Posted on 02/03/2010 7:26:09 AM PST by Poundstone
When I go to the Post Office there is one guy who services most of the people in line while the other 3 diddle around taking 1 customer to his 3 to 4. The guy is a hard worker, and he probably makes the same as the ones lazing around working in slow motion. Government needs to cut 50% of their workers, unfortunately the hard worker will be one of the ones cut because he was working too hard to spend any time kissing backside.
For our plans we have 2 options. I’m afraid we’d be considered a “cadillac” plan on the high deductible.
We - like you - have a plan with co-pays and $1000 deductible per person up to 3 people. It runs about $400 a month (which is what you pay) We also have what most of us opted for - a high deductible plan. They put more in my health savings account than I pay for the cost of my insurance. That’s why I was real concerned about the “cadillac” plan exclusion to pre-tax.
Sounds to me like your government insurance is equitable to private companies that provide insurance.
I only get 9 holidays a year - and that’s more than I’ve ever had in private industry. That’s a big plus for fed employees. You get all kinds of holidays!
My only gripe, like others here, is that there are too many federal jobs. Probably could be cut in half. I know a fed employee whose job it is to dig holes in the dirt and plot on a map what the dirt is made of. I hardly think that’s necessary except in farming areas. Deserts? (which he was working on at one point) - I bet I could tell you what the desert is made of.
My goodness. Those state DMV workers should be fired!
And please note they were STATE workers, not FEDERAL workers. As the article explains, there’s a big difference!
“The USPS is useful”. Yeah, primarily to the employees.
I work for the USPS in a business (junk) mail entry unit.
I refer to it as “The Slug Farm”.
The employees have gained control of the place and run it as a personal fiefdom for their own benefit. The sense of entitlement is stunning.
As a mailer if they like you, ie., you kiss their asses and bring in the goodies at X-mas (which used to include substantial cash ‘tips’), you can slide on almost anything.
Piss off the ‘Queen Bee’ or one of her lick spittles and you are guaranteed a miserable time as a customer.
These are people that think they have a “right” to overtime, they treat customers like crap, they delay the mail to create OT and they still don’t do the job.
Deceitful, dishonest, manipulative and fraudulent all come to mind when I think of postal workers. Many of these people would be unemployable outside “government service”.
One guy just took voluntary early retirement after loafing around for most of the last five years, out of his mind on prescription drugs. Now the guy has discovered his pension doesn’t cover his expenses so he’s looking to convert his retirement to 100% disability.
FMLA abuse is rampant, as is petty stuff like “overtime creep” ie., clocking in 5 minutes early or out five minutes late to take advantage of the “time clock congestion minute rule” that allows for 5 minutes of variance from an 8 hour schedule.
Privatize and contract out the whole damned mess and let government run the unprofitable portions at a loss, at least the tax-payer won’t be the hook for the pensions and benefits of the current crop of postal parasites.
Totally understood the article and I have a problem with Fed and State workers.
and those DMV workers need to be sent an “Education Camp”.
Of course your mileage may vary but I have not found Fed workers to be so called more educated or smarter.
Having spent many thousands of hours studying what goes on at postal counters (That was my job at the time) I'd suggest that the CUSTOMERS are the problem, not the clerks.
Best we were able to do was arrange the line feed situation so the slow ones don't hold up everybody else.
There are a lot of slow customers.
See, I knew you’d change your mind. You should have applauded my idea for expediting things.
What tricks? They had me read the wrong line and in doing so demonstrated that my vision is better than their reading skills or comprehension.
They are dumber than a fence post. Though they did get back at me for their embarrassment.
My photo, on my license has a lovely orange hue to it.
Last guy I saw with a "bloated pension" was a Congresscritter. They get 2 years service time for each year actually served.
“See, I knew you’d change your mind.”
No change of mind. Having worked with, around and in the federal government pretty much all my adult life, I started out with very low expectations.
Having a letter of complaint burned and stomped would actually exceed those expectations by a bit.
sitetest
You are fortunate. May I refer you to this story:http://wcco.com/crime/superglu.penis.wisconsin.2.1464589.html
A hard case? What...like needing two stamps?
I'd suggest that the CUSTOMERS are the problem, not the clerks.
Not that you had much crediblity left, but what you had it gone.
BTW, office I was in was getting regular correspondence from a Korean guy in the DC area regarding Kim Dai Jong.
This gentleman claimed Kim was going to be kidnapped, stuffed into an airline shipping container, and then be sent to Korea.
Don't know what he thought we could do about it ~ but he said he overheard this plan several times at a Marriot Jr. hamburger shop in Bethesday.
(Yes, USPS Inspectors were involved, and presumably they passed the tips along to the FBI, etc.)
We kept a file of his letters and eventually they took up about half a shelf in a lateral file unit.
One of our employs found that the old "complaints increase during a full Moon" story had some foundation ~ not so much in the number of complaints but the type ~ the desperation ~ the existential angst.
You can become very hardbitten handling postal complaints.
Your opinion seems to be in the minority.
Federal employees do get a lot of time off. I won't argue that.
If you find yourself standing in lone anywhere at any time it’s the fault of the people in front of you ~
If they were cute I would imagine you’d been friendlier
Well, you gotta admit that CERS is bloated compared to FERS.
Let me put it to you this way: would you trade your pension for what the “newer” feds (hired since the 1990s) get?
Would you give up 70% of your salary for the tiny Thrift Savings Plan that’s been losing $$ right and left?
Pensions are old school and a thing of the past—you are lucky you have one!
“You can become very hardbitten handling postal complaints.”
One is likely to become even more hardbitten having to handle postal (or any sort of federal) “workers.”
sitetest
Are you at work now?
Are you very busy and productive?
I’ve worked in the public sector, private sector, and non-profit sector.
From what I can tell, the level of incompetence is about the same in all areas.
I suppose that the private sector has a truer sense of the value of its employees, but everytime I witnessed a cost-cotting purge take place, it was typically the best employees who went because they were the highest-paid.
And from what I can tell, the hardest actual workers tend to be in the non-profit side because you usually don’t work for that poor of pay unless you are really dedicated to what you are doing.
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