A Texas Postal Worker in a letter to the Postal Regulatory Commission regarding the elimination of Saturday mail delivery he wrote:
Greetings Everyone!
My name is Bill Hall and I have been a mail processing clerk in the Amarillo, Tx facility for the past 18 years. What I see on a daily basis is the extreme waste that is being put forth in our facility. Money is being wasted on salaries for supervisory positions. We have too many of them. I feel the 204B program should be eliminated. We have more of need for these people as clerks than supervisor trainees. All of our trainees and supervisors work where needed and when needed. In other words, they supervise half the shift and work manually the remaining shift. There have been times when the MDO’s (shift supervisors) have done the job of supervising a particular area if that person is on vacation or even off a day or two. Why can’t the supervisors and MDO’s develop a plan to have rotating days off? I think this alone would curb the use of trainees and their salary. We need them as clerks. There have been occasions where there is no supervisor at the facility on weekends, only 1 trainee. This is
unacceptable.
Almost all of our supervisors have had no previous experience in leadership . Our maintenance is deplorable. The Postal Service is paying good money to a group of people who do nothing but play dominoes and take breaks. This is another area where jobs need to be eliminated. Either do your job or get out. The supervisor needs to get his group together or leave. If an employee can’t find a clean restroom on a daily basis, the supervisor and his crew are getting paid to do nothing.
Another area that needs to be addressed is the unbelievable amout of overtime that is being paid. Several of us go in 2 hours before shift to clean up empty equipment. Most of this is due to the negligence of supervision from the previous shift. They let their employees go home early to save hours but they won’t make them clean up after themselves. I hate to say it, but I will take advantage of the overtime for this stupidity.
I think the Postal Service is eliminating positions that they should leave alone. The mailhandler positions are a thing of the past in Amarillo. The processing clerks are presently doing all duties of the mailhandler with exception of actually unloading the trucks. I think in due time we will be unloading trucks.
Another area that needs to be addressed is the unnecessary paperwork that supervisors have to
complete. With all that there is to do, they don’t have time to supervise. We had a former supervisor that spent 8 of the 9 hours that he was there on the computer doing paperwork. If paperwork could be eliminated, then there would be jobs to be eliminated at all district offices. Big money can be saved in this area. The jobs being held in district offices needs to be scruitinized. To make this situation work that the Postal Service is in, you are going to have to eliminate jobs. But, those jobs should be at the top.
I don’t think we should give discounts to mailers. They should have to pay what everybody else pays per letter. Seems to me we have lost millions over the years because of this. This is an area where the Domestic Mail Manual needs to be rewritten. We could possibly make money just by changing and simplifying the legalese for customers and employees alike. Too many regulations with discounts.
The Postal Service is a SERVICE company. We have not been giving good service in my opinion. I
don’t think we should eliminate one day of the week of service to save money. On weekends we have plenty of mail to work and we get it out on time. It’s ridiculous to cut service to save money when the real problem of saving money is at the top.
Thank You!
Bill Hall
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maybe you don’t feel like you will be needed you have 27yrs, you won’t be needed retire! but the rest of us need our jobs and not everybody wants or can afford a computer. and if people don’t have a job how will they pay for the Internet? looks to me like they will have to go back to the U S MAIL a service the is guaranteed to every address in AMERICA!!!!! Do you remember that or are you on a gravy route? Anyway enjoy your retirement!! Your check is in the MAIL….
the postal service can’t admit that they made a major financial blunder when they raised pay levels i.e general supervisor eas17 to mdo eas24 along with many other high paying positions. ROLL EM BACK !! Also certain unions need to consider some type of limited consolidation to close some of the gray areas between crafts and promote greater flexibility and unity within the workforce.
I have been a city carrier for the post office for almost 27 years. Eliminating saturday delivery would save billions of dollars. In time computers will take more and more of our work. Yes we have more management than we need, but our work load will continue to be less. Eliminating a day of delivery seems like a good place to start. Again, being realistic, the computers will take most of the work we are presently doing and we will no longer be necessary.
The postal service is extremely top heavy! Rural Carriers don’t require supervision.
I can remember when we didn’t have a supervisor and things ran much smoother,
rurals would work with each other to schedule their leave. We know what needs to
be done and don’t need supervision to do the job. I think to turn the postal service
around you need to eliminate supervisors and rotate the post master to several
other post offices, and eliminate the “bonus system”.
The problem is not maintanence is custodians,most of them don’t want to do anything or even do the minimun amout of work possible.Techs have to service equipment and be around if anything malfunctions and this requires skill.The test is not easy,I passed it one time out of 5.Since I’m a carrier and in the top 100 in my district,I might as well stay…Management is the problem,most are unqualified,there are too many behind the scenes that are not needed,also there are too many “VPs” of stupid titles.I even suggested to a station manager why not have a rotating days off supervisor and down size the amount staffed in the offices.When I made that suggestion the manager said “I work hard” Right really I didnt know that but it’s false.most of the time is spent on the computer teleconfrences that make no sense,ignorant “area” managers which is a total waste of six figure salaries and not even qualified at all to make decesions on any level.Too much politics and personalities and no principals what so ever.I can go on and on but I’m done for now.
Hi my name is rob and I work in maintainence in phoenix and we are constantly cleaning.There are three of us there and we started to get the place cleaned and respectable but the building is huge and are routes are alot of work to actually keep the place clean,it was a disaster area before we got there.The one gal never did anything and the poor guy who was stuck couldn’t keep up with the work and place was nasty and the had the health inspectors come in,no accountability.We have folks who get paid for landscaping up the outside and also these other folks who just rinse down the vehicles and I am not sure why they get paid because neither of them do a good job or much.We could rake rocks and clean the vehicles.Why do we outsource?The redundancy of paperwork for the supervisors is ridiclous that is such a joke and number getting cooked yeper it happens I’m sure of that.Also the customer service of taking care of the customer is out the window with postal management don’t they get it to adquately staff the front window to take care of the customer or to give the carrier adqequate help on the street so they can get done and also to get better vehicles hey are always breaking down.Also why is that we are paying fed-ex our compettior to carry our mail,when I’m sure they hose us in the process.Which potter set up and the ceo used or still is a ex-postal employee.We could cut so many ways to make our company more efficent it is ridiclous with the amount of overhead in managment and one they do need training is people skills and to be better organized then you wouldn’t need so many.
What ever happened to team work? There don’t seem to be much of that in the P.O. always has been that way!! Management has always tried to turn craft against each other. It seems like since they put so many people out of work with this NRP crap all I see is Management doing craft work! Yet they will accommodate those who were NOT injured @ work and keep them in a job seems to me they have this backwards!! they should be sent home until they can do their job 100%….. Bill, everyone knows that most of us can be replaced by a casual so you need to get off of your high horse I don’t know why the clerks think they are all that. the truth is a casual can come in a do your job tomorrow and the mail handlers too! not the forklift or the tows.. But make no mistake they can’t come in and be in Maintenance they do have to go to school to learn how to fix and maintain our machines…OUR (bread and butter) so if you’re working and their NOT that means they are doing a GREAT JOB! that I can’t do.. ( as you can tell I’m not in maintenance ) but I will give credit where credit is due.. are you mad because you have to work? if you don’t like it there are plenty of people who would LOVE to have your job and NOT CRY ABOUT WHO IS WORKING AND WHO ISN’T, just thankful to have a JOB!! so if you want to insult everyone focus your energy on the real problem and lets figure out how to get a NEW POSTMASTER GENERAL!!!!!!!!!
The postal service does not need the supervisors or the postmaster. The clerks, mail carriers and the mail handlers can and are doing what it takes to keep the boat afloat, but the extraterrestrial beings (supv. & postmasters) are the ones that are passing out the instructions that are sinking the boat. Get rid of the supervisor and let the employees to row the boat and you’ll see that we will take it to a secure dock.
Bill,
Although I agree with your thoughts on our top heavy Service, way too many chiefs created just to push paper. The supervisors especially over the clerks, carriers and mailhandlers are mostly idiots. Too lazy to work for a living, too stupid to have any sort of people skills. Now, having agreed with you on the non-bargaining unit problems let me say the maintenance mechanics and ET’s are way more trained and necesssary for the work they do than you, the clerks. I am a maintenance mechanic. Within one day I could perform your job, could you do mine? Not even close. Since we are being trueful, clerks are over paid for the work they perform. I was a clerk, I know the mind numbing, brainless, repetitive work you perform. We as maintenance employees have to go to school for months and in some cases years to obtain the specific knowledge needed to perform our jobs. We may not always be running back and forth, but that goes hand in hand with the good job we do to keep the machines running, and are ready at a moments notice to repair a machine if necessary. To repair any and all parts of that machine. And not just one machine, but many very different machines. To fix that machine you must have extensive knowledge and troubleshooting skills to determine the peoblem. The job is not even close to tossing a tray of mail on a jogger. So before you write without thinking, you are part of the problem. Not the biggest problem, yet you are one of thousands that are paid very, very well for the work you perform and the knowledge you have to have to perform that job. Why do you think a casual can come in off the street and perform your job within days, yet no maintenance mechanic position or higher maintenance position can ever be filled by a casual. If it wasn’t for maintenance the APWU couldn’t ever justify paying clerks $20+ an hour.
Bill I don’t know why you’re talking about the Mail Handlers from what I see @ work it’s the clerks who are in the break room sleeping all night or standing around their machines talking… How hard is it to throw a tray of mail on a ledge? and you act like you work so hard and you are paid a level 6 give me a break. You couldn’t load or unload a trailer! and you NEVER WILL.. hell the clerks where I work are the biggest cry babies, most say they can only lift 20lbs… but I do agree we do have too many Managers and they need to get rid of most of them starting with POTTER! But you don’t need to insult MAINTANCE and the MAILHANDLERS. The work isn’t done only by the clerks!! so get over yourself… if you really look at the big picture we also have too many clerks!!! but do you see that Management is getting what they really wanted from the start, that is to turn each of the different crafts against each other to fight one another and while we are doing that they come in and SCREW ALL OF US!!! we can’t let that happen we have to fight to get POTTER removed as the POSTMASTER GENERAL TOGETHER!! HE IS THE WHOLE PROBLEM!!!!! HE WILL DESTROY THE USPS..
I agree that we need to cut the top heavy bureaucratic management, but the rest is hogwash. We have too many clerks in our facility. They stand around talking instead of running their machines and then complain that they can’t get the mail out on time. I don’t know what tour the author of this article works, but if it’s the running tour, then you want your maintenance employees sitting around doing nothing. That means the machines are running. I work tour 2, the PM tour, and I spend most of my day cleaning and repairing 3 DBCS machines. There are a couple of slackers, but most of our ET’s do their job.
I am a rural carrier in Florence, Al. We have had two clerks retire in the last two years who were not replaced. As a result we have many days when we are waiting on mail; sometimes for as much as two hours. This doesn’t affect costs on the rural side very much but there are 30 city carriers on the clock just standing around. So which is better? To pay for two more clerks or 30 carriers up to 10-12 hours per week?
It seems to me that management is penny wise and pound foolish sometimes.
Come to the distribution center in Coppell Tx if you want to watch employees playing dominoes most of the day.The bath rooms are filthy and always out of tissue, seat covers etc Each tour is waiting for the next tour to clean them.Employess go in and out of the bldg and leave the premises all times of the night and no one seems to care..The toilets over flow and then there is urine in the floors and it will just sit there and dry. It is so NASTY! Too many chiefs and not enough indians…
A lot of noise from those in need of greater supervision ranting here. Thankfully, I was able to retire from the PO. Never have I worked with lazier or more overpaid people. How could I complete an unfamiliar route in 6 hours that takes the regular no less than 9 hours? Why are clerks able to push empty equipment around for 1/2 their shift? The same piece just rolled around for hours! Mailhandlers sleeping in vans is not unusual.
A minimum of 15% of offices should be consolidated.
Business’ requires FIVE day delivery- 6 in PO Boxes
Residential needs THREE days delivery weekly – even that is overkill
All union positions require a 20% pay reduction
Most mgmt positions require 5% – 20% pay INCREASE
Right on Bill! If you’re not selling the mail, handling the mail, or delivering the mail, you’re OVERHEAD!
Cutting one day of delivery to save money is like United Airlines canceling all flights on saturdays to save money. INSANE! 5-day delivery is the WRONG WAY to save the service.
Cut supervisory positions now. No office needs more than 1 supervisor and 1 manager in the office at a single time. There are times my office has 3 supervisors and 1 manager in there at the same time. Unbelievable.
1. Does anyone holding the puppet strings read this site?_____2.Enact the reverse of the Peter Principle, To wit: Demote people to their next level of competence but, only of their personality is pleasant with a willingness to serve the public.____3. No matter what your position; if your not at work for two or more days, and the job still gets done then, your position is unnecessary.____To all the puppetmasters. . . .Do the right thing, Please.
The money that is paid out to management in terms of salaries and bonuses that are unearned is astronomical compared to the salaries paid out to the craft employees. As management finds ways to eliminate craft employees, they are working even harder to find ways to add even more management people to a company that is already way too top heavy.It has been for years. Most of us craft employees are in favor of making this company more efficient but the cuts should first be made at the top where the cuts will be easier to bear. Most offices have been cut so much that service to the public is horrendous.Extra long waiting in the lines at the windows to buy stamps and mail packages and many houses not gettingh mail delivery until late in the evening. We need to get back to the basics and provide the service to the people that they deserve.
I have also written the PRC….the President….Congress…..many times on Postal Issues, including dropping a day of delivery, which I am against. Unfortunately our office here in Lakeland, FL has been “scaling” back the clerks more and more. NOW, we are at the bare minimum on Friday(because of OT) and Saturdays(in order to get us used to the 5 day week)! We receive the bare minimum of mail to be delivered and barrage the carriers on Monday. Why is Potter and the Washington Postal crew so damn sure it will go to 5 day? To me….5 day if it happens…..will become 4 day…..then privatize? Post Office uses fuzzy math, god knows how many cooked books they use, and the mail “volume” is also incorrect……letter mail being counted on machines as flats…etc etc. Morale goes lower everyday….
We are short seven craft people, yet they filled two supervisory positions…hmmm, really makes sense!@#$%^&
My name is Charlie and I have been in the Post office for 24 years, all of it spent in Maintenance. I do not play domino’s nor do I just sit around and do nothing. Our work is very technical and dangerous, that is why we are paid more than other crafts. Management schedules our work and decides which tasks we are to do.. yet some/most of them have absolutely no experience repairing machines, printers and computers and networks or on equipment that has 3-5 thousand volts in it. management at the HQ level has decided to cut back on the cleaning and preventive maintenance tasks to save money, and yet the maintenance employees are at fault, get real!
Recently the tests to get into maintenance were made easier because most people could not pass them, let alone perform to the high standards required. Nationwide there are many very dedicated maintenance employees who repair the mail processing machines and ensure they are safe for the clerks and mail handlers to be working around.
Let’s focus on the “bean counters” who will receive their bonus (by what ever name they call it) who have determined that we do not need to spend time performing “real” preventive maintenance on the equipment and at the same time raising the performance standards they hold the clerks and mail handlers to. It is nothing more than a “Three Shell Monte” they are pulling…
God Save the Postal Service from these criminals.
Wonderful article Bill Hall. You certainly nailed it. I think that most of the processing plants see the same things you are seeing, and more. Eliminating jobs at the top is the first step towards the Postal Service getting back on the right track. Those at the top have lost sight of our purpose, SERVICE. It’s time they did some real work, in the real world. Not their “bubble” where they are making money for doing nothing. You are correct on our supervisors having no experience in the field, most of what we have were the “worst craft employee” who got promoted. Of course, they only go after the green ones that just walked in the door, or the lazy ones that never did anything. Never have I seen them approach someone who had actual qualities. No wonder the Postal Service is in such a mess, years of promoting idiots. I can say, as a single mother I sure am glad the idiots in charge of what’s been going on is NOT in charge of my bank accounts. Where did they come from? And how do we get rid of them? So many things can be done to save the Postal Service, and eliminating a day of delivery is NOT one of them. My processing plant alone could save a ton of money if they would learn how to make out a holiday schedule, we have plenty volunteer, yet they still manditory a ton of people who did not. Not to mention, not maximizing the casuals, so therefore they will lose even more money by paying out grievances, when they could have saved money and not mandated! That alone should eliminate a MDO position. Let’s hope that all our words don’t fall on deaf ears. We need to be heard!
I’ve been in the same office for over 11 years. We have less than half the amount of clerks and fewer carriers than when I started and the exact same number of supervisors. Figure it out!!