This thread right here has got me in the mood to do something I have been wanting to do for quite some time, write an article about what goes on inside the USPS. If you have never worked for the USPS, you simply cannot imagine how bad the working conditions can be, or how shabbily the employees are treated. I could write a tome about the nonsense that I have seen in my 20 years at the USPS, but I will try to limit this to some general everyday situations, and a few personal experiences. And I hope that after reading this, those people that are quick to harsh words for Postal employees when they have to wait in a long line or their package or letter gets lost, will not only think twice, but perhaps feel a little bit of sympathy for the many hard-working men and women at the USPS.
CARRIERS
This is the most frustrating job I think I have ever seen, and I don’t how some of them can put up with the daily load of crap that is dumped on them. Carriers are “micromanaged” to the Nth degree. They have to account for every minute they spend on the clock, and I’m not joking. From the minute carriers clock on, management begins hounding them to hit the street. I have seen managers flailing their arms and loudly exclaiming, “Let’s go guys!", in order to push them out the door faster. Managers are always trying to squeeze “under time” out of their carriers, which is to say, they are trying to get carriers to commit to doing their route (which is 8 hours) in less time so they can help on another route. Sometimes, a carrier legitimately has some under time, but in most cases, the manager is trying to get the carrier to work at a speed that is beyond the standard that is required. What’s wrong with a little hustle, you ask? Delivering mail can be precarious -- traffic, dogs, various obstacles laying on the ground, irate customers wanting their check, and excessive hot and cold weather are just a few of the delights a carrier has to contend with on the street. If a carrier “hustles” on his route and injures himself or has a vehicle accident, management will try to crucify him, especially if he says that he was trying to hurry. See, management cannot tell you to hurry, they will just try to put more on your plate than you can handle and hope you eat it all. Admitting that an accident occurred because you were “hurrying” is the same as saying that it was all your fault. Remember the “micromanaging” I mentioned? Carriers have scan points both in the office, and in various locations on their routes, and I tell you that it is the biggest sin to miss a scan point. Management uses these scan points to know where a particular carrier was at a particular time on his route, in other words, it is like tagging their ears to track them. Carriers have no leeway to make their own decisions. Delivering mail is a very liquid situation, and things happen out on the route. If a carrier is going over even by a couple of minutes, they need to call in and notify management. Of course they do this by using the same cell phones that management says they are not allowed to use to make personal calls with while on their route -- but managers sit in the office all day making as many personal phone calls as they want to.
AUXILIARY ROUTES
This is something I am sure that most people have never heard of, but trust me it’s bad. Periodically, the USPS performs route inspections. The purpose of these inspections is to determine if a delivery route needs an adjustment (made longer or made shorter). This is all a dog and pony show. If they come in to do route inspections, they already have cuts in mind. Sometimes after route inspection cuts, there will be a “remnant” left over that is too big for the other routes to absorb, but too small to be a full 8-hour route (maybe like 4 hours). They call these “auxiliary routes”. If you are unfortunate enough to live on one of these routes, expect very inconsistent and delayed deliveries, because you don’t have a regular carrier. Management just scrambles on a daily basis to try and get mail delivered on these auxiliary routes, and I will tell you truthfully, in my office, it doesn’t always go out.
CLERKS
Beginning a career as a Postal clerk most likely means going to the graveyard shift, and after a few years, if you are lucky, you can switch to swing shift. Some people like these shifts, but for me, it wrecked havoc on my physical condition and personal life. Basically, as clerks, we spend our entire careers putting in time to build seniority so we can get a position with hours and days off that are more palatable. It took me 12 years to get out of the graveyard/swing shift cycle and into a day job as a window clerk with split days off . Window clerking for the most part is pure Hell, because, as I quickly learned, it is cutthroat all the way. Managers are against you, customers are belittling and abusive, and co-workers have their own selfish agendas. Excuse my language, but it is a cluster f**k of epic proportions. I was the late person, which means that many times I was the last man standing at the end of the day contending with a long line of unhappy customers who keep asking, “Why is there only one clerk?” There is only one clerk because management wants to cut positions and hours -- how’s that for service? After 5 1/2 years, I finally got off the window into another day job of doing distribution, but I still have split days off and pretty early hours (start at 5 am). Is there anybody else out there that has spent 17 1/2 years to land only a relatively decent position in their company where they have to work every Saturday? I’m not complaining here, just telling it like it is.
CRUMMY TREATMENT
Okay, this has gotten longer than I intended (I told you I could write a tome), so I will tell about some personal experiences, and you can tell me if this doesn’t sound like crap. Many years back, when I was still working swing shift my first marriage was starting to crumble. I worked from 4 pm-12:30 am, so I never saw my wife in the evenings. At one point, I asked my manager if I could revise my work schedule for a week or two to day shift so I could be home in the evenings to try and save my marriage. My managers response was, “Sorry, we need you as scheduled”. So, my life falling apart pales in comparison to the needs of the Postal Service. When I worked the window, part of my Saturday morning duties were to perform a lot of sometimes heavy lifting and lots of bending. I’m 6’ 5” and over the years I have developed lower back problems. On one occasion, on a Friday, my back was acting very problematic, so I asked my manager if someone could cover my lifting/bending duties the next day because I was afraid my back would “go out”. I was told to have my *** at work, or they would send me to a Postal doctor for a “fitness for duty” test. Lovely, hey?
WITCH HUNTS
The Postal Service is always looking to find fault with their employees. Here’s a classic example of the way this works. One of the few decent mangers I have worked for confided to me that our local Postmaster (Postmistress, actually) had required him to perform work observations on all of his window clerks. Okay, nothing big there -- work obs happen all the time. Except, he was instructed to find at least 3 things each clerk did wrong in the performance of their duties. The problem was, as he explained, was that everybody was performing their jobs properly, so he would have to either lie on the reports, or tell the truth and suffer the wrath of our heinous Postmistress. If he does the former, he can’t look at himself in the mirror -- if he does the latter, he goes on the Postmistresses ****-list and gets crap work assignments. To his credit, he chose the latter and paid the price.
I could go on and on with examples of horrible treatment doled out to co-workers, hypocritical management, treatment of injured employees, contract violations, and other bizarre things, but I think this is quite enough for anybody to see that the Postal Service is not a normal place of employment -- it‘s a zoo. I want to close with this little gem -- the aforementioned Postmistress came to our station to talk to the employees and address some changes that were taking place. The first words out of her mouth were, “Just be thankful you have a job.” In my 20 years, I have heard and done a lot of complaining, but I have never heard anybody say they weren’t thankful for their job, and I sure as Hell have never said it either. The best way I can sum up working for the Postal Service is that it is our Damnation and Salvation at the same time in equal amounts.
None of what I have written is intended as an excuse for poor service and lost packages, but rather for public enlightenment and soul-cleansing therapy for the author. Everybody should expect timely delivery of their mail, but it seems management wants to do everything in their power to prevent the employees from providing the level of service our customers deserve. The Bible says that a house divided cannot stand, and I always wonder how the Postal service has gotten this far.
CARRIERS
This is the most frustrating job I think I have ever seen, and I don’t how some of them can put up with the daily load of crap that is dumped on them. Carriers are “micromanaged” to the Nth degree. They have to account for every minute they spend on the clock, and I’m not joking. From the minute carriers clock on, management begins hounding them to hit the street. I have seen managers flailing their arms and loudly exclaiming, “Let’s go guys!", in order to push them out the door faster. Managers are always trying to squeeze “under time” out of their carriers, which is to say, they are trying to get carriers to commit to doing their route (which is 8 hours) in less time so they can help on another route. Sometimes, a carrier legitimately has some under time, but in most cases, the manager is trying to get the carrier to work at a speed that is beyond the standard that is required. What’s wrong with a little hustle, you ask? Delivering mail can be precarious -- traffic, dogs, various obstacles laying on the ground, irate customers wanting their check, and excessive hot and cold weather are just a few of the delights a carrier has to contend with on the street. If a carrier “hustles” on his route and injures himself or has a vehicle accident, management will try to crucify him, especially if he says that he was trying to hurry. See, management cannot tell you to hurry, they will just try to put more on your plate than you can handle and hope you eat it all. Admitting that an accident occurred because you were “hurrying” is the same as saying that it was all your fault. Remember the “micromanaging” I mentioned? Carriers have scan points both in the office, and in various locations on their routes, and I tell you that it is the biggest sin to miss a scan point. Management uses these scan points to know where a particular carrier was at a particular time on his route, in other words, it is like tagging their ears to track them. Carriers have no leeway to make their own decisions. Delivering mail is a very liquid situation, and things happen out on the route. If a carrier is going over even by a couple of minutes, they need to call in and notify management. Of course they do this by using the same cell phones that management says they are not allowed to use to make personal calls with while on their route -- but managers sit in the office all day making as many personal phone calls as they want to.
AUXILIARY ROUTES
This is something I am sure that most people have never heard of, but trust me it’s bad. Periodically, the USPS performs route inspections. The purpose of these inspections is to determine if a delivery route needs an adjustment (made longer or made shorter). This is all a dog and pony show. If they come in to do route inspections, they already have cuts in mind. Sometimes after route inspection cuts, there will be a “remnant” left over that is too big for the other routes to absorb, but too small to be a full 8-hour route (maybe like 4 hours). They call these “auxiliary routes”. If you are unfortunate enough to live on one of these routes, expect very inconsistent and delayed deliveries, because you don’t have a regular carrier. Management just scrambles on a daily basis to try and get mail delivered on these auxiliary routes, and I will tell you truthfully, in my office, it doesn’t always go out.
CLERKS
Beginning a career as a Postal clerk most likely means going to the graveyard shift, and after a few years, if you are lucky, you can switch to swing shift. Some people like these shifts, but for me, it wrecked havoc on my physical condition and personal life. Basically, as clerks, we spend our entire careers putting in time to build seniority so we can get a position with hours and days off that are more palatable. It took me 12 years to get out of the graveyard/swing shift cycle and into a day job as a window clerk with split days off . Window clerking for the most part is pure Hell, because, as I quickly learned, it is cutthroat all the way. Managers are against you, customers are belittling and abusive, and co-workers have their own selfish agendas. Excuse my language, but it is a cluster f**k of epic proportions. I was the late person, which means that many times I was the last man standing at the end of the day contending with a long line of unhappy customers who keep asking, “Why is there only one clerk?” There is only one clerk because management wants to cut positions and hours -- how’s that for service? After 5 1/2 years, I finally got off the window into another day job of doing distribution, but I still have split days off and pretty early hours (start at 5 am). Is there anybody else out there that has spent 17 1/2 years to land only a relatively decent position in their company where they have to work every Saturday? I’m not complaining here, just telling it like it is.
CRUMMY TREATMENT
Okay, this has gotten longer than I intended (I told you I could write a tome), so I will tell about some personal experiences, and you can tell me if this doesn’t sound like crap. Many years back, when I was still working swing shift my first marriage was starting to crumble. I worked from 4 pm-12:30 am, so I never saw my wife in the evenings. At one point, I asked my manager if I could revise my work schedule for a week or two to day shift so I could be home in the evenings to try and save my marriage. My managers response was, “Sorry, we need you as scheduled”. So, my life falling apart pales in comparison to the needs of the Postal Service. When I worked the window, part of my Saturday morning duties were to perform a lot of sometimes heavy lifting and lots of bending. I’m 6’ 5” and over the years I have developed lower back problems. On one occasion, on a Friday, my back was acting very problematic, so I asked my manager if someone could cover my lifting/bending duties the next day because I was afraid my back would “go out”. I was told to have my *** at work, or they would send me to a Postal doctor for a “fitness for duty” test. Lovely, hey?
WITCH HUNTS
The Postal Service is always looking to find fault with their employees. Here’s a classic example of the way this works. One of the few decent mangers I have worked for confided to me that our local Postmaster (Postmistress, actually) had required him to perform work observations on all of his window clerks. Okay, nothing big there -- work obs happen all the time. Except, he was instructed to find at least 3 things each clerk did wrong in the performance of their duties. The problem was, as he explained, was that everybody was performing their jobs properly, so he would have to either lie on the reports, or tell the truth and suffer the wrath of our heinous Postmistress. If he does the former, he can’t look at himself in the mirror -- if he does the latter, he goes on the Postmistresses ****-list and gets crap work assignments. To his credit, he chose the latter and paid the price.
I could go on and on with examples of horrible treatment doled out to co-workers, hypocritical management, treatment of injured employees, contract violations, and other bizarre things, but I think this is quite enough for anybody to see that the Postal Service is not a normal place of employment -- it‘s a zoo. I want to close with this little gem -- the aforementioned Postmistress came to our station to talk to the employees and address some changes that were taking place. The first words out of her mouth were, “Just be thankful you have a job.” In my 20 years, I have heard and done a lot of complaining, but I have never heard anybody say they weren’t thankful for their job, and I sure as Hell have never said it either. The best way I can sum up working for the Postal Service is that it is our Damnation and Salvation at the same time in equal amounts.
None of what I have written is intended as an excuse for poor service and lost packages, but rather for public enlightenment and soul-cleansing therapy for the author. Everybody should expect timely delivery of their mail, but it seems management wants to do everything in their power to prevent the employees from providing the level of service our customers deserve. The Bible says that a house divided cannot stand, and I always wonder how the Postal service has gotten this far.
. On the other hand, I find it amazing that it does so well in such conditions! I mean, how does that work? The beatings will continue until performance improves 
!?
! Of course, maybe I do manage people that way and I just don't know it (mua ha ha ha).
