US Postal Service to end Saturday letter delivery

chadwick

Jeanwah wrote:

brianlux wrote:

Again, I don't understand how someone can "hate" the Postal Service. ("Hate" is a strong word.) If you take the time to get to know some of the postal workers you'll appreciate the ton of shit they have to take from people, the enormous work load and stress they're put under and you might appreciate how difficult it is for them to be friendly all the time. If you say "I hate the post office", I wonder what you would say about many of your customers if you worked for the post office?

My husband is a letter carrier and he and the rest of his fellow carriers have serious physical issues from so much heavy handling and maneuvering on the job and in the weather (I'm in the snowy NE). It sounds like a dreamy job to some, but it's certainly no picnic. It's very hard on the body. Oh, and there's a rule that a mail carrier does not have to deliver your mail if you don't clear an area to your mailbox. Hubby gets all kinds of people talking to him (who doesn't talk to the mailman?) Not many angry, but if they are, he constantly reminds them that the check they were "supposed" to receive that day is out of his control. The mail person is sometimes the only humans the elderly get to talk to during the day. They are grateful and sometimes gives him gifts for his service.

That said, there is redundant inefficiency at the USPS. The unions ARE a lot of the problem. There's no personal accountability when you know that you can't be fired. His lazy co-workers (there's a lot of them, thanks to the union covering their ass) talk down the supervisors because they can. Some mail people milk their routes to the point that they're barely walking a decent speed, just so they don't have to go back to the office and be sent out to do more, when they need extra help delivering the mail.

Do the people who believe they should be shut down subscribe to any magazines? Order from Amazon or Ebay? School and local community news? Do you guys get Christmas cards? Some carriers deliver the local newspapers since there are no paper boys anymore, or because newspapers are hurting themselves for business and sometimes being shut down. The senior community aren't so computer savvy so they still rely heavily on the USPS for mail and packages. So does everybody, so even though it seems easy to say that we don't need them at all, think again. They're not going away entirely yet. But they do need some serious reform. And that reform must start with the union doing some heavy negotiating.

i love the usps. i am amazed at what they do & their history is incredible. i challenge anyone to walk a postal carriers route for a year to experience all the weather changes. mail carriers are tough as nails.