An exclusive Editorial to PostalReporter.com from Guy Nohrenberg
Confessions of a Former Station Manager
In days of double digit unemployment, where trillions of dollars of national debt mount, the leader of one of the largest civilian employers in the free world just up and declared that soon he’s retiring, because he can, with no reason given. And YOU MISSED IT!?
What in the world were you doing? Cleaning Possum pelts?
Postmaster General Jack Potter, out of nowhere, announces his retirement for December 3rd. This is the Captain of the Ship jumping overboard! Was he pushed? To the clerks, carriers, managers and supervisors, don’t you see? We are ADRIFT!
I couldn’t see this guy retiring until long after I do! He’s comparatively YOUNG when you look at the other Postmaster Generals who look like everything from Death Warmed Over to the Ancient of Days!
Look. He’s gone. The Postmaster General who advocated cutting service, raising rates, and shifting overpaid top executives from one title to another while declaring positions have been abolished. Of course, if you believe all of that, you are a sucker. He doesn’t do anything without the blessings of lots of Boards, Committees, Congress and the President of the United States . Or was that why he suddenly retired? Personally, I liked the guy. He worked hard. He took a lot of you-know-what. He was a family man and a proud Dad. That’s good enough for me.
We have a New Postmaster General now. Pat Donahoe. This New Captain is somewhat of a mystery. I know a bit about him, but let’s hope that’s all in the past. Who is he? Does he have a temper? I thought George Bush was a wimp when he worked for Ronnie. Then when he became President of the United States , I was quite impressed. What about Pat Donahoe? What’s he really all about? What will he do?
- Will he implement early outs with 6 month separations pay, 5 years added to time in service, no penalties and free military buyback to cull out the highest paid, oldest workers, making room for hiring lower paid younger faster employees?
- Will he reduce the 74 Districts and 8 Areas to 50 districts and 2 areas changing the administrative to worker ratio from 1 in 11 to 1 in 25?
- Will he implement RIF for displaced EAS, and bumping of those who didn’t take the early out, to ruin their chances for Computer Solitaire Super Stardom?
- Will he institute an agency of Untouchables, unlike the OIG and USPSIS who can’t do the job of internal multi-rank policing, to clear the organization of any and all Title 18 criminals no matter what their political or nepotistic connections are?
- Will he stop the closing of Post Offices?
- Will he implement a plan where all executives carry mail thrice a year on a Letter Carrier selected route, enlarging their personal perspective?
- Will he implement a plan where all executives are window trained and help customers during the holiday season, demonstrating leadership?
- Will he halt the expensive implementation of additional programs and equipment and just get back to basics like taking a flat case and expanding it from 6 inches high to 9 to accommodate the common 8 ½ inch wide flat sized mail?
- Will he stop the purchasing of new staff cars and start the purchasing of electric LLV’s?
- Will he at least paint the ghetto looking LLV’s we have.
- Will he stop the managers from working 4 day weeks while they get paid for 5?
- Will he commit to not raising the price of the stamp for 5 years?
- Will he stop the elimination of service, not only keeping 6 delivery days as per law but also advertise delivery of Express Mail on Sundays?
- Will he place a US Postal Service, staffed service stand, in each mall this holiday season?
- Will he listen to your ideas or just see the inside of his office?
- Will he get us all turkeys this December or will we just be one?
- Will he do all these things and get us from the red to the black in a 12 month span or will he just continue the failing theme of cutting service, raising rates, and following instead of leading, and leading by example?
He is the Captain of this ship… so far. We will salute smartly and charge up the hill he directs us to. What will he do?
Surely you will look for his answers too. Free Will He!
Be well!
Guy Nohrenberg
I just think they should convert all city carriers to rural carriers have them case there mail in side and make them have salary so there not out tell 6 everyday so that way there’s one less supervior every day and also if they all had to take there own route also if there going to do anything with the llv start putting advertisments on the side cause that’s what we deliver anyway why not put a giant mcdonalds sign on the side well we drive through neighborhoods
Generation Y- (THE ENTITLED) From what I see of them that work? for the USPS most are LAZY and CRY BABIES, yes you have a (FEW) who are GOOD WORKERS, but very few most just sit in the break room, or they are on their phones TEXTING, trying to work with one hand because they won’t put their stupid phone down. (SAFETY HAZARD TO US) WTF… if they had to do work like we did back in the day when we had to unload pigs, they don’t even know what that is, or the LS M’S or case your own mail and then go out on the street and deliver it.. most of them (Sissy’s) would QUIT, cause it’s to hard and they are used to getting everything handed to them without having to EARN IT! so why would we expect them to WORK for their PAY.. GOD HELP US, we have to depend on them to pay into Social Security…..
I retired last December and now I never admit to being retired from the USPS. I only say that I’m retired.
Now Potter, being better known, may have to change his name to protect himself.
Yo. This writer is a frickin GENIUS! Pat better heed his advice or he will fail and have to retire just like Potter did!
maybe someone already said this, but if not here goes. Who CARES that he is retiring, just be VERY GLAD THAT HE IS. He is a man, so obsessed with eliminating Saturday delivery that he has deliberately implemented cost INCREASING measures to ensure we are in the red so that he can go before the committee and say “look, we are loosing money, please take away Saturday delivery.” Every day I see things that could be done differently, more efficiently, and that if implemented nationally, all told. Think on this for a moment, if every day we cut down every carriers work load by just half an hour (people, this would be very easy to do, without even hiring new people, simply being more efficient.) We could save the post office 1.1 BILLION DOLLARS, annually. Huum, me a lowly carrier can think of a few things that would save the post office over a billion dollars a year. But we CAN’T do them, because the postal rules say “that’s not the way we do it.” Yeah that’s a good reason to throw away a billion dollars. But that was my point, potter didn’t want to save money, he wanted to LOOSE it to force the committee to eliminate Saturday delivery. So I say, goodbye Mr. Potter, and thanks for leaving before you have a chance to destroy the post office.
Potter had this planned years ago. That why the Postal reform act removed postal exec for government restrictions, making the PMG position the highest paid non-elected position in this country. He is also due excess bonus pay that can only be collected after he retires, at twice his current salary for at least the next five years. I am sure he will not have to wait six months like other retirees to recieve his first full retirement check. If you will notice he retired on Dec 3rd so that he will receive his first reirement check Jan 1st.
We all will be criticize at some point in life, Pat by You, You by this mpr guy and me by you…… So why don’t we give him a chance n just speak on actions. Ill give you the credit you deserve for doing what u are doing.
Ethnic Cochillaism!
“making room for hiring lower paid younger faster employees”….don’t you mean new employees who have no work ethics?????
Replace with younger faster workers ?
Bwahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
A worthless piece of drivel that’s more an indication of the writer’s lack of knowledge than anything else.
Guy, retirement incentives are currently limited to $25,000 by law and OPM policy anything else would need numerous approvals. Considering that Congress can’t even resolve the retiree health benefits issue or the excess payments to the Treasury it is unlikely that approval will be forthcoming for the items on your wish list.
In case anybody is paying attention the Postal Service is claiming a liquidity crisis so it’s unlikely they will find the cash to offer incentives. Given the way the earlier VERA’s were handled it seems questionable that the Postal Service would suddenly jump at maximum incentives anyway.
With the change in Congress one might guess that it’s more likely that senior managers and the BOG will be encouraged to jettison people the old fashioned way – layoffs and Rifs. Headquarters, Area and District personnel have no protections against layoff so the time may finally come when those structures will be pared down to size.
As for Mr. Donahoe, he’s been the enforcer so why expect anything better or different. Mystery Shopper, the insane chase for EXFC numbers, WTIL and all those other initiatives that further cognitive dissonance have all come out of Mr. Donahoe’s shop. He created and oversaw the environment that tolerated the management styles of folks like Jerry Lane. What in any of that gives room for hope?
How about doing away with 18 & 8 all you poor carriers never seem to mention the minimum productivity you’re held to.
Enact all those suggestions! Stop closing Post Offices! Stop paying mucky mucks to do nothing all day! Start acting like you care USPS!
Guy: The USPS has never raised the price of stamps since Ben Franklin was in charge. They may raise the postage rates to mail letters or packages, but 1 cent stamps are still only a penny. And you are a former station manager ?
Hurray, “Doomsday Jack” has left. Maybe the true financial condition of the Postal Service will now be revealed. I don’t believe that Potter left under a cloud, I think that he left under a thunderstorm. From the testimony that he gave about the $900,000 “interest free” loan he got from Countrywide Mortgage, then tekking Congress that everyone could get one; to the more recent ” Robert Bernstock ” dosgrace ( with many more in between ), ol’ Captain Jack’s reign has been a scandal plagued one. And the kicker of it all is that most of the scandals have been in Headquarters ! Lately, at the behest of Maine Senator Susan Collins, the Office of Inspector General has been auditing different areas of postal operations and programs and the results have been poor.
Just one example is the employee “E-Ideas” program where despite ol’Jacks proclamations or open communication it was found to take 2 to 3 YEARS ! to get a new idea answered, much less implemented.
In addition, the skullduggery in the ” Customer Connect ” program where sales people at Headquarters were found to be getting commission, yes thats right commission, for mailings like Mccains and Obama’s campaign mailings and the $150.00 Treasury check we all received fromn the President to help jumpstart the economy. Yet no one was charged or prosecuted. Why ?
WTF? Ghetto looking LLV’s? I work for the Postal Service and the LLVs that we have ARE NOT ghetto looking!!!
Let’s hold the praise of Potter, til we see which mailer he may end up with. I do not think Potter and Donawhore are much different. We’re screwed.
How did you miss all the rumors that he WAS going to retire? In about a year, target employment reduction will be reached by normal attrition, without any need for VER incentive payments. For your 5th bullet point, I think you meant to say “Will he START the closing of Post Offices?” New staff cars are NOT being purchased by USPS, the recently acquired 2009 and 2010 vehicles were courtesy of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, not any intentional plan to purchase them. It would be foolish to mass purchase electric LLVs, for one thing there is no source, just small numbers of custom-built or converted vehicles, and 2nd no infrastructure at Post Offices for charging more than a few vehicles at a time without major electrical service upgrades.
K… I THINK IS JACK POTTER IS RETIRING IS EVERYBODY BUSINESSES WHY???? WE ARE HERE , WE ARE USPS EMPLOYEES PLUS IS BEEN VERY SUSPICIOUS….OTHER WISE YOU WONT BE SO UNCOMFORTABLE… ARE YOU RELATED??? AND WHO KNOWS WHAT POTTER WILL DO, THE REALITY IS ” HE IS LIVING “, FOR ME THE ARTICLE IS VERY INTERESTING AND I WONDER WHO IS GUY NOHRENBERG??? THIS GUY IS PROVIDING ALL THAT INFORMATION, HE SHOULD BE THE NEXT POSTMASTER GENERAL. AND RELAX IS JUST AND ARTICLE.
You take it up the ass while you working. Then you retire, and you don’t even get a good pension for K Y jelly. That’s a real conundrum.
Good questions. Someone had to ask. Will he answer?
Wow! I don’t know what Pat is going to do but take some advice for yourself. Take a writing class and gather your thoughts together carefully before you hit the keyboard again. Can you say Blather?
Potsie does not work forced OT, when the Service demands it: he only requires craft employees do it for years at a time.
Why would anyone think that Potter has to justify his retiring to anyone? It’s really no one elses business. He has been PMG longer than anyone in history. Maybe he just got sick of the BS just like I did before I retired.
Man, you’re a bigger asshole that he is.
No he won’t Guy, but thanks for asking.