October 07, 2010
By Rick Owens – PEN
USPS Should Set a Good ‘Postal’ Example
It believe USPS should set a good ‘postal’ example by immediately stopping their practice of fully paying the cost of health insurance premiums for their executives. In fact, they should pay no higher portion of these costs than they do for any other postal employee – craft or management. The salaries and benefits of these executives are attractive enough already.
The vast majority of us are told all of our lives to “set a good example” – for your brother, sister, student, co-worker, etc. It is generally accepted that by setting a good example you’re not only doing the responsible thing, but you’re also leading by example which, in most instances, can have long term effects – good effects – on the lives and careers of those who follow your life, work, or business practices.
Long ago, during my career as a city postal letter carrier, I asked a USPS manager what was his thoughts on letter carriers that were age 50 or over – should these carriers be allowed a little extra office and street time since their physical capabilities were not the same as they were when they were in their 20’s and 30’s? He responded by saying “no, in fact, I believe these older carriers should speed up and set a ‘good example’ for their younger peers.”
That ridiculous answer from a postal manager followed me my entire postal career – I never forgot it – and, to this very day it turns my stomach to know that this is exactly how USPS feels about their dedicated employees. Yes, I agree with some that there are many who will only do what they have to do in order to ‘make’ their eight hour tour. And, there are those that will do just as little as they can during those 8 hours – these are the ones that postal managers are ‘supposedly’ hired to manage.
It has been reported, by recent OIG audit, that USPS pays the full cost of health insurance premiums for their senior executives – among other costly management benefits. In fact, it was found that USPS could save about $577 million in 2011 if they would pay only what other federal agencies pay toward executive employee health insurance premiums.
I agree with those who believe that this health premium benefit is above and beyond what is needed or required to attract and retain good quality postal managers and executives.
Rick Owens – CEO
Postal Employee Network
www.PostalEmployeeNetwork.com
Rick, you are right on about postal managers and their opinions about older carriers and clerks. The experienced carrier has the skills to teach the new employees how to get the mail delivered properly and how to give good customer service. Sadly, the USPS has become a numbers-crunching organization whose success is measured on making the numbers, so the performance pay can flow to the top managers for the work done by the workers. Until this reward-based compensation is eliminated, postal management will have little respect for the older and experienced craft employee. The more management can get older workers to quit , be fired, or retire, the more successful they believe they have become.