with someone who is off or ask local reps (who do the bank hole rotation) very nicely if they can sort something out for you...within reason obviously.

Alternatively, we get paid for bank hols or you can put in for a annual leave day back so can boost a couple of days into you annual leave "bank balance"

Once we are in the main annual leave roster you follow the annual leave rotation. Eg. 1-7-12-3-9. So if you are block 1 this year your leave in that period will be block 7 next year etc so arguably you could plan your leave years in advance. Of course, swaps between colleagues are done left, right and centre!

There are even local agreement differences between depots so what applies at one place might not necessarily apply next depot down. But you all get the same entitlement in the end.

 

[Greenback]

A lot of people posting about work/life balance have mentioned the impact on their partners. What is the most difficult thing for them? Is it having to attend social occasions alone? Being disturbed by you getting up/coming home at 'strange' times? Not having regular time with you?

I won't lie, it did affect me druing my railway employment. My partner at that time also had an unsocial job, and we lived many miles apart, which made things even worse (but not the fault of the railway!).

We used to try spend long weekends together, but this was often difficult when they did not match. So, in our case, I would say that the worst thing was not having time together.

It will also be a fact that a railway employee will have to miss out on social occasions because they are either in work or will be upe arly for work the next day. That didn't bother me so much.

Finally, for customer-facing staff, how often do you go home upset/stressed by passengers etc? I know this will vary from person to person and is partly about coping skills but I'm trying to get a handle on how often difficult situations arise.

I never got stressed or upset by customers. I learnt a lesson very early in my career not to allow anyone to spoil my day. In fact, my colleagues used to upset and stress me more than the passengers, and that was pretty rare!

There were a lot of upset passengers, though. The thing to remember is that it is usually not personal, you are just the face of the company that the person is aggrieved with or frustrated by.

I had people shouting, in which case the best thing to do is to remain unflappably civil and polite, but I was never threatened in any way. Once i made it clear that I was trying to help them and resolve whatever situation they were in, they usually calmed down. If they didn't, I woudl tell them to go and get a hot drink, calm down and come back in five minutes, when we would start the discussion again. Always worked for me!

 

[DarloRich]

Realities of working on the railways?

I go to work for 08:30 and i leave at 17:00. I am home by 17:30. The office is nice and warm and there is copious free tea and coffee. I dont get a free pass for the train though - which is a pain

Holiday wise we are quite relaxed as long as you give some sensible notice and dont try and take all your leave at the same time and there is adequate cover.

I understand some railway people have to be at work at stupid o'clock in the morning for some reason

 

[Beveridges]

If I have 26 days annual leave working on the railways, what kind of restrictions are in place on how/when it's taken? I saw one post implying that leave is taken in week long blocks, with one in spring, two in summer (or late summer, as the poster said) and one in winter. Is this the case? Obviously 26 days/4 day week is more than 4 weeks. Is there flexibility to take a day or two at a time? If I needed a single day off with a week's notice, say (thinking about something like a rental inspection), is that something which might be approved (subject to who else is off of course) or would it be very unlikely?

In the Engineering Dept you can have leave whenever you want it and take it all in individual days.
I understand there are other roles (like mainline operational roles) where you have to take it in blocks and only get a limited number of floating days. Theres also rostered leave in some of these roles where you have to take it when they tell you.
None of this nonesense where I work however! So much better it has to be said. I can even take leave at very short notice, for example, if good weather is forecasted. The only restriction is that there are not too many people off at once, which is quite rare.

A lot of people posting about work/life balance have mentioned the impact on their partners. What is the most difficult thing for them? Is it having to attend social occasions alone? Being disturbed by you getting up/coming home at 'strange' times? Not having regular time with you?

For me the worst thing about unsociable hours is the impact it has on the quality of sleep. Now that I work the same type of shift nearly all the time this is no longer that much of a problem and allows a regular sleeping pattern, but when I used to work rotating shifts it was horrendous at times. Most people know what its like going home from work tired, but can you imagine coming in to work and already extremely tired before your day even begins? Thats the reality of working 05:00 starts on the Platforms, after finishing a week of nights only two days previously! Now when I say a 05:00 start, I mean being at work "on time" for 05:00, not getting up at 05:00!!

Finally, for customer-facing staff, how often do you go home upset/stressed by passengers etc? I know this will vary from person to person and is partly about coping skills but I'm trying to get a handle on how often difficult situations arise.

Passengers can occasionally cause stress at work but it was very rare I came home still stressed by them when I used to work on Station Platforms. It was far more common to get stressed by the colleagues I was working with. Although most are OK, certain "undesirable" types have made some days very miserable working with them! I just think its part of the job and it's when you really earn your money when you have to work with these sorts. This continues to this very day working on Depot. Especially when it comes to working with "Buxton Bob" (maybe someone else on here might know this miserable unpleasant often aggressive old man?)

 

[loplop]

Thanks guys, some really useful info and feedback.

I've done shifts before but the shifts weren't as wide ranging (earliest start 0600, latest finish 2200) and were much more regular than what I've been told railway shifts would be like. I was also single at the time. I live with my partner so I guess that would make it easier but still not easy. Seems like this is one of those things where you have to do it to really understand what it's like, maybe I'm imagining it to be worse than it is but it does sound like it can be pretty tough on a relationship.

I'm not too worried about missing out on social events, I'm sure there would be some that would be upsetting to miss, but I'm not a big drinker etc so no probs about missing out on Fri/Sat nights etc. Things like weddings, yeah, that would be tough, but I guess you tend to know about those far in advance so might be able to sort a swap/ad-hoc day.

I'm used to being yelled at by customers but for the last few years it's been mostly by phone, which is a bit easier. Bit worried about dealing with groups of people out on the drink and looking for a fight, as well as groups of young people looking to prove how cool they are.

Again, thanks for all your feedback, really good to get a good picture of how things work. Annual leave sounds like it isn't really an issue.