Postal Shooting
Another tragedy. Another sick person with access to a gun. But that's a topic for another time. Today I would like to look at the culture that put that gun in her hands....
As a twenty year employee of the USPS, I have seen many changes in my job. One of the worst things that ever came down the pike was the bonus system used to reward managers for making increasingly unrealistic performance goals. Even when a goal is reached, through the sweat and hard labor of clerks and carriers, that goal is made even more difficult in the next accounting period. For example, man-hours on the carrier side are reduced, by as much as 10% every year. So, in order to keep their bonus, management leans hard on the craft employees.
Our little office (22 routes) has been understaffed for at least the last 4 years. This means long days, doing parts of other carriers routes, mail being delayed (at least no 1st or 2nd class in our office, SO FAR), and customers getting mail after dinner time. Now with rising energy costs and so forth, I understand that costs must be contained. But when it takes 3 people to drive down from Hartford (90 miles) to observe how one supervisor at our office counts the mail, I have to wonder, what's going on??? Cost containment needs to be across the board. You can't get blood from a turnip, but in order to keep their bonus, management leans hard on the craft employees.
Micromanagment is the order of the day. Everything is scrutinized. I have to keep a personal log of when I go to the bathroom, so I can answer questions posed to me about my office time. Our supervisor,who I happen to like as a person, is so stressed out in the morning making all his computer entries and doing all the reports that Hartford needs, that he doesn't have the time to help carriers with problems that need attention that morning. They collect all the numerical data and come up with a time frame that you MUST meet. However, that number isn't the whole story, so I keep a log of things I do that aren't covered under the postal manuals. I consider myself to be an excellent employee, but they have leaned on me. I am doing my job, at a high level, to the best of my ability, and still I get leaned on. How does that make me feel? How would you feel? It all comes back to the bonus.
No one can truly know what drives the human heart. First off, we need to remember the victims and their families. Then we want to answer the question, WHY? What happens in my little office happens in almost every postal facility across the country. It is well past time to take a hard look at why people go "Postal". The climate must be changed.
peace,
e
As a twenty year employee of the USPS, I have seen many changes in my job. One of the worst things that ever came down the pike was the bonus system used to reward managers for making increasingly unrealistic performance goals. Even when a goal is reached, through the sweat and hard labor of clerks and carriers, that goal is made even more difficult in the next accounting period. For example, man-hours on the carrier side are reduced, by as much as 10% every year. So, in order to keep their bonus, management leans hard on the craft employees.
Our little office (22 routes) has been understaffed for at least the last 4 years. This means long days, doing parts of other carriers routes, mail being delayed (at least no 1st or 2nd class in our office, SO FAR), and customers getting mail after dinner time. Now with rising energy costs and so forth, I understand that costs must be contained. But when it takes 3 people to drive down from Hartford (90 miles) to observe how one supervisor at our office counts the mail, I have to wonder, what's going on??? Cost containment needs to be across the board. You can't get blood from a turnip, but in order to keep their bonus, management leans hard on the craft employees.
Micromanagment is the order of the day. Everything is scrutinized. I have to keep a personal log of when I go to the bathroom, so I can answer questions posed to me about my office time. Our supervisor,who I happen to like as a person, is so stressed out in the morning making all his computer entries and doing all the reports that Hartford needs, that he doesn't have the time to help carriers with problems that need attention that morning. They collect all the numerical data and come up with a time frame that you MUST meet. However, that number isn't the whole story, so I keep a log of things I do that aren't covered under the postal manuals. I consider myself to be an excellent employee, but they have leaned on me. I am doing my job, at a high level, to the best of my ability, and still I get leaned on. How does that make me feel? How would you feel? It all comes back to the bonus.
No one can truly know what drives the human heart. First off, we need to remember the victims and their families. Then we want to answer the question, WHY? What happens in my little office happens in almost every postal facility across the country. It is well past time to take a hard look at why people go "Postal". The climate must be changed.
peace,
e
posted by eddie @ 1/31/2006 11:54:00 AM
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