Posted on 05/01/2016 10:15:25 AM PDT by PROCON
We all have cracked jokes about the United States Postal Service, especially about their workers “going postal.” Most postal workers you’ve encountered are probably lethargic, short-tempered, half-asleep, or just plain rude. Well, that could be due to their work environment. These people are miserable, which is what the USPS painfully discovered when they gave Gallup to conduct this survey at the cost of $1.8 million (via Inside Sources):
The topline results were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request after the USPS declined to provide the data to InsideSources when asked in January.
Postal workers reported strong job dissatisfaction, and in comparison to other organizations surveyed by Gallup, USPS employees say they rarely receive recognition for good work; their supervisors don’t care for them as people; they don’t feel their job is important; they lack opportunities to learn and grow, and their fellow employees are not committed to doing quality work.
A spokesperson for USPS says the organization was disappointed with the results. “Clearly, there is much room for improvement.”
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
In the age of E-Mail and other digital technologies, it's difficult to justify the Post Office's existence.
Hmmm. As I recall, the pay scale for the USPS workers ain’t too bad.
Lets expand that to all industries. Socialism...yeah!!!
Extremely well compensated for putting the paper in the box.
Incredible benefits too, they'd get nothing like that in the private sector with their skill set.
Stop your bitching.
I have a relative who works for the post office.
He says that there are pressures working there, pressures to keep to schedules, deliver and sort mail on schedule, etc.
But he also says that they get good pay and benefits, and he is able to work overtime when he wants, to get even more money if he wants. Otherwise he can just do his regular five day a week work, his choice.
But then, how is that different from any other workplace? Maybe I’m missing something. I’ve worked in office jobs my whole life, in the financial area. Some bosses are better than others, and some jobs paid better than others. But the jobs that paid better also had higher expectations of job performance placed on them.
In short, you get what you pay for. If the post office pays well but has high performance expectations, is that a bad thing???
I use a couple of stamps a year now. Pay all my bills online and most of those are electronically transferred. Our bills are all emailed to me.
We do receive some shipments via USPS but we don’t even use a quarter of the post office services we did back when.
Well, there is that $46 Billion in losses thingy.
The nerve huh? Being expected to do what you’re getting paid for. Those dang management types just don’t understand. LOL! We had deadlines when I was working and schedules to keep. Only difference was if you repeatedly failed at these, you were lookin’ for employment someplace else. Weird huh?
When you give basically a job for life almost no matter what happens, then you get a poor work force.
I remember the wife of a letter carrier (yes, they were still called “mailmen” at the time) in the 1970s, who worked with me at the job I had while going to college, practically begging everyone not to put zip codes on the addresses, because that way the mail had to be hand-sorted, and that would mean job security for her husband. It was the equivalent of throwing wooden shoes in the machine, from which the word “sabotage” (sabot=wooden show) arises.
But then, how is that different from any other workplace?
Can’t say as I ever worked for a company that let hourlies work overtime anytime they wished, or not at all.
Well, we may always have a market for delivery of certain items. Financially, the post office has to be subsidized, in order to exist in its current form.
Just anecdotal evidence, that most of my mail nowadays is junk mail. I get a lot of ad flyers and the like from local supermarkets delivered by the mailman.
I order items from retailers online sometimes, and delivery is often done by UPS or FedEx, not the post office.
Most of my bills are delivered and paid electronically nowadays.
We really should have a debate in Congress about the continued subsidy of the postal service in its current form. Given changing technology, does it still make sense to operate the same way? And should we taxpayers have to subsidize it if it’s an outdated business structure???
There’s been high turnover of mail-persons delivering mail in my neighborhood. Seem to be different people every couple weeks. So mail often gets mis-delivered, ours going to neighbors and vice versa. Not dependable at all, we long ago converted our important stuff to receive digitally online. Deliverers seem friendly, just not competent. We often get mail with the wrong street name, not just the wrong number.
I can vouch for this. The workers at my two local offices are miserable human beings, and it shows in their attitudes and service.
Clearly USPS needs a gubmint take over and have their employees form a union. That should boost the morale AND productivity .....
/no sarc tag needed
Not only the pay scale, but as I recall the employees showed up playing card games with nothing to do.
Or, was that UAW-GM?
For packages, existing post offices can be converted into package and registered mail centers.
Delivering physical mail is an anachronism.
In other words, they are typical employees stuck in dead-end jobs in a losing company in a shrinking market. Normal, motivated people would retool themselves and go seek greener pastures. I know because I've been there twice in my career. You have to look at your industry with cold, analytical eyes and ask "Is this industry going anywhere? Is my company growing or shrinking? Is my company a leader, Top1 or Top 2?"
If the answer is "No," you'd best not let your emotional attachment cloud your vision - Get out!
Wouldn't that disproportionately hurt the poor?
Typical Republican. </sarc>
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