A CHALLENGING YEAR – USPS FOCUS REMAINS ON REDUCING WORKHOURS
With the Postal Service facing another challenging year, employees must continue to focus on reducing workhours and operating expenses, according to DPMG and COO Pat Donahoe. And to help USPS achieve its FY 2010 budget, one of the primary goals is to cut 93 million workhours.
Year to date, workhours and expenses, respectively, are 1.2 percent and 1.6 percent over plan, says Donahoe, who asks employees to follow the processes and procedures in place to help reduce costs. Most importantly, this means matching workhours to workload.
Reviewing a variety of cost-reduction opportunities in mail processing, customer service, delivery and supervisory/administrative areas in this week’s Field Updates segment, Donahoe thanks employees for their tremendous efforts. But, he adds, continued attention to operating plans and programs is needed to stay on track.
With renewed efforts to control overtime, optimizing the utilization of automation equipment and managing the assignments of non-career employees, Donahoe says USPS will achieve success in FY 2010.
PEN Editor: I believe Mr. Donahoe is incorrect – he believes employees should focus on “reducing workhours and operating expenses” – I believe employees should focus on providing 8 hours work for 8 hours pay – AND, make certain not to give 9 hours work for 8 hours of pay. Rick Owens – PEN
I believe it is time for evaluated routes, like the Rural carriers.. All the mail will go and carriers will be back and off the clock at a reasonable time.. That way there will be not need for a back end supervisior and less stress on all craft employees and local managment.. I can not see why the NALC and USPS can not sit down and try to work something like this out.. To me it sounds like it is the only way to go.. It would elimante pivioting more people would come to work. It would take sometime to get used to, but in the long run I believe everyone would be pretty happy and it would be a great place to work again..
LAY OFF OVER PAID SUPERVISORS WE HAVE A EX POOM IN OUR OFFICE AND A POSTMASTER AS WELL WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY
PEN Ed: Please do not post using all caps.
What Mr. Donahoe needs to do is focus on reducing the NUMBER OF MANAGERS. Period. What a concept. Stop cutting the craft employees thaare actually handling, processing and delivering the mail and start getting rid of all the fat at the top.
I carry mail in a office with FSS. Postal Gods have come up with unworkable work rules which hinder delivery of the mail.FSS is the square peg they want in a round hole! Although FSS has its merits its implementation has been horrible and local supervisors know it but are hogged tied from higher management. The union,what union? not any help. The carriers know how to carry mail the most efficently, accurately, and safely but are not allowed to do it. Is it time for evaluated routes?
I believe that if the post office (usps) stop wasting money than we would not be in the bind for money and I am talking alot of money.
For example:
I have seen the post office (usps) trash a $500,000 machine that would stock parts
for the machines on each floor, instead of going to the stock room, and it was controled by their computers, we had two. They bought them but never utilize the one they trashed. The second one is still in limbo on the third floor, going on three years.
I have seen other $$$,$$$ waste, but too many to give all info and the waste continues. STOP THE $$$,$$$ WASTE!!!!!
This is a fix, that would put the post office (usps) back in the black.
This will also keep your employees.
Do all your facilities waste $ ? Then times the number of facilities equals $,$$$,$$$,$$$ !
Mr. Donahoe again demonstrates how far removed from the daily activities in local post offices the Executive Corps at the USPS in Washington really are. Just today I was told of one office where the carriers had to sit around and WAIT for 45 minutes while the skeleton clerk force finished manual sorting of flats, letters, and parcels. This is the direct result of a district or region policy in Florida to not replace the clerks who retired under the early-out program last October!! Most of those carriers were paid 45 minutes of overtime because it was a Monday and 8 hour days are rare as the processing plants work over the weekend getting out more mail than can be delivered in 8 hours. So my question for Mr. Donahoe is this: how can the clerks and carriers save workhours when management has made bone-headed decisions not to have a sufficient clerk workforce in local offices to get the job done? Again, it is time for the top brass in DC to get out of the boardrooms and out in the local offices. Observe what your policies have done to waste money! If you cannot figure out a resolution to these problems, then it is time for you to step down and let some local managers solve the problems the old-fashioned way……let them hire a sufficient workforce to get the jobs done properly, and not worry about meeting pay-for-performance goals which are contradictory when they cost the Postal Service money!
Control overtime? I get sent home after 2 hours and the rest of the worek is shifted to the Postmaster in violation of our contract. How much more can they cut me?????