He also had a stop watch with him,and was timing every move the letter carrier made. The purpose of this was to find ways to get the carrier to work more efficiently so they could demand he deliver more mail in fewer hours. They try to get you to do stuff like walk across yards and step over hedges. When you first start at the post office,it's not unusual for one of these birdbrains to tell you,"Here is 10 hours worth of mail. I want you back in 8 hours." They expect a replacement to be able to handle a route as quickly as the regular mailman,despite not knowing all the "shortcuts". As you can probably guess,this didn't work too well with me. I'd come in after 8 hours and ask them what they wanted me to do with the other 2 hours worth of mail. This is the kind of crap that gets people to do stupid stuff like throw away K-Mart and other advertising circulars in a attemp to pleae their supervisor so they don't get fired.
None of the above applies to anybody who isn't white and/or hetrosexual,though. The only non-white carrier I ever saw get fired was a Philapino shop steward who got caught stealing government checks and trying to use them to frame a white woman carrier who wouldn't join the union. Even then they kept him on the payroll all the way through his trial and up to his sentencing. Hell,union dues even paid his way to the convention.
What really made it look stupid to me was the fact that the route had been the same forever. I mean, if the route efficiency hasn't been figured out in 50 years, it surely isn't going to be when one "supervisor" tries to reinvent the wheel.
They tried that "lawn-cutting" rule in my neighborhood, and I told my carrier that he was "officially" no longer allowed to cut across the lawn. Unofficially, I told him he could cut to his heart's content. The point being, he was a very good carrier and deserved the 45 seconds he'd save by cutting across. The USPS, however, did not.
None of the above applies to anybody who isn't white and/or hetrosexual,though. The only non-white carrier I ever saw get fired was a Philapino shop steward who got caught stealing government checks and trying to use them to frame a white woman carrier who wouldn't join the union. Even then they kept him on the payroll all the way through his trial and up to his sentencing. Hell,union dues even paid his way to the convention.
Of course not - its beginning to look like its the white folks, particularly white males, that have to work twice as hard to gain half as much. Why they can't judge folks strictly on their job performance is beyond me.