{"id":22673,"date":"2018-02-22T09:54:38","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T14:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=22673"},"modified":"2018-02-22T09:54:38","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T14:54:38","slug":"california-postmaster-connects-with-deaf-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2018\/02\/22\/california-postmaster-connects-with-deaf-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"California postmaster connects with deaf employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-thumbnail link-fullfeature\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-twentyfourteen-full-width wp-post-image alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/CApostmaster_large-story.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/CApostmaster_large-story.jpg 900w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/CApostmaster_large-story-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/CApostmaster_large-story-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/CApostmaster_large-story-120x80.jpg 120w\" alt=\"three people standing\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"link-caption\"><em>Tarzana, CA, Postmaster Rob Garfinkle, center, has learned American Sign Language to communicate with deaf employees Steven Alexander, a postal support employee and Terezia Josa, a letter carrier.<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<p>USPS News Link &#8211; 2\/22\/18 &#8211; Rob Garfinkle set out to master a special skill when he became the Tarzana, CA, Postmaster three years ago: learning American Sign Language (ASL).<\/p>\n<p>The Tarzana Post Office has two hearing-impaired employees \u2014 Terezia Josa, a letter carrier, and Steven Alexander, a postal support employee \u2014 and Garfinkle knew that if he wanted to communicate with them, he had to make an effort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThink about coming to work and not talking to anybody or being left out of everything because you\u2019re deaf,\u201d he said. \u201cThink about having a stand-up talk with a group and the manager hands you a piece of paper and says, \u2018Read this.\u2019 You miss the questions. You miss the interaction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Garfinkle, a 29-year USPS employee, got help from his 19-year-old daughter, who learned ASL through her volunteer work. He also read a lot of books and watched online videos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been easy, but it\u2019s been worth it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The employees appreciate Garfinkle\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander, who has worked at the Post Office for two years, lost his hearing when he was 10 months old from meningitis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeaf people \u2026 can do everything else other people can, except hear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Josa, an 18-year postal employee, was born deaf.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes you wish you could be a part of the conversations that happen around you, but knowing that Rob is committed to making us feel engaged and included, eases that feeling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Helping employees feel engaged and included is vital to running a Post Office, Garfinkle said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have 44 employees,\u201d he said. \u201cI like to treat my office like it\u2019s a family-run business. We are one team. We look out for each other. I\u2019ve encouraged my supervisors and other employees to learn sign so that everyone feels included.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tarzana, CA, Postmaster Rob Garfinkle, center, has learned American Sign Language to communicate with deaf employees Steven Alexander, a postal support employee and Terezia Josa, a letter carrier. USPS News Link &#8211; 2\/22\/18 &#8211; Rob Garfinkle set out to master a special skill when he became the Tarzana, CA, Postmaster three years ago: learning American [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usps-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22673"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22676,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22673\/revisions\/22676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}