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The Royal Mail, in its wisdom, has decided to change the name of postmen as part of a reinvention of the delivery service and to try and attract more women to the job
Postman Pat has been packed off as the Royal Mail is now advertising for “postpersons”. The adverts highlight that the role to deliver the nation’s letters and parcels is not just open to men.
It reads: “We are reinventing Royal Mail for the future and now is a perfect time to join us on that journey.”
The job title “postman” dates back to 1883 when the role was strictly for men only. Female delivery staff only began working for the Royal Mail at the turn of the 20th century and became more common during WW1 and WW2.
A range of benefits including £13.06 per hour and paid overtime are being offered in the new vacancies.
The National Careers Service website has also adopted the term “postperson”.
Sir John Hayes, the chairman of the Common Sense group of Conservative MPs, called the gender-neutral term “preposterous”. He said: “This distortion of language – it’s either nonsense or it’s sinister.
“Sometimes it’s because the people doing it don’t know any better, or it’s a deliberate attempt to corrupt language, which has been the stuff of all kinds of horrors throughout history.
“Let’s assume that their intentions are harmless, I’d want to know how much money they are spending on this. The Royal Mail need to focus more on doing their job and delivering our post, and stop this nonsense.”
A Royal Mail spokesman said that it mostly uses the term “postie” to describe the role of those delivering letters and parcels across the nation.
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