Business News
Signs of postal service demise welcomed in blogosphere
Jan 29, 2009, 17:06 GMT
Washington - The US Post Office unofficial motto pledges that 'neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.'
But confronted with a huge budget deficit, Postmaster General John Potter told lawmakers Wednesday that delivery service may have met its financial Waterloo, and could be reduced to five instead of six days a week.
Instead of an outpouring of protests, however, the announcement was greeted by bloggers Thursday with a sense of poetic justice directed at perceived inefficiencies combined with relief over the prospect of one less day of junk mail.
'Excellent! One less day we walk to the mailbox, scoop out the junk mail, and toss it in the trash,' a person writing under the online moniker qo on the USA Today website.
Another blogger, bmm3571, was clearly fed up with waiting until 5 pm for his daily mail and 'seeing postal clerks working unattentively in their kiosks with the 'next window please' sign in front of them as the customer line stretches further and further.'
'The USPS is a wreck. It's ... a failed business model,' the blogger quipped on the Washington Post website.
The US Postal Service is the country's second-largest employer, with 685,000 workers, it says. But its revenues have been eroded by the decline in 'snail mail' as email takes over as the main route of personal and business communications, and by the rise of overnight courier services.
Potter told a Senate panel on Wednesday that the USPS 2008 deficit was 2.8 billion dollars, as its delivery volume dropped by 9 billion items to 202 billion, according to media reports of his testimony.
'It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable,' he was quoted as saying.
Not all the public reaction was cynical.
'Actually, almost all of the carriers I've had over many years have been hardworking, decent, and friendly people. I hope this proposal doesn't hurt them,' wrote AlienAmongYou on the Washington Post website. 'Can't say the same for some of the behind-the-counter employees.'
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Older Talkback
page: 1
hyplady, talk is cheap. How do you work 'unattentively' with 10 customers in front of you. I had some snide dope not long ago - maybe your cousin - tell me he truly believed I, working alone, was in control of staffing! We have zero influence here; blame mgmt, period.
The Carriers and the Window Clerks belong to two different unions with different sets of agendas and work ethics.
The Window Clerks are members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). The Union and majority of the Clerks are slow and often call in sick.
With the Union Contract protections they are secure and feel entitled.
If you think rudeness is bad, you ought to see what goes on (or rather does not go on) in the building each and every work day. You jaw would drop to the ground.
The clerks have no control over how many are used to staff the windows. Just like many other businesses, management has cut hours to way below what is necessary to do the job. While there is a problem with some clerks being rude (and there is no excuse for this), just like where you work, the majority of clerks want to so a good job and work hard. Unfortunately, just like where you work, the slackers are the most noticable and get the most attention.
Overnight courier services cited as growing--now that is cost effective.Also, the reporte should ahve awork ethic and investigate a little more.Pre-funding of retiree health care ($5 billion/yr for 10 yrs) may be why we have red ink. No other industry pre-funds retiree healthcare, they just lie to employees for yrs then dump the costs onto taxpayers.
One last point to the blogger that said we should all bite the bullet. I agree, if every mortgage loan broker, finance manager, bank mamager,etc thaqt sold BS mortgages gets charged with fraud and goes to jail. Those finance industry people are educated, including what constitutes fraud, so if they take responsiblity and bite the bullet, Ill take responsibilty for being honest at my job (check productivity increases).
Hey 'Tom' , carriers belong to the National Association of Letter Carriers which is also a union. They are as protected as the clerks and mailhandlers. I guess you are a carrier. That would explain why you are obviously drunken blogging after drinking during your lunch break.
Please don't blame the window clerks for long lines. I've been doing it for 25 years and can't control management pulling people off the window to go work junk mail in the back. They seem to think that is more important than helping people mail things and buy stamps. And also, believe me that not all customers are nice people. I've been spit upon, had things thrown at me, been screamed at with terribly obscene language and the list goes on. Most customers help to get rid of people like this I appreciate it. If you had a bad experience with a clerk then I'm very sorry but maybe there are other things going on that you know nothing about, like being abused by management. Don't kid yourself, it happens frequently. Management is overstaffed and doesn't care about anything but their bonuses, which by the way have caused the post office to run in the red ever since they were instituted. Fiscal transparency will go a long way in fixing this ruinous problem and maybe the postal service can get back to being a service oriented organization that it is supposed to be.
People need to be educated as to how the PO really works.Between the clerks and carriers,their down 50,000 jobs since 2004,and at the same time,headquarters is up 856 over the same period.Supervisors are allowed to rate themselves for their Pay-for Performance bonuses.And that means ,the more hours and jobs they cut,the bigger the bonus.No private company would be run this way.Instead of improving customer service,all they want to do is reduce staff and hours.To heck with the customer.And it's only going to get worse.Ask your senators and congressman to find out how much was paid out in PFP and how that can be when the PO lost 2.8 billion.
I quit the PO after only two years. It is a distressful, deviant and a dysfunctional workplace.
Try working 11 years, and feeling like giving up the ghost on this career. This IS dysfunction at its ugliest. I have been lied to, talked about in plain sight, called a lier (ironic!), had an actual Work Injury denied benefits, asked for help AT LEAST a dozen times as high as our District Human Resources director...to stop an abusive Supervisor...only to have the same Supervisor complete a full circle of moves around this office and come back to (apparently) finish driving me to possible suicide...of career. Tell me the PUBLIC understands THAT scenario when judging the lowly employees.
Poster #8...Sick Of This...Dead on! Correct! How can this scenario have been pin-pointed any better? (It Could Not!)
It's sad that 'Tom' has so much disrespect for his fellow workers. Our contracts are similar on conduct and how management is supposed to manage. Many clerks spend years working graveyard and swing shift with split days off (not rotating days off). Maybe 'Tom' should try working some of those machines--it's physically demanding.
As to those window clerks that are being inattentive. They are forced to do closeout in front of the customers. If a break isn't taken on time, it throws the whole station out of whack for the day. Management gets mad and clerks get stressed. And of course, boxing and other work is considered more important to management. As always it comes down to staffing, which managment has never learned how to do.
FOR ALL OF YOU WHO THINK THE WINDOW CLERKS DO NOTHING I WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU PERFORM THE DUTIES THESE CLERKS DO FOR ONE WEEK. I WILL SEE YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND REAL FAST. YOU HAVE SUPERVISORS WHO DO NOTHING BUT SCREW EVERYTHING UP AND CUT THE WINDOW CLERKS,BUT YET KEEP ALL OF THE SUPERVISORS EMPLOYEED AT THOSE BRANCHS.PUT YOURSELF IN THIER POSITION BEFORE YOU THINK YOU HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS.
I work for the PO and can tell you that we've lost many carrier and clerks due to retirement and not being replaced. So that means the ones still here have to pick up the slack by doing 2 jobs or what have you working 10 - 12 hour days.
I say that as long as the PO has a full complement of Managers then we are NOT in trouble. Not one single supervisor or management position is vacant. I don't even count the HQ people since they don't do anything anyway.
ONE AREA WE MIGHT WORK ON IS BONUSES. i Think that If The Post office or any other buisness should not give bonuses if their running in the red. That does tell me mangement isnt doing their jobs, and it might be wise for the stockholders to find someone who can get it done right. They have no one to blame but themselves
Been in the postal service 27 years. City carrier. My back, knees and hands are shot. Repetitive motion stress. Most of the comments above are spot on. The service is managed horribly by management incapable of their jobs. Cut, cut cut. Even with less mail volume I still have to walk to every house on my route. If they have no mail i have to walk past it anyway. How do we cut time under these conditions? Clerks may be less congenial but they are forced by management to service customers who are already irate from waiting in line so long. Ever see a clock visible in a PO lobby anymore? It's management's weak attempt at disguising the lack of service they are allowing the clerks to provide you.
A note, on the delivery side, over the next few weeks, see from which you receive the better and more pleasant service. Your limping, stooped old mailman plodding diligently from house to house with a pocket full of dog biscuits, the guy who knows all your kid's names and that you just lost a loved one, or that knows you are elderly and that your newspaper should have been in by now; or the young, agile temporary worker blazing by your door, pepper spraying your dog and leaving the neighbor's mail with you.
27 years later I schooled my daughter, gave her a great wedding (still paying), I'm still paying mortgage on a 1 story ranch, fretting about taxes, medical bills, car payments, fuel costs and wondering where all the public animosity comes from toward a bunch of hard working, browbeaten people in a monotonous outdoor laborer position who will never get rich at what they do.
Don't need sympathy, just worked hard for a fair wage and am not ashamed. Remember when that type of job was the norm and not despised by the BMW, McMansion, IT types who sip coffee all day designing the next, smaller generation of Iphone or Blackberry?
page: 1
1hypladyJan 29th, 2009 - 21:50:32
The mail delivery people are doing a pretty good job, however those behind the counter are prima dons and donnas. It doesn't matter what USPS office one goes to, many days only 1 - 2 stations will be open and GOD forbid the station manager would think to put another employee out front or better yet themselves. Meanwhile the line is 10+ people long no matter what time of day. At one of the post offices here in Melbourne, FL the station manager is only good for looking up parcels.
So if they are going to get rid of the 'dead weight' chuck some of the clerks out before you get rid of the delivery people. You could shift them to the clerk jobs. If the rest of businesses have to bite the bullet, it is time that so much dead weight in the post office and other government agencies do the same. HEY USPS you'll just have to adjust like the rest of us.
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