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!!!
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.
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.
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 And should we taxpayers have to subsidize it if it’s an outdated business structure???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
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!
I have one good friend who works for the USPS. He got the job after going through a lot of difficulty in the wake of 9/11 as far as job loss. His longtime employer went under, then he had a series of awful jobs just to keep insurance, his wife has medical conditions and cannot work. He was thrilled to get the job at the USPS, decent pay, great medical coverage, pension. Does he “like” the job? It’s a heck of a lot better than struggling and he’s able to provide a decent standard of living for himself and his wife, as well as cover her medical conditions. There are quite a few dysfunctional people who remain employed there that make it somewhat difficult, according to him, the different levels of counseling make it nearly impossible to terminate problem employees. But, he just deals with it. I think a lot of the complaining would stop, if these people knew how good they have it. They don’t. People like my friend do, but he’s in the distinct minority.
So they’re all gonna go postal?
USPS was a good plan by Ben Franklin for its day but it is just about obsolete by now. I hate to give them ideas but compared to Fedex or UPS the price of sending a letter by USPS is dirt cheap. Staff seldom realize what it costs to “Fedex it” and Fedex likes it that way.
The USPS, compared to the private carriers like Fedex, supports a huge infrastructure for what seems to be mostly junk mail. The flat rate boxes are a really good deal and I’ve wondered how they could afford them.
Huge infrastructure, well paid employees, great benefits and relatively low prices. No wonder they are losing money. Time for a massive restructuring in services or just cut them out. I can live without the USPS and a mailbox.
The problem is that the post office has made more affirmative action hires and promotions than any other organization in the history of the country. Most of the employees at the post office near we live are recent immigrants and speak broken English. The guy in charge is an obnoxious black guy to whom he term moron would be a compliment. The workers there who are helpful seem terribly demoralized.
So, is your JOB responsible for your personal happiness? Is not happiness a DECISION? And you can be content peeling potatoes for the Lord? Then why is this news?? “The USPS should be the source of your personal happiness.” Is that their motto?
How many of these loser supervisors are affirmative action minorities, who are there to cash their fat, undeserved paychecks and make like miserable for their workers?
With a mailbox full of advertisements, flyers and paper spam I think I know who is keeping the USPS in existence ....... marketing !
You know what would cheer them up? Another diversity program!