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A day off ... ahhhh.
My beloved PostcardX Forum is down for upgrading, so I'll be forced to actually WRITE today. A day full of letters. Not all bad. I still have a lingering sore throat, but I don't think it's too serious. Nothing a day by the fireplace won't cure ;)
I love days off from the P.O . Don't get me wrong, for the most part it's a good job and I'm not ungrateful. But there is a kind of insanity in the office that recreates itself every morning . Let's start with the system of management. Picture this : Fifty grown people being " monitored " on everything from talking, to bathroom visits. We have been asked to remove personal items from our workspace ( including snapshots of our families ) , are not allowed to have our cell phones in our possession on the floor, and must limit our conversation to postal-related business. It feels a little like kindergarten. All we need now are the small scraps of rug for our afternoon nap, and we'll be good to go.

The P.O likes to stress safety, but it's really a low priority when it bumps up against the need to " make the numbers " . They SAY be safe, but what they MEAN is HURRY . You can't always do both. There are so many variables during a day it is impossible to predict EXACTLY how long any given day will actually be out on the street. Yet every morning, we're asked to make a commitment, based on our best guess. So, here's an average day : I come in at 7:30 and I have buckets filled with flat mail ( large envelopes, catalogs, magazines, etc ...) and trays, filled with letters. My job is to " guess " how long it will take me to sort what I see on the floor into my case, and how long it will take me to deliver my route on the street. But here's the impossible part. Out on the dock, there are " presorted " trays of letters that I am expected to take directly to the street, and deliver along with the mail I've sorted in the office. But I don't get to SEE that mail, I'm expected to " guess " how much, and what type of mail is actually IN that mix. I also get what we call ACCOUNTABLE mail. Mail that requires a signature or payment for delivery. I deliver mostly to business addresses, so this can be a big factor some days. I'll get anywhere from three pieces to twenty pieces of this kind of mail a day. But again, when they come around and ask for my " commitment " I have no idea how much of this mail I will have. Each piece requires that a form be filled out in the office, and also that I track down a person on the street to actually sign for the mail. Both take time. Neither are truly accounted for unless I can " guess " correctly.

So, here's how it usually goes : I can get a good estimate of how long it will take to sort the mail I have in front of me. I glance at my parcels for the day ( another factor on the street ) and I build in whatever time I " guess " to be accurate about what I may encounter in all of the mail I don't see. Chances are, I will be " guessing " a time that does not match their computer generated time, and so at that point, the fight is on ! I work for an arrogant son-of-a-bitch. He comes around and argues with me about my time most every day. At that point, once he has engaged me, I remind him that I am " guessing " based on what I see AND what I don't see. I challenge him to do a better job. I suggest he enter ALL the information into his computer, and THEN see what it spits out. It's a stupid battle that we have every day. At one point, I posted a small note at my case that read GIGO. He " ordered " me to remove it once he realized what it stood for. It means simply " Garbage IN, Garbage OUT " . If you don't plug the correct info IN you are unlikely to get accurate info OUT. Simple, right ? I would think he would agree, but instead he attempts to intimidate me into going along with a time that was generated by his computer about how long my route should take. If intimidation doesn't work ( which it doesn't anymore ) he resorts to harassment. It is tiring. It is drudgery. It is an insult to me.

But for all my bitching this morning, I have good news ! The son-of-a-bitch is leaving. On June 10th, he will be gone to take his version of " management " somewhere else. Good riddance. I think he expects a party. He should know that one IS being planned ... the day AFTER he leaves. Then we can look forward to the next tyrant. The P.O is a crazy place. It's full of arrogant, uninspired, soulless people at the top. The rest of us plod along, fight the little battles, and most importantly we serve our customers in spite of it all. I think most of my customers respect what I do, appreciate the attention paid to detail and genuinely like me. For that I'm eternally grateful. For THAT, I keep going. I ram on ...