I learned everything I need to know about people management at the Post Office

Punk Rock Postal

Angry Mailman

Laurie Ruettimann is mad because so many people are haters of the U.S. Postal Service.   She’s got a point.

They do a hell of a job delivering mail to the all the god-forsaken places that people live across the country for only forty-four cents per piece of first class mail. And it really is not their fault that the federal government created some strange quasi-private, quasi-public organizational mission for them to operate under.  And they tried to take the idea of email hostage back in the 1980’s, but failed, thus sealing  themselves to a slow death scene much longer than Paul Reuben’s death scene in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Postal Mishaps

Things have not gone well for the USPS over the years. They do own responsibility for many of their own problems, including:

• A history of bad management, especially in the way they deal with people as an organization.  Management development is a joke., based on something called the 204b program.
• Vehemently rancorous labor relations with all their unions (NALC, APWU and others) dating back over several decades.
• failure to come to grips with bad business practices, such as six day mail delivery which has become increasingly non-essential for most of the country over the past two decades. (charge more for Saturday customers, or rent  PO box!)
• Failing to compete effectively with UPS and Fedex despite what appeared to be some inherently monopolistic advantages.  It turns out the lack of agility, broad scope of mission  and “government ownership”  was a disadvantage.

UPS and Fedex are each having their own problems right now as well.  Check out the Brown Bailout for some illustration of their competitive issues.

Postal Deliveries

I was a letter carrier for USPS from December 1979 to January 1986.  During this time, I learned everything I ever needed to know about how not to manage people.   I am not going to bore you with long post office anecdotes, but I will reminisce for a moment about a few moments from the highlight reel.

• like the time a supervisor at one office made me take a left hand drive vehicle to go finish delivering a mounted motor route that required a right hand drive vehicle to deliver the mail safely.   Why?  So he could hurt the hours utilization KPI of a fellow supervisor!
• like the time I worked 15 hours straight delivering without even a bathroom break and got yelled at for failing to complete my delivery when the headlights on my jeep failed.  I went back out and finished.
• the time they asked an entire office to sign a statement saying “I have fully  read and understand the USPS employee code of ethics and conduct.  I understand and agree that I am subject to discipline, up to and including discharge for violations of these policies”  (or words very much like that)    I refused to sign until they let me read it in compliance with the wording of the document.   The well trained 204b tasked with this mission told me he didn’t have to let me read it. When I insisted he did, he told me he would fire me for insubordination.    I explained I wasn’t refusing to comply, just trying to follow the directions on the statement.  We debated this for a while, and I finally asked for a shop steward – the only time in my life I ever did something like that.    He refused to get a steward, stating I didn’t need one.   I pointed out to him he was committing several unfair labor practices.    It was at this point that the acting postmaster (who had sent the poor schlub out to do this in the first place)  showed up, yelled at both of us, called him stupid for doing “illegal shit” (her words) and said: “Just forget the whole thing! You are obviously incompetent”

I was offered a job by a private sector company 30 days later and escaped to the safe harbors of the private sector, never to look back.  Before I left, I made about a half million mental notes never to treat people that way.

Related articles by Zemanta

• What is U.S. Postal Service- USPS buyouts plan? (ceoworld.biz)
• Postal Service offering buyouts to 30,000 (msnbc.msn.com)
• Postal Service Problems (usnews.com)
• Would You Accept $15,000 to Retire Early? (usnews.com)
• Commentary: About that Saturday mail … (cnn.com)

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Tagged as: American Postal Workers Union, FedEx, Mail carrier, National Association of Letter Carriers, United Parcel Service, United States, United States Postal Service, US Postal Service